
The Miracles Doctors in South End, Dublin Have Witnessed
Dr. Scott Kolbaba's journey from skeptical internist to author of Physicians' Untold Stories mirrors the journey many physicians in South End, Dublin have quietly made: from rigid materialism to a more expansive understanding of healing that includes the spiritual dimension. His transformation was not driven by religious conversion but by accumulated clinical evidence — patient after patient whose outcomes could not be explained by anything in his medical training.

About the Author
Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD is an internist at Northwestern Medicine in Wheaton, Illinois. He interviewed more than 200 physicians about their most extraordinary experiences.

Physicians' Untold Stories
by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD • 4.5 stars (1018 reviews)
Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!
Order on Amazon →"I just read your book and was inspired, moved, entertained. I can't wait to share this book with premeds." — D.G., Ophthalmology Professor, University of Illinois
Medical Fact
The stethoscope was invented in 1816 by René Laennec because he felt it was inappropriate to place his ear directly on a young woman's chest.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near South End, Dublin
Physicians practicing in South End, Dublin, Ohio work at the intersection of modern medicine and experiences that resist explanation. In conversations that rarely leave the break room or the on-call suite, doctors in and around South End, Dublin have reported encounters with phenomena that their training never prepared them for — from patients who describe verifiable details about events that occurred while they were clinically dead, to deathbed visions shared simultaneously by multiple family members, to recoveries that defy every prognostic model available.
The medical community in South End, Dublin includes physicians across every stage of their careers — residents navigating the exhaustion of training, mid-career practitioners balancing clinical demands with family life, and veteran physicians carrying decades of experiences that challenge the boundaries of conventional medicine. Burnout touches all of them differently, but a common thread runs through: the desire to remember why they chose medicine in the first place, and the rare but profound moments that remind them.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Medical Fact
Your body contains enough iron to make a 3-inch nail, enough sulfur to kill all the fleas on an average dog, and enough carbon to make 900 pencils.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in South End, Dublin, Ohio
Polish Catholic communities near South End, Dublin, Ohio maintain healing devotions to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa—a tradition brought across the Atlantic and sustained through generations of immigration. Hospital rooms in Polish neighborhoods sometimes display replicas of the icon, and patients who pray before it report a comfort that transcends its artistic merit. The Black Madonna heals homesickness as much as physical illness.
Christmas Eve services at Midwest churches near South End, Dublin, Ohio—candlelit, hushed, with familiar carols sung in harmony—produce a collective peace that spills over into hospital wards. Chaplains report that Christmas Eve is the quietest night of the year in Midwest hospitals: fewer call lights, fewer complaints, fewer codes. Whether this reflects the peace of the season or simply lower census, the effect on those who remain in the hospital is measurable.
Medical Fact
The human body is bioluminescent — it emits visible light, but 1,000 times weaker than what our eyes can detect.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near South End, Dublin, Ohio
The Eastland disaster of 1915, when a passenger ship capsized in the Chicago River killing 844 people, created a concentration of ghosts that persists in medical facilities throughout the Midwest near South End, Dublin, Ohio. The temporary morgue established at the Harpo Studios building is the most famous haunted site, but the Eastland's dead have been reported in hospitals across the Great Lakes region, as if the trauma dispersed geographically over time.
Lake Michigan's undertow has claimed swimmers near South End, Dublin, Ohio every summer for as long as anyone can remember. The ghosts of these drowning victims—many of them children—have been reported in lakeside hospitals with a seasonal regularity that matches the drowning statistics. They appear in June, peak in July, and fade by September, following the lake's lethal calendar.
Did You Know?
The human heart begins beating approximately 22 days after conception — before the brain has fully formed.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near South End, Dublin
Community hospitals near South End, Dublin, Ohio where physicians know their patients personally are uniquely positioned to document NDE aftereffects—the lasting psychological, spiritual, and behavioral changes that follow near-death experiences. A family doctor who's treated a patient for twenty years can detect the subtle shifts in personality, values, and life priorities that NDE experiencers consistently report. This longitudinal observation is impossible in large, rotating-staff medical centers.
The Midwest's public radio stations near South End, Dublin, Ohio have produced some of the most thoughtful NDE journalism in the country—long-form interviews with researchers, experiencers, and skeptics that treat the subject with the same seriousness applied to agricultural policy or education reform. This media coverage has normalized NDE discussion in a region where public radio is as influential as the local newspaper.
Near-Death Experience Features
Percentage reporting each feature (van Lommel et al., 2001)
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba found that physicians who had experienced the death of a close family member were more open to discussing unexplained phenomena.
Dublin: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge
Ireland's supernatural heritage is legendary, and Dublin sits at its heart. Irish folklore is rich with stories of banshees (bean sí), whose wailing foretells death; the pooka, a shape-shifting trickster; and the dullahan, a headless horseman who announces death. Dublin's literary tradition has fed into its ghost stories—Bram Stoker, creator of Dracula, was born in the city and drew inspiration from Irish vampire folklore. Oscar Wilde's mother, Lady Wilde, was a collector of Irish ghost stories. The Hellfire Club ruins on Montpelier Hill, where Dublin's 18th-century elite engaged in reputedly satanic rituals, remain one of Ireland's most investigated paranormal sites. Kilmainham Gaol, site of the 1916 executions that led to Irish independence, is considered deeply haunted. Dublin's many Georgian townhouses have their own ghost stories, and the tradition of storytelling (seanchaí) keeps Ireland's supernatural heritage alive.
Dublin has made contributions to medicine far exceeding its size. The Rotunda Hospital, founded in 1745, is the world's oldest continuously operating maternity hospital, and its founder, Dr. Bartholomew Mosse, pioneered the concept of purpose-built maternity care. Dublin is where the stethoscope was significantly developed by Arthur Leared and refined by others. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, established in 1784, is one of the oldest surgical colleges in the world. Dublin's Meath Hospital was where William Stokes and Robert Graves made landmark contributions to cardiology and endocrinology in the 19th century—Graves' disease is named after Dublin physician Robert James Graves. The city also played a role in the development of modern anesthesia, with Dublin physician Francis Rynd inventing the hypodermic needle in 1844.
Did You Know?
Hippocrates described over 60 diseases in his writings — many of his clinical observations remain accurate today.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
About the Book
The idea for the book began when a single colleague shared an experience he had never told anyone.
Notable Locations in Dublin
Kilmainham Gaol: This 18th-century jail, where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed by firing squad, is considered one of Ireland's most haunted buildings, with visitors reporting ghostly footsteps, cold spots, and the apparition of a young girl in the chapel.
The Hellfire Club: The ruined hunting lodge on Montpelier Hill, built in 1725 and used by Dublin's infamous Hellfire Club for debauched gatherings, is said to be one of Ireland's most haunted locations, with reports of demonic presences and a large black cat.
Marsh's Library: Ireland's oldest public library, built in 1701, is said to be haunted by the ghost of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, who reportedly wanders the aisles at night searching for a letter left by his niece before she eloped.
The Rotunda Hospital: Founded in 1745 by Dr. Bartholomew Mosse, the Rotunda is the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world and has been a pioneer in obstetric care for nearly three centuries.
St. James's Hospital: Dublin's largest hospital, located on a site with medical care dating back to 1703, is Ireland's premier teaching hospital, home to the National Centre for Inherited Metabolic Disorders and a major academic medical center.
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba was inspired to write the book after years of hearing extraordinary stories from colleagues who felt they had no one to tell.
Medical Heritage in Ohio
Ohio has been a crucible of medical innovation since the 19th century. The Cleveland Clinic, founded in 1921 by four physicians who served together in World War I—including Dr. George Crile, a pioneer of blood transfusion—has become one of the world's foremost medical institutions, performing the first near-total face transplant in the United States in 2008 and pioneering cardiac surgery under Dr. Denton Cooley and Dr. Michael DeBakey. The University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (established 1843), performed the first successful open-heart surgery using deep hypothermia in 1956.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, opened in 1883, ranks consistently among the top pediatric hospitals in the nation and has been a leader in gene therapy research. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus is one of the largest academic health centers in the country. Ohio also holds a dark chapter in medical history: the Tuskegee-like Cincinnati radiation experiments of the 1960s and 1970s at the University of Cincinnati, where patients—mostly poor and African American—were subjected to whole-body radiation without fully informed consent. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton has contributed to aerospace medicine since the 1940s, advancing the understanding of human physiology at extreme altitudes and G-forces.
Reader Ratings Distribution
Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings
Research Finding
Medical students who participate in narrative medicine courses show higher empathy scores than those who do not.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Ohio
Ohio's supernatural landscape is dominated by the haunted legends of its industrial cities and rural back roads. The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, built in 1886 and operational until 1990, is considered one of the most haunted buildings in America. The Romanesque Gothic fortress—which served as the filming location for The Shawshank Redemption—is the site of reported apparitions including the ghost of Warden Arthur Glattke's wife, who accidentally shot herself in her quarters in 1950. The solitary confinement wing and the massive cell blocks, where inmates lived in conditions described as inhumane by federal courts, are paranormal investigation hotspots.
The village of Helltown in Summit County is actually the abandoned town of Boston Township, cleared by the National Park Service in the 1970s for the creation of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Legends of satanic churches, mutant animals, and a "crybaby bridge" where an infant's wail can be heard have made it a magnet for thrill-seekers. Moonville Tunnel in Vinton County, a disused railroad tunnel in the remote hills of Appalachian Ohio, is said to be haunted by the ghosts of railroad workers killed by passing trains—a swinging lantern light is reportedly seen inside the tunnel on dark nights.
Research Finding
Intermittent fasting (16:8 pattern) has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce inflammatory markers.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Ohio
Cleveland State Hospital (Cleveland): The Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, later Cleveland State Hospital, operated from 1855 to 1980. At its peak, it held nearly 3,000 patients. After closure, workers demolishing the buildings reported encountering ghostly figures and unexplained sounds. The hospital cemetery contains over 700 patients buried under numbered markers rather than names.
Athens Lunatic Asylum (The Ridges, Athens): The Athens Lunatic Asylum, renamed The Ridges, operated from 1874 to 1993. In 1979, patient Margaret Schilling disappeared and was found dead a month later in an unused ward; her body left a permanent stain on the floor that remains visible today despite attempts to clean it. Her ghost is the most commonly reported apparition, but staff and visitors have also described hearing voices and seeing lights in the abandoned buildings.
“Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 of the most miraculous experiences of their careers, chronicled in one book.”
— Physicians' Untold Stories
How This Book Can Help You
Ohio's extraordinary concentration of medical institutions—from the Cleveland Clinic to Cincinnati Children's to Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center—means that thousands of physicians have encountered the kind of boundary-between-life-and-death moments that Dr. Kolbaba explores in Physicians' Untold Stories. The Cleveland Clinic's pioneering work in cardiac surgery, where patients are brought to the very edge of death and back during complex procedures, creates clinical situations that parallel the extraordinary phenomena Dr. Kolbaba documented during his career at Northwestern Medicine, grounded in the rigorous training he received at Mayo Clinic.
Emergency medical technicians near South End, Dublin, Ohio—the first responders who arrive at cardiac arrests in farmhouses, on roadsides, and in grain elevators—will find their own experiences reflected in this book. The EMT who performed CPR in a snowdrift and felt something leave the patient's body, the paramedic who heard a flatlined patient whisper 'not yet'—these stories are the Midwest's own, and this book tells them with the respect they deserve.

Reader Ratings Distribution
Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings
“Sometimes all we need to do is believe. — From the introduction to Physicians' Untold Stories”
— Physicians' Untold Stories
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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud
Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
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