
What Doctors in Plaza, Midland Have Seen That Science Can't Explain
The AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation), led by Dr. Sam Parnia at the University of Southampton, was the first large-scale prospective study designed to test whether conscious awareness can occur during cardiac arrest. Its findings — that a small but significant percentage of cardiac arrest survivors report verified perceptions from the period of clinical death — sent ripples through the medical community. For physicians in Plaza, Midland, Texas, the AWARE study transformed near-death experiences from anecdotal curiosities into a legitimate area of scientific inquiry. Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba captures this transformation, presenting accounts from doctors who have witnessed near-death experiences firsthand and who now view them not as hallucinations to be dismissed but as phenomena to be understood.

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 →Dr. Kolbaba interviewed 200 courageous physicians who came forward with 26 of the most miraculous experiences of their careers.
Medical Fact
NDE experiencers often report synesthetic perception — seeing music, hearing colors — during their experience.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Plaza, Midland
Physicians practicing in Plaza, Midland, Texas 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 Plaza, Midland 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 Plaza, Midland 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
Cardiac arrest patients who report NDEs tend to have better long-term psychological outcomes than those who do not.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Plaza, Midland, Texas
The legend of La Llorona—the weeping woman—persists in Hispanic communities near Plaza, Midland, Texas and occasionally manifests in hospital settings. Pediatric nurses report hearing a woman crying in empty hallways near the children's ward, and Hispanic families who recognize the sound respond with specific prayers and protective rituals. Whether La Llorona is a genuine spirit or a cultural anxiety given spectral form, her presence in hospitals is medically relevant because it affects patient and family behavior.
The Southwest's UFO culture near Plaza, Midland, Texas—centered on Roswell but extending across the region—occasionally intersects with hospital ghost stories in unexpected ways. Some patients who report near-death or visionary experiences during hospitalization describe encounters with beings that don't fit conventional ghost or angel categories—luminous, non-human entities that communicate through thought rather than speech. Whether these are ghosts, aliens, or something else entirely depends on who's interpreting.
Medical Fact
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during NDEs often include accurate descriptions of resuscitation efforts viewed from above.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Plaza, Midland
Researchers at the University of New Mexico near Plaza, Midland, Texas have proposed that the Southwest's unique electromagnetic environment—high-altitude ionospheric activity, tectonic stress from the Rio Grande Rift, and intense solar exposure—may contribute to the region's elevated NDE report rate. While the electromagnetic theory of consciousness remains speculative, the Southwest provides a natural laboratory for testing it.
Indigenous scholars at tribal colleges near Plaza, Midland, Texas are conducting NDE research within their own communities, applying culturally appropriate methodologies that Western researchers have historically lacked. These scholars—themselves members of the cultures they study—can access NDE accounts that outside researchers would never hear, producing data of unparalleled intimacy and depth. The Southwest's NDE research is being decolonized, one study at a time.
Did You Know?
Approximately 40% of patients in the U.S. seek a second medical opinion for serious diagnoses.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Plaza, Midland
Traditional Diné (Navajo) healing near Plaza, Midland, Texas operates on the principle of hózhó—a concept that encompasses beauty, balance, harmony, and health. When a patient is out of hózhó, the healing ceremony restores it not through the addition of medicine but through the restoration of right relationship with the natural and spiritual world. Physicians who understand hózhó understand that their work is not to fix a body but to help a person find their way back to balance.
The Southwest's farmers' markets near Plaza, Midland, Texas function as community health interventions. The Navajo Nation's market programs, which accept SNAP benefits and provide nutrition education alongside locally grown produce, address food insecurity and diet-related disease through a culturally appropriate mechanism. Healing, in the Southwest, often begins at a folding table under a canvas canopy, with a basket of heirloom squash.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Did You Know?
The human body generates enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The "laying on of hands" — a healing practice found in nearly every culture — has been studied scientifically under names like therapeutic touch and Reiki.
Medical Heritage in Texas
Texas houses one of the largest and most influential medical complexes in the world: the Texas Medical Center in Houston, a 1,345-acre campus comprising 61 institutions including the MD Anderson Cancer Center, consistently ranked as the number one cancer hospital in the United States since its founding in 1941. Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, established in Dallas in 1900 and relocated to Houston in 1943, has been a leader in cardiovascular surgery—Dr. Michael DeBakey performed the first successful coronary artery bypass surgery at Methodist Hospital in Houston in 1964 and Dr. Denton Cooley performed the first total artificial heart implant at the Texas Heart Institute in 1969.
UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, established in 1943, has produced six Nobel Prize winners, more than any other medical school in the Southwest. The state's vast size has driven innovation in emergency medicine and trauma care—the STAR Flight program in Austin and the Memorial Hermann Life Flight in Houston are among the nation's premier air ambulance services. Texas also bears the legacy of the Tuskegee-era radiation experiments conducted at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital in the 1940s and 1950s. The sprawling network of county hospitals, including Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas—where President Kennedy was treated after his assassination in 1963—serve as safety-net institutions for the state's uninsured population.
About the Book
The book touches on philosophical questions about consciousness, the soul, and whether medicine and spirituality can coexist.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Texas
Texas's supernatural folklore is as vast as the state itself. The Ghost Tracks of San Antonio, located on a railroad crossing near Shane Road, are one of the state's most enduring legends: children from a school bus that was struck by a train in the 1940s are said to push stalled cars across the tracks to safety. Visitors who sprinkle baby powder on their bumpers claim to find small handprints after their car is mysteriously pushed forward, though the actual bus accident occurred in Utah—the legend has become wholly Texan.
The Marfa Lights, mysterious glowing orbs visible in the desert near Marfa in West Texas, have been reported since the 1880s and defy conclusive explanation despite numerous scientific investigations. The lights—sometimes splitting, merging, or bouncing above the desert floor—are the subject of an annual Marfa Lights Festival and a dedicated viewing platform maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation. In Galveston, the Hotel Galvez, built in 1911 following the devastating 1900 hurricane that killed an estimated 8,000 people, is haunted by the ghost of a woman who hanged herself in Room 501 after receiving false news that her fiancé's ship had sunk—she is known as the "Lovelorn Lady" and guests report smelling her rose perfume.
About the Book
The book's cover design — featuring a stethoscope and a glowing light — was chosen to represent the intersection of medicine and the miraculous.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Texas
USS Lexington Hospital Bay (Corpus Christi): The USS Lexington, a World War II aircraft carrier now moored as a museum in Corpus Christi, had a hospital bay that treated hundreds of wounded sailors. The ship is considered one of the most haunted vessels in America—visitors and overnight guests in the hospital bay area report seeing a ghostly sailor with blue eyes and blond hair, nicknamed 'Charlie,' who appears in the engine room and lower decks. The ship lost 186 men during the war.
Old Parkland Hospital (Dallas): The original Parkland Memorial Hospital, built in 1894 and replaced by a new facility in 1954, served as Dallas's primary hospital for decades and was the site of President Kennedy's treatment after his assassination in 1963. The original building, now repurposed as an office complex, is associated with reports of unexplained phenomena in the former surgical suites, including cold spots, flickering lights, and the faint smell of antiseptic in areas where no medical equipment remains.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
Hydrotherapy — therapeutic use of water — reduces pain and improves function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
How This Book Can Help You
Texas, home to the largest medical center on Earth and institutions like MD Anderson where physicians confront terminal illness daily at the highest levels of medical sophistication, is a state where the phenomena Dr. Kolbaba describes in Physicians' Untold Stories occur against the backdrop of the most advanced technology medicine can offer. When a cardiac surgeon at the Texas Heart Institute or an oncologist at MD Anderson encounters something at a patient's deathbed that defies scientific explanation, it carries particular weight—these are physicians operating at the frontier of medical knowledge, much as Dr. Kolbaba, trained at Mayo Clinic and practicing at Northwestern Medicine, approaches the unexplainable from a foundation of rigorous clinical science.
The Southwest's tradition of turquoise as a healing stone near Plaza, Midland, Texas provides a material metaphor for this book's purpose. Turquoise is believed to protect the wearer, absorb negative energy, and promote healing. This book, similarly, offers a form of protection to readers facing illness and death—not through supernatural power, but through the reassurance that physicians have witnessed something beyond the clinical, and that what lies ahead may not be what we fear.

Research Finding
A randomized trial found that guided imagery reduced post-surgical pain by 30% and decreased the need for analgesic medication.
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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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