Real Physicians. Real Stories. Real Miracles Near Civic Center, Swanton

The death of a child is widely considered the most devastating loss a person can experience, and the grief that follows often defies every conventional model of recovery. In Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont, Physicians' Untold Stories reaches parents in the depths of this grief with accounts that, while they cannot undo the loss, can reshape its meaning. Physicians describe children who, in their final moments, seemed to perceive realities invisible to the adults around them—visions of light, presences of comfort, a peace that transcended their young understanding of death. For bereaved parents in Civic Center, Swanton, these accounts offer not closure but continuity: the possibility that their child is not gone but somewhere.

Dr. Scott Kolbaba

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.

Book cover

Physicians' Untold Stories

by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars (1018 reviews)

Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!

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"What an inspirational time… I was gratified by the unusually good turn-out and the comments received afterwards." — D.H., Presbyterian Minister

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Medical Fact

The Hippocratic Oath, often attributed to Hippocrates around 400 BCE, is still taken (in modified form) by most graduating medical students worldwide.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Civic Center, Swanton

Physicians practicing in Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont 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 Civic Center, Swanton 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 Civic Center, Swanton 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)

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Medical Fact

The word "ambulance" comes from the Latin "ambulare," meaning "to walk." Early ambulances were horse-drawn carts.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Civic Center, Swanton

The Northeast's medical humanities programs near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont have produced physicians who understand that the arts and medicine are not separate disciplines. A doctor who reads poetry is better equipped to hear the metaphors patients use to describe their pain. A surgeon who paints understands that the body is not merely a machine to be repaired but a canvas of lived experience.

The Northeast's medical libraries near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont—from the grand reading rooms of academic centers to the modest shelves of community hospitals—contain more than information. They contain hope. Every journal article represents someone's attempt to solve a problem that causes suffering. Every textbook is a promise that knowledge, carefully applied, can push back against disease. The library is medicine's cathedral.

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Medical Fact

The average human body contains about 206 bones, but babies are born with approximately 270 — many fuse together as we grow.

Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont

Irish Catholic families near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont maintain a tradition of offering up suffering—uniting personal pain with the passion of Christ as a form of spiritual practice. Physicians who understand this framework can engage with patients who refuse pain medication not out of stoicism but out of devotion. The conversation shifts from 'take the pills' to 'how can we honor your faith while managing your pain?'

Puritan New England's healing traditions were inseparable from theology—illness was God's judgment, recovery was God's grace. While physicians near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont have long since abandoned this framework, its echoes persist in patients who wonder what they did to deserve their disease. Understanding this historical root helps Northeast doctors respond with compassion instead of dismissal.

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Did You Know?

Approximately 80% of medical school applicants are rejected each year, making medicine one of the most competitive fields.

Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont

Northeast teaching hospitals pride themselves on evidence-based medicine, which makes the ghost stories from Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont all the more compelling. These aren't tales from credulous laypeople; they come from residents, attending physicians, and department chiefs who have no professional incentive to report seeing a transparent figure adjust a patient's IV line before dissolving into the wall.

The 1918 influenza pandemic hit the Northeast with particular ferocity, overwhelming hospitals near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont that were already strained by World War I. The pandemic's ghosts are different from other hospital spirits—they appear in groups, not singly, as if death came so fast that the dead didn't realize they'd left the living behind. Mass hauntings for a mass casualty event.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Did You Know?

Approximately 250,000 new medical research papers are published each year — no physician can read them all.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

The concept of a "teaching hospital" dates back to the Middle Ages, when medical students learned at the bedside.

Medical Heritage in Vermont

Vermont's medical history is anchored by the University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine, established in 1822, making it the seventh-oldest medical school in the nation. The medical school's early faculty included Dr. John Pomeroy, who championed anatomical dissection at a time when it was controversial and illegal in many states. The University of Vermont Medical Center (formerly Fletcher Allen Health Care) in Burlington serves as the state's only academic medical center and tertiary referral hospital, treating patients from Vermont and northern New York. Vermont was a pioneer in establishing community health centers; the state's network of federally qualified health centers ensures access in isolated rural communities.

Vermont holds a dark chapter in American eugenics history. The Vermont Eugenics Survey, conducted from 1925 to 1936 under the direction of Henry Perkins at UVM, targeted the Abenaki people and French-Canadian families deemed "unfit" for forced sterilization. This program contributed to the near-erasure of Abenaki identity in the state. Brattleboro Retreat, established in 1834, was one of New England's first private psychiatric hospitals and initially embraced the progressive "moral treatment" philosophy of care. The state's commitment to mental health reform continued when Vermont became an early adopter of community-based mental health services, largely dismantling its institutional system.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba's family supports an orphanage in Romania through REMM, where they adopted two of their seven children.

Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Vermont

Vermont's supernatural folklore reflects its remote Green Mountain landscape and tight-knit communities. The ghost of Emily's Bridge in Stowe—Gold Brook Covered Bridge—is one of the state's most famous haunted locations. According to legend, a young woman named Emily hanged herself from the bridge in the 19th century after being jilted by her lover, and her ghost scratches cars that pass through at night, leaving claw marks on roofs and doors. Visitors report hearing a woman's screams and the sound of a rope creaking.

The Green Mountain State also has a rich tradition of phantom hitchhiker stories, particularly along Route 100 through the mountain passes. Drivers report picking up a young woman who directs them to a house and then vanishes from the back seat; upon reaching the house, they are told the woman has been dead for years. Eddy House in Chittenden was the 19th-century home of the Eddy Brothers, William and Horatio, who conducted séances that attracted national attention—journalist Henry Steel Olcott investigated in 1874 and documented materializations that he claimed to have witnessed, later publishing them in "People from the Other World," which helped launch the Spiritualist movement in America.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba vetted every story for credibility, cross-checking details with medical records and corroborating witnesses when possible.

Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Vermont

Brattleboro Retreat (Brattleboro): Founded in 1834 as the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, the Brattleboro Retreat is one of the oldest psychiatric facilities in New England. The historic campus, with buildings dating to the Civil War era, is associated with reports of apparitions in the older dormitory wings, particularly a woman in Victorian dress seen in the former women's ward. Staff have described hearing whispered conversations and footsteps in corridors that are empty and locked.

Vermont State Hospital (Waterbury): The Vermont State Hospital for the Insane in Waterbury operated from 1891 until it was severely damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Before its destruction, staff reported numerous paranormal experiences including doors that opened on their own, cold spots in patient rooms, and the silhouette of a man seen standing in windows of unoccupied wards. The hospital's patient cemetery, with over 400 burials, was said to be particularly unsettling after dark.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Research Finding

Hospital clown programs reduce pre-operative anxiety in children by 50% compared to sedative premedication alone.

How This Book Can Help You

Vermont, where the Larner College of Medicine trains physicians for rural New England communities and the state's progressive approach to death includes both green burials and home funerals, offers a setting where the natural dying process is more visible and intimate than in any urban medical center. Dr. Kolbaba's Physicians' Untold Stories speaks to the experiences of doctors who are present for the full, unhurried arc of dying—the kind of presence that Vermont's rural physicians, serving small communities where doctor and patient are often neighbors, embody. This mirrors Dr. Kolbaba's own philosophy, developed through Mayo Clinic training and Northwestern Medicine practice, that physicians must be willing to witness and acknowledge what happens at the threshold of death.

Nurses near Civic Center, Swanton, Vermont often observe the phenomena described in this book more frequently than physicians, simply because they spend more time at the bedside. The book gives voice to physician experiences, but its nursing readership across the Northeast recognizes every story. The unexplainable doesn't discriminate by credential—it appears to whoever is paying attention.

Physicians' Untold Stories book cover — by Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD
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Research Finding

Knitting and repetitive crafting activities lower heart rate and blood pressure while increasing feelings of calm.

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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud

Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars from 1018 readers.

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Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba

Amazon Bestseller

The Stories Medicine Never Told You

Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 true stories of ghost encounters, near-death experiences, and miraculous recoveries that will change the way you think about life, death, and what lies beyond.

By Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5★ from 1,018 ratings on Goodreads