27 West Suburban Doctors Describe Medical Miracles In New Book

Scott Kolbaba, M.D. knows something the public doesn’t. Most doctors believe in miracles.

That revelation began three years ago when a stunned colleague approached him at Central DuPage Hospital.

The Wheaton internist says, “The doctor told me about a woman he’d just resuscitated from a cardiac arrest. She’d been dead for several minutes yet she later remembered every detail of her rescue. She recounted the clothing her rescuers wore and even remembered the doctor had pushed an orderly aside to give her CPR.”

“I’d heard many of these stories, yet the doctors involved were often too fearful of criticism to publicly share them.”

For the first time the respected internist decided to find out just how common such “miracles” were. Dr. Kolbaba had frank interviews with 200 colleagues, many of them also his patients. Dozens of physicians confided they’d witnessed miracles and Dr. Kolbaba says about thirty had stories “That gave me goose bumps or made me cry.”

This week the web site www.PhysiciansUntoldStories.com has gone online recounting those stories. In addition, the stories have been collected in the book Physicians’ Untold Stories: Miraculous Experiences Doctors Are Hesitant To Share With Their Patients, or ANYONE, coming out September 13th.

For the first time twenty-seven medical doctors will go on the record with a closely guarded medical secret: they believe in miracles. The stories are almost too incredible to believe, yet the doctors involved have all agreed to be identified by name.

Dr. Scott Kolbaba says, “In going public these doctors defy their training and make themselves personally and professionally vulnerable.”

Their stories include: lifesaving bedside advice…from a midwife who’s been dead for twenty years; the doctor who diagnosed his friend’s hidden heart disease…in a dream; and a final salute to his doctor…from a dead veteran.

The contributing doctors met at the book launch at Central Du Page Hospital on September 22nd. Hundreds of staff also gathered to support the book's theme.

“I saw too many miracles among my patients not to believe,” says contributor Dr. John Showalter. The retired hand surgeon performed the Chicago area’s first hand replant.

Dr. Showalter’s journey from skeptic to believer is typical. “When I started medicine I was pumped up with my own importance,” he said. But he came to believe he wasn’t responsible for his surgical gifts; they came from a higher source.

Dr. Showalter began praying for his patient and himself before every operation. When his daughter had trouble conceiving, he prayed and fasted one day a week. He’s convinced those prayers contributed to her later pregnancy.

Dr. Kolbaba says many doctors have had similar journeys. He says it’s time to share these secrets with the public. “First,” he says, “Because everyone should know that miracles happen all around us all the time. As physicians we’re simply witnesses to more of them. My hope is through this book, patients will become more open to the daily miracles in their own lives.”

The author also hopes the new bookwill inspire more doctors to feel comfortable about sharing the miracles they’ve seen with their patients. While studies show many patients want to discuss spiritual issues, their physicians are usually too busy, or too reluctant, to do so.

The author says, “Doctors don’t always show it, but the truth is many believe there’s something else out there you can’t see. The truth is most physicians come to believe in the awesome and miraculous circumstances of everyday life. We know there’s something beyond coincidence thatfills us with a sense of hope that we can share with our patients.”

“This book finally reveals the truth; that many scientifically-trained physicians have come to believe there are things beyond this physical world and that sometimes, all we need to do is believe.”