Basic Information : Synopsis : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author: Scott Kolbaba
Edition: Kindle
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 1530841577 (ISBN13: 9781530841578)
Start Date: April 20, 2022
Read Date: May 5, 2022
240 pages
Genre: Christianity, Short Stories
Language Warning: None
Rated Overall: 3 out of 5
Religion: Christianity-but very non-specific, could also be Jewish or Muslim the way it is written
Synopsis:
The author talks about how as a physician he encounters many unexplained things. This is common among other doctors. So he has collected 26 stories which he attributes to a greater power intervening, many times through coincidences, sometimes through miracles. He then talks about his own experiences. Then he gives background of each of the physicians who provided a story. Lastly, he talks about how he wrote the book.
- Recommendation: Joy from my Book Group
- How come do I want to read this book: It is part of my book group’s reading.
- What do I think I will get out of it? Not sure
Thoughts:
It is interesting to read this book with all of its experiences. I do not recall Kolbata putting out definitions about miracles or even how God works in the lives of people. It is much more of an existential book, a book of experience. And then I think about my reading of C.S. Lewis’ book, Miracles which is more an exposition of possibilities and rebuttal to modern thought about how the supernatural can interfere in this world. Around the same time, I was reading Francis Callins book, The Language of God were talks about the need to put in a statistical analysis on what is a miracle what is a probability.
The book was written in 2016.
I think there are three classifications these things can fall into: Miracle, God working, or coincidence. As I read Kolbata’s stories I felt that there were some which did not fit neatly into one category or even into any of these three categories. By miracle I mean God intervenes directly and does something outside of medical or natural processes. God working is that God is working through the events of the world. And by coincidence I mean that even though the odds are small at times, there is a normal process which seems to answer why something happened.
Note, when you are looking at an event, there is the probability of something happening. Even if it is one out of a thousand possibility, it is still possible. It depends on which end of a tube you look at. If you are the person whom this happened to, then you might say it was a miracle or God working that it happened. On the other end of the tube, you can see where 999 other people did not get this same effect. Are you looking at a particular instance and so you fit within the probability or looking at the overall possibility?
And now that I said that, this is not intended as universal, but more how I am viewing it.
Introduction
Talks about Kolbaba becoming a doctor and some of the adversity he had to go through. He had been a doctor for thirty-five years. He talks about how he started collecting stores of the unexplained. He had a patient thought to get a lung test for a patient whose symptoms did not include lung disease. Turned out that there was a pulmonary embolism in his right lung which was causing the symptoms.
It was from this experience and hearing other physicians tell similar stories did Kolbata decide to write this book. It is Kolbata’s hope that we will know with as much certainty as I do that there is something more than what we can see with our eyes, and that prayers are important and may be answered immediately and sometimes in spectacular ways.
Part One: Divine Intervention
Chapter 1 If I Had Been Buckled
When a doctor was studying to be a physician, he and his pals had been out drinking. They got into a car wreck. Two things: 1) the night before he had a dream that all would be OK. 2) The driver told him not to buckle his seatbelt. If he had, he would have been killed as well.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 2 God’s Emissaries
A missionary doctor is at his breaking point after seven continuous, non-stop duties in the field. He needed relief. On the very day when he was going to walk out the door, a relief doctor showed up. There is a string of coincidences to make this doctor show up on this very day. This enabled the doctor to go on a one-month sabbatical.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 3 Music in the Emergency Department
A suture on a vein had broken loose and a man was bleeding profusely. He was unconscious. When he woke up he said that they played beautiful music. No music was being played in ER The conclusion was he died and was hearing heaven’s music.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence-I would be more thinking he was hallucinating, but I do not know if that is an effect of losing that much blood.
Chapter 4 The Burning Bus Part Two: Death and the Afterlife
Non-medical. A bus Kolbata’s daughter was riding in caught fire. All the people escaped. They were going to a choir competition which required uniforms, but all of the uniforms were destroyed in the fire. Through some spare uniforms, the generosity of the host school, and other parents, the choir was able to perform.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence-not sure what Kolbata was trying to show in this story. It is a heart warming story. It is a miracle all got off the bus. But the main point of the story seems to be how all the costumes came together and they were able to sing.
Part Two: Death and the Afterlife
Chapter 5 Grandma O’Hanlon
Story of a midwife-, Johannah O’Hanlon. She appears to the doctor’s wife who was going to be given a drug to reduce pain. O;Hanlon signaled the mother not to take the drug-she had eaten earlier and it would have probably killed her. O’Hanlon had died 22 years earlier.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence-Was this a hallucination? A vision? Or something induced in the mother’s mind?
Chapter 6 Mary’s Christmas Carol
A woman dies from getting an antibiotic after ankle surgery. There is a lot of activity in the operating room trying to revive her. She is revived. When she is being released from the hospital, she thanks the doctor and is able to describe everything which happened to her in the operating room while she was dead.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 7 A Call from Mom
Mom calls her doctor son right before she dies with a sense of closure
Miracle, God working, or coincidence-I would not say coincidence, but I would say that the mom was trying to get closure before she was going to die, or maybe because she got closure she was able to let go and die.
Chapter 8 Gus’s Last Salute
Gus was a World War Ii hero who got injured during the war. His legs got mangled during an artillery blast. He was full of gratitude that the doctors had made an effort to save his legs. He got Alzhemiers. A fellow doctor had the premonition to turn off the car radio right and thought about Gus when another doctor was receiving the call about Gus.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 9 Freezing Cold
Boy Scout leader who got altitude sickness, then because of the cold, developed hypothermia. A wandering forest ranger came across him when he was huddled in his sleeping bag. The doctor was going into a state where the body shuts down. But the reason why this story is being told is because thirty years later, he answered a knock on the door and was able to comfort a father who had just lost his son who was frozen to death. He was able to console him that the son did not suffer.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 10 The Ultimate Missionary
Missionary couple retires and is associated with the hospital where the doctor works at. On the morning of the husband’s death, the doctor is on her way out for vacation. She is startled to see the husband and then not there.
Good question: How are you nourishing your spirit?
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 11 The Dime
A patient with a dime for a tattoo relates that his dead son collected coins. The son would find dimes wherever he went. Now the father does too. When the doctor goes to write up his notes, he finds a dime.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 12 “Get the Paddles!”
Man comes into emergency. His heart has stopped. They shock him three times before his heart starts going again. The doctor talks with him afterwards. He relates that his father, brother and wife had visited him. They all were dead and he thought they were taking him home.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Part Three: Healing
Chapter 13 Gone Fishin’
A doctor coworker had a stroke and was essentially brain dead and on life support systems. The hospital was going to pull the life-support if there was no improvement. The doctor started telling him some fishing tales: my tales were the only way to keep connected, but in ways that I never imagined at the time. Each day he would tell a story. It was something I could do, and probably the only thing I could do for my friend. The friend revived and he could tell the stories which the doctor did.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence-not being medical, I suspect the doctor telling the stories made a difference to the patient. There was a desire to live. It is said that in a coma a person can still hear and comprehend.
Chapter 14 A Series of Miracles
An extremely busy surgeon receives a gift from a relatively remote acquaintance. The doctor wants a soda and misses several exits where he can get a soda. But then he remembers that another hospital which he works at has a soda which he can get. His acquaintance’s granddaughter had just been brought in with multiple fractures. But this hospital was ill-equipped to handle such a complex case, until that morning. The granddaughter made a full recovery and was able to play as a concert pianist.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 15 The Dream
A doctor dreamed about his best friend dead from a heart attack. The friend had a physical and came out OK. The doctor wanted one more test to see how the arteries were.The arteries were clogged and an immediate heart bypass was done.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 16 Operating in the Philippines
On a mission trip to Philippines, a woman would not stop bleeding. Surgery was in a primitive setting.The bleeding was going faster than he could stop. She would bleed to death. He prayed and was given a vision to see how to operate and close off the bleeding. She recovered.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 17 Trouble on the Mountain
Doctor skiing on a black diamond course as a blizzard comes in.He found a skier who was hypothermic, very similar to how his father had been two years before-his father had died. The doctor felt this was a second chance to save someone. Through his action, he was saved.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 18 Shopping for a Miracle
A woman gives birth, but shortly afterwards, she develops blood clots. The doctor starts a three day treatment of a powerful blood thinner to dissolve the clots. On the third day, he gets a feeling and stops the treatment. The feeling persists and he goes into the hospital where he finds that she is going numb and has paralysis. There is confirmation that there is liquid on the spine which a surgery successfully corrects.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 19 The Lunch Meeting
A new chiropractor is in town. He goes to a meeting to meet other professionals and to network. But a person monopolizes his time with a story about how he helped a person who he recognized needed help. When the chiropractor gets back, he sees his patient. One of them he senses needs more than just an adjustment and calls him up. This ultimately leads to him being admitted for help and changes his life.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 20 A Friend in Trouble
The doctor goes to a conference and attends a seminar on a particular kind of treatment. A couple of weeks later a doctor friend of his has an accident and has this same condition. After getting approvals to do this treatment, it gets done. But it looks like a failure until right before he was to be taken off of life support. He mostly recovered, but needed to retire.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 21 Family Connections
Doctor is having a stroke and is not able to function. An unexpected text from his sister rouses him to action. The sister had a feeling she should do something at that time.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Four: Prayer
Chapter 22 Praying for a Miracle
Women with multiple sclerosis who are just a month at most from dying. hears a voice to say get up and walk and does.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 23 Three-Way Phone Call to Heaven
Asthma patient comes into emergency. Doctor would ordinarily send her home, but the home situation is not conducive to her at this time so she is admitted. She shows some improvement, but the next day is a little worse. When the doctor makes his rounds, she is on the phone. He considers what to do next. He orders another test. This shows blood clots. The phone call had been with her minister who was praying that the doctor would do the right test to find out what is wrong.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 24 Jason the Jet
Doctor is going on a badly needed extended weekend away. He booked two flights, only to cancel them because it did not feel right. On the third flight, he got on to the back. Shortly after lift off, a woman went into labor. He was the only doctor on board and had not delivered a baby in 30 years. The baby was born and is well.
.Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 25 The Morning Miracle
Student is playing goalie and gets kicked in the side. This damages his kidney. Doctor is concerned that the kidney may need removing. The school has a prayer session for him. At the same time, the pain goes away completely. Later there is a diagnosis of the kidney and no damage is found.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Chapter 26 Fasting for a Family
Doctor’s daughter is not able to have children. His comment is: Helplessness is not a good hand to deal to a physician, especially an orthopedic surgeon. After all, we are trained to fix things! (A good thing to remember when talking with a doctor and they are recommending all sorts of tests and treatment when they are puzzled.) Doctor begins to fast. This goes on for over a year. The daughter decides to adopt. After over a year of weekly fasting, the doctor gives up. Several months later, the daughter informs him that she is pregnant-conceiving right around the time when he gave up fasting. The baby was born, along with, in time, several other siblings and adoptions.
Miracle, God working, or coincidence
Conclusion: What Doctors Taught Me
Kolbata talks about himself, what makes him tick. He thinks most doctors have a sincere desire to share with the world their passion for family; their regard for hard work and determination; and there knowledge that there is a higher power. He talks about a doctor who is willing to adopt a girl, sight unseen because of her needs. most of my colleagues have a similar desire to do some good in the world by helping others.
They considered their families the most important part of their lives and their greatest accomplishments. I was truly surprised.
I think many have the impression that an elderly patient’s death would be relatively routine for physicians, but that is not the case. Long-term patients hold a special place in a doctor’s heart, and their deaths are often like losing family members. I think this is true, at least for those when there is a long term relationship, such as Dr Rooker with my Dad.
“It seems that every terminal patient has something to look forward to, some goal that they want to accomplish. It became my job to move heaven and earth to try to accomplish that goal.” Dr Leyva who specializes in pediatric palliative care.
Afterword: Divine Coincidences
Kolbata talks about how he almost did not become a doctor since he could not get the class he needed.
Divine coincidences-events and people who come together through inexplicable circumstances. Some of these coincidences seem like they can be explained through statistics. Such as the doctor who attends a class and then is able to use the technique a short time later. How many people were in the class? How often does that diagnosis happen? How many patients does a doctor see? From all of these you can tell if it is outside of the realm of the probable.
Why did I feel compelled to share these physicians’ stories? Because so often we take life for granted. Because in the press of ordinary, daily life, we forget that amazing things are happening all around us. Because sometimes we need a reminder that the physical world and the physical body can point to another, unseen reality.
About the Doctors
He goes through the biography of each doctor who has told him a story. He also talks a little bit about each story. Seems a bit repetitive.
How This Book Was Written
Took three years to write and he selected these 26 stories out of the 200 physician interviews. He both asked for the stories and was told them. Many times he would prime the pump by talking about his own story. Once he got the story together, he would have the doctor review it for accuracy.
Evaluation:
Dr Kolbata wrote this book to share stories which his physician friends usually do not talk about-particularly when there are events in their lives which they cannot explain. There are 26 stories ranging from the mundane of getting a class which is needed to delivering a baby mid-flight to rescuing a frozen skier. Kolbata credits a higher power to each of these stories.
For the most part Kolbata lets the stories speak for themselves. The stories are short-about a page to three pages. That is both a strength and a weakness. The shortness lends itself to the simplicity of a tale. But at the end, I was expecting Kolbata to somehow tie these stories together with some grand thread-he does not. Consequently, it is a bit hard to understand where Kolbata wants to leave us: a series of feel good stories, leaving us to wonder if there is a higher power? What is the nature of this higher power? Or just to argue about where Kolbata would like us to go?
Notes from my book group:
Did Kolbata succeed in his desire for us to know with as much certainty as I do that there is something more than what we can see with our eyes, and that prayers are important and may be answered immediately and sometimes in spectacular ways.
Which story affected you the most? Which one seemed a bit common? Which one seems improbable? I had a tendency to break apart these stories into three categories: Miracle, God working, or coincidence. Do you think these categories are fair, complete or should be revised?
What do you think he showed through this collection of stories? Do you think it would convince a person who does not believe in supernatural intervention?
As you read these stories, what questions did you ask yourself? Or were you accepting the stories and the implications at face value? (Note: I do not like this question as it seems like I am attacking the veracity of the story. I am thinking more of the interpretation the author is leading us to accept.)
Kolbata notes that physicians as a whole want three things: passion for family, dedication to work, and knowledge that there is a higher power. Are these things you have sensed in your medical personnel?
What is a miracle? Note: C.S. Lewis gives as a definition an interference with Nature by supernatural power. (Miracle, Chp The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist) While Francis Collins in The Language of God says that a miracle is: a miracle is an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin. He also points out that Miracles are not to be interpreted as divine acts against the laws of nature (for those laws are themselves expressions of God’s will) but as more profound revelations of the character of the divine relationship to creation.
Is this a book about miracles or unexplained occurrences? What is the difference?
When you experience or hear of an unexplained occurrence, how do you respond? How is wonder a good response, such as when Peter went to Jesus’ tomb (Luke 24:12)
What is the difference between a miracle and God's working in our world? if any?
Have you had either a miracle or God working in your life? Talk about it. How do you fulfill God’s desires when His workings has affected your life?
Francis Collins book, The Language of God. In that book, Collins says that Whatever the personal view, it is crucial that a healthy skepticism be applied when interpreting potentially miraculous events, lest the integrity and rationality of the religious perspective be brought into question.
Several times terms like logical conclusion or logical scientific explanation is used. How would you define this use of the word logical? How are they used in the book? Are they used properly?
Does explanation make things less of a miracle?
As we gain new understanding and knowledge, are there less miracles? Is there less of a “need” for miracles? (Knowledge leaves no room for chances. Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur, Book III, Chapter 2)
CS Lewis notes in his book Miracles (chp The Scope of This Book) that Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. Discuss this statement. Do any of the stories in this book give examples outside of this paradigm?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of Physicians Untold Stories?
Did the book seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which story was the most convincing? Least?
Which story did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every book has a world view. Were you able to identify this book’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
Are these idea’s controversial?
To whom and why?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
- The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Good Quotes:
- First Line: Mr Kolbata, I’m sorry to tell you that you just don’t have what it takes to become a doctor.
- Last Line: If there were no changes, they signed off, and the stories were complete.
- … if you really want to be good at something, you have to love it. Quoted from another doctor’s daughter in chp Conclusion
- Introduction
- Part One: Divine Intervention
- Chapter 1 If I Had Been Buckled
- Chapter 2 God’s Emissaries
- Chapter 3 Music in the Emergency Department
- Chapter 4 The Burning Bus Part Two: Death and the Afterlife
- Chapter 5 Grandma O’Hanlon
- Chapter 6 Mary’s Christmas Carol
- Chapter 7 A Call from Mom
- Chapter 8 Gus’s Last Salute
- Chapter 9 Freezing Cold
- Chapter 10 The Ultimate Missionary
- Chapter 11 The Dime
- Chapter 12 “Get the Paddles!”
- Part Three: Healing
- Chapter 13 Gone Fishin’
- Chapter 14 A Series of Miracles
- Chapter 15 The Dream
- Chapter 16 Operating in the Philippines
- Chapter 17 Trouble on the Mountain
- Chapter 18 Shopping for a Miracle
- Chapter 19 The Lunch Meeting
- Chapter 20 A Friend in Trouble
- Chapter 21 Family Connections
- Four: Prayer
- Chapter 22 Praying for a Miracle
- Chapter 23 Three-Way Phone Call to Heaven
- Chapter 24 Jason the Jet
- Chapter 25 The Morning Miracle
- Chapter 26 Fasting for a Family
- Conclusion: What Doctors Taught Me
- Afterword: Divine Coincidences
- About the Doctors
- How This Book Was Written
- Acknowledgments
- I’ve Had an Experience Like That Too!
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Author's Facebook
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- The Theosophical Society
- Kirkus Review
- YouTube
