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I’m a doctor, and I believe in medical miracles

Too often, physicians and scientists see medicine and religion as oil and water. That’s a mistake. Medicine and religion are not incompatible, and acting as if they are has consequences: Doctors can sometimes turn to palliative care and even hospice care too soon when they might instead hold out for a little longer, in hopes that a medical miracle assisted by the full bore of medical technology and spiritual healing might be possible. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say that doctors should be so expectant of miracle recoveries that they never give up hope, that they should wait expectedly for a blind man to suddenly start seeing again or a paralyzed man to walk. But I do wish that doctors…

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 How should we tell the stories of our medical miracles?

These kinds of stories are told and retold by medical professionals and the lay public, and adhere to a specific motif. John Cade fortuitously noticed that lithium salts that calmed guineapigs could treat mania; Edward Jenner invented vaccination when he realised that milkmaids exposed to cowpox never got smallpox; Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin when he observed that one of his bacterial cultures was contaminated by a fungus that seemed to kill bacteria. Louis Pasteur once lectured, “In the fields of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind.” Such medical figures enjoyed lasting fame and gratitude; they all had found diamonds in the rough.

 Medical Miracles--Embracing Spiritual Phenomena

Medical miracles refer to events that are unanticipated and inexplicable, outside the range of medical precedents and the laws of nature as assessed by science. These miracles often represent remarkable results that are either outside of known medical or scientific expectations or breakthroughs in medical sciences that occur against all odds.

Articles of Interest

A.I. May Someday Work Medical Miracles. For Now, It Helps Do Paperwork.

The best use for generative A.I. in health care, doctors say, is to ease the heavy burden of documentation that takes them hours a day and contributes to burnout.

Electricity Is the New Medical Miracle

Stimulating the vagus nerve can relieve arthritis, Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory conditions—perhaps someday even Alzheimer’s disease.

How Did A Medical Miracle Turn Into A Global Threat?

Antibiotics save lives, but we rely on them too much. Eventually, the drugs may stop working. Economist Ramanan Laxminarayan asks us to think twice before reaching for this double-edged resource.

Magnificent Medical Miracles, and Everyday Ones, Too

Most miracles involve healing from dire illness, with supporting evidence carefully assembled sometimes centuries after the event, and a designated prosecutor (the original “devil’s advocate”) questioning every detail.

Making a case for medical miracles

One historical constant has been the key role played by doctors in the Vatican’s investigation process. Physicians perform two important steps: They diagnose the condition as hopeless (a medical failure to cure) and they express surprise at the outcome (for which medicine could not take credit). When the Vatican is confident that doctors have exhausted the latest medical therapeutics and eliminated natural causes as an explanation, it can declare a healing miracle.

Medical Miracle: The Science of General Henry A. Barnum

When Henry Barnum enlisted in the 12th New York Infantry in 1861, he no doubt considered it was a very real possibility that he might never return to his wife and infant son at their Syracuse, New York, home. And for a few weeks in the summer of 1862, it looked like that worst-case scenario had become reality. While serving in the Peninsula Campaign, Captain Barnum was shot in the front of his left hip at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. The ball slammed through the front of Barnum’s hip bone and passed out through his back.

Medical Miracles

Early medicines were the product of a fortuitous discovery of a plant or microbial extract and hit-or-miss testing of similar compounds to find the most effective version. Today, using the tools of modern chemistry, scientists map the structures of modern medicines, mimic their functions and tailor drugs to individual needs—making medical miracles everyday events.

Sanjay Gupta On Medical Miracles, 'Cheating Death'

The subject that you discuss after this remarkable story really involves the use of hypothermia, chilling a body as a therapy, and if I understand what you're saying, that in many acute cases where someone has a heart attack or a severe trauma and looks as if, you know, they're going to die or maybe actually stop breathing, that deliberately lowering the body temperature can be - I don't want to use the word miraculous, but a remarkable therapy, right?

Scientists Found a Miracle Drug in Easter Island’s Soil. The Natives Never Saw a Dime.

Although rapamycin eventually became a billion-dollar drug, many of the people instrumental to its discovery—most importantly, the people of Rapa Nui—have been largely forgotten in both a monetary and historical sense.

The Lifesaving Cancer Treatment I Wish More People Knew About

I have now survived almost two years beyond anyone’s expectations. With few side effects, no down time, and a remarkable record of success with other tumors less rare than my own, it is a wonder to me that Y-90 is not considered by more oncologists as an alternative or an adjunct to chemo. Interventional radiology using Y-90 treated my liver metastases from the inside out. Cancer can paralyze you with fear—both the fear there is no hope and the fear of talking about it. My advice is to broadcast your disease. Tell anyone who will listen what kind of cancer you have. Do research. Knock on every medical door. Don’t take “only this way” for an answer.

The medical miracles delusion

Humans are not ants, but we often trudge together along the same trail, neglecting to look around for alternatives. Mass delusions involve large groups holding false or exaggerated beliefs for sustained periods. Humanity has a long, sorry list of these shadow-the-leader epidemics of collective consciousness which appear obviously wrong only in hindsight. Some last for centuries: early alchemists intent on transmuting base metals into gold and the Christian Crusades of Europe’s middle ages, for example.

Were these true medical miracles? Doctors disagree

Rotbart believes all physicians struggle with finding balance in how far to push in hope of a miracle and when to let go. "Miracles, whether they happen to us, or we hear of them from colleagues or we read about them, should humble us as physicians," he said. "…I have come to believe that what we don't know or don't understand about medicine, medical miracles, or life in general, isn‘t necessarily cause for fear, and can even be reason for hope.

What Should Doctors Do When We Experience a Miracle?

As a critical-care doctor, I become nervous at the very idea of miracles. I hear the word and think of tense family meetings and impossible hopes. I imagine loved ones at the bedside waiting for improvement that will never come. Miracles are often what patients’ families beg for, and they’re not something that I can provide.

‘A medical miracle’: is period blood ‘the most overlooked opportunity’ in women’s health?

Period blood has long been thought of as ‘stinky and useless’, but startups are exploring using the fluid to test for a wide range of health conditions – including difficult-to-diagnose endometriosis

Resources

5 Stunning Medical Miracles That Doctors Can’t Explain

Our understanding of the human body is advancing faster than ever. In 1950, new medical knowledge doubled at a rate of about 50 years—today, it doubles every 73 days. And yet there is still so much we don’t know about human biology. Researchers estimate there are about 4,000 types of bacteria found in our gut but have no clue what 70% of them do. We still don’t know for sure why we dream, have different blood types, or develop unique fingerprints. Even just this year, scientists discovered a new body part that helps us chew our food. That’s why it’s no surprise that doctors still get stumped by some medical mysteries (though, thanks to today’s rapidly growing knowledge base, they keep solving previously puzzling cases, too.)

The Miracles Among Us

Fox News senior medical analyst and NYU clinical professor of medicine, Dr. Marc Siegel, joins The Strategerist host Andrew Kaufmann to share the inspiration behind his latest book, The Miracles Among Us. Dr. Siegel explores the intersection of faith and medicine, reflecting on how true healing engages both body and soul. He introduces the idea of “soft miracles” — the small, interconnected moments of grace, coincidence, and human connection that together create extraordinary outcomes — and shares moving stories from his book that bring this concept to life.

Miracles We Have Seen

This is a book of miracles—medical events witnessed by leading physicians for which there is no reasonable medical explanation, or, if there is, the explanation itself is extraordinary. These dramatic first-person essays detail spectacular serendipities, impossible cures, breathtaking resuscitations, extraordinary awakenings, and recovery from unimaginable disasters. Still other essays give voice to cases in which the physical aspects were less dramatic than the emotional aspects, yet miraculous and transformational for everyone involved. Positive impacts left in the wake of even the gravest of tragedies, profound triumphs of heart and spirit.