Dr. Marc Siegel, physician and Fox News senior medical analyst, explores the intersection of spirituality, clinical treatment and unexplained medical recoveries in his new book, "The Angels Among Us."
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Examining how faith, human empathy and modern medicine converge during health crises, the book draws on medical research, historical cases and firsthand clinical experience.
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"You don't draw the line between an explanation that's medical or spiritual.
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They're combined," Siegel told Fox News Digital.
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"And the more doctors that remember that, the better."
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Siegel cites survey data indicating that 70% of physicians believe in God and 55% report witnessing medical miracles in practice.
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In the book, he expands the definition of "angels" beyond ethereal beings to include doctors, nurses and ordinary people whose timely interventions have led to unexplained recoveries or vital support.
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"The messengers are either actual angels from God that come down, that can take human form, that are voices where you don't have a visualization, or they can be humans that God appoints to do angel-like work," Siegel said.
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"I started to identify humans who play the role of angels in our lives."
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Among the cases featured in the book are U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Spencer Milo, who received a terminal brain tumor diagnosis after suffering severe trauma in Iraq.
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While seeking a second opinion at the University of California, San Francisco, Milo met a Benedictine monk.
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Subsequent imaging revealed that the tumor was benign.
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Milo also credits former President George W. Bush with providing pivotal emotional support during a later personal crisis, identifying both as instrumental to his recovery.
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Siegel references his residency training in intensive care units, sharing the story of an ICU patient who remained in a coma for three months following severe brain trauma.
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Despite receiving a negative prognosis, the patient unexpectedly regained consciousness and eventually returned to work.
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"That embroidered on me the need to not give up — the need to look for explanations beyond just the purely physical," Siegel said.
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"My role is not to decide who lives and who dies.
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My role is to relieve suffering and prolong life."
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The book also details personal accounts from Siegel's own family, including his father’s four-year survival on dialysis via a catheter after surviving severe COVID-19 and complex emergency surgery at age 98.
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Other cases highlight sudden medical reversals, such as a critically ill ICU patient who reported seeing comforting spiritual figures just before her condition stabilized.
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"My role is not to decide who lives and who dies.
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who → decide → ?
My role is to relieve suffering and prolong life."
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role → relieve → life
Additionally, the book incorporates historical accounts, including an interview with Dr. David Gens, a lead surgeon who treated President Ronald Reagan following his 1981 assassination attempt.
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Gens detailed emergency room triage decisions, secret service dynamics and Reagan's recovery.
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Siegel also discusses the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous, focusing on co-founder Bill Wilson's spiritual awakening at Towns Hospital in New York and the peer-support model that followed.
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Siegel emphasizes that while faith and prayer do not replace clinical care or guarantee survival, spirituality remains a key factor in patient resilience.
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"Spirituality affects outcomes because it's a prerequisite to the courage to overcome," Siegel said.
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"Great doctoring helps enormously, but prayer and hope give patients the strength to keep fighting."
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prayer → help → strength