Patient Stories
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The UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is committed to maintaining excellence in patient care.
We take great pride in being able to share some of our patients' stories with you.
Ovarian Cancer, Bon Voyage
Ms. Thompson has led an adventurous life full of travel until ovarian cancer left her grounded. She sought out treatment at UCLA Health's multidisciplinary gynecologic oncology care team. Under the care of Dr. Sanaz Memarzadeh and Dr. Kari Kubalanza, Ms. Thompson is on the road to recovery. She's now plotting her next big trip.
She didn't want to be a statistic. Now she's raising awareness of the Black maternal health crisis
Anitra MacVeety ’s pregnancy was anything but textbook. Over the course of 37 weeks, she faced a rare autoimmune condition that left painful blisters in her mouth, a short cervix that put her at risk for preterm birth, and life-threatening atrial fibrillation 24 hours after delivering her daughter. She knew the statistics were particularly dire for someone like her, a Black woman in America, who statistically is 2.6x more likely to die from giving birth compared with non-Hispanic White women. Rashmi R. Rao, MD, maternal and fetal medicine specialist at Westwood OBGYN and health sciences assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, took over as Anitra's OB after her 19 week anatomy scan and ensured that Anitra was advocated and taken care of throughout the rest of her pregnancy, as well as after.
Mya Hendrix Overcomes Adversity Towards Motherhood
“Going through pregnancy was really something that I wanted to share with other women with disabilities because a lot of people are told that they can’t, so I thought that was something really important,” said Mya Hendrix, a UCLA Health patient. Illina Pluym, MD, a UCLA Health OB-GYN, was also quoted. Dr. Pluym, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at UCLA, was a part of Hendrix's medical care team.
IVF Success
I just wanted to start by saying WOW! After having four consecutive miscarriages, I decided to take matters into my own hands and seek help from the best of the best. My husband and I first went to UCLA (over an hour away each direction) to meet Dr. Al-Safi back in January 2020. We had a very in depth consultation regarding my past medical history as well as avenues to take going forward. We chose to run every possible test, blood panel, karyotyping, etc to rule out everything possible. He left absolutely no leaf unturned. I came with a HUGE list of questions (over 30) and he answered them all. He is extremely professional and never made me feel silly or ignorant for asking the questions I had.
Charting your own course with the help of the UCLA Nurse-Midwife program
“While you’re in labor, it’s like you’re in a cocoon with your family and nurse-midwife. You’re charting your own course in your own world, comfortably and naturally,” says Carliegh Garcia, who is expecting her fourth child in December. “The birth process for my first three – all delivered by UCLA nurse midwives – was very straightforward. I hope that will be the case for this baby, too.
A doctor who upholds the mission of UCLA CICARE
Dr. Amy Stoddard is the poster doctor for CICARE. She makes patients feel like patients and not like another number in her schedule. She always goes above and beyond for not only her patients but for her staff. the clinic, and the department. Dr. Stoddard never says no to any patient, and even though she's always extremely busy, since she is a very popular doctor, she always makes anything happen for her patients.
Fertility treatment at UCLA
Dr. Brennan worked long and hard with me to help us to conceive the most wonderful child in the world. She didn't give up on us, even when all the odds were against us!
Reassurance during a high-risk pregnancy
Dr. Tina Nguyen was assigned as my high risk OB when I was admitted to the hospital over 2 months ahead of my daughter's due date after my water broke. In the week leading up to my daughter's birth, Dr. Tina was a regular presence, checking in frequently to answer our questions and ensure we understood the possible outcomes. All my reservations about not having chosen Dr. Tina and meeting her under such stressful circumstances quickly vanished - she reassured me with her calm and confident demeanor.
Robotic surgery to correct pelvic-organ prolapse
Pelvic-organ prolapse is a fairly common condition that affects some 50 percent of all women in the United States as they age. For Pam McFarlane, the feeling was like “your internal organs are about to fall out onto the sidewalk.” To correct the condition, Pam underwent a laparoscopic, robotic procedure to sew in thin mesh straps to secure the anatomy in its proper place.
Surgical treatment for uterine cancer
Professor, Doctor Sanaz Memarzadeh, MD, PhD saved our mother’s life! It all started from my mom’s bleeding and our immediate visit to the nearest Hospital Emergency Room, almost 3 years ago. We came to see Doctor Memarzadeh, seeking urgent critical second opinion almost 3 years ago.
Insight into the complicated dynamics of PCOS
In her late teenage years Heather was told that she had PCOS. Although she had not gone through a formal evaluation process, her doctor said that she most likely had PCOS because of her irregular menstrual cycles as well as her twin sister being diagnosed with it. At the time, Heather did not know the complexities of PCOS.
UCLA team performs emergency surgery to save mom and newborn baby
When mom-to-be Malisa was just a few weeks away from delivering her first child, she felt a sudden pain in her chest while at the movies with a friend. Her doctors ruled out any problems with the pregnancy but did learn she had a rare, life-threatening heart condition called an aortic dissection, a tear in the aorta located just above the aortic valve involving the arteries that take blood to the heart and brain.
Once diagnosed, Malisa, who lives about 80 miles from Los Angeles, was airlifted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Her husband Josh, a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, was on assignment in South Korea and quickly made arrangements for the 10-hour flight back to California. A team of 23 specialists assembled, including heart surgeons, obstetricians, anesthesiologists, neonatologists, nurses, a perfusionist, plus experts from respiratory therapy and neurophysiology. Dr. Carla Janzen, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, led the team that delivered the healthy baby boy. This was followed by Malisa’s surgery by a Cardiothoracic team that replaced her aortic valve, reconstructed the major arteries to the heart, arms and brain and created a new aorta.
