Patient Stories

• Gloria & Veronica Ramos

  Living Donor Transplant Emblemmatic of Loving Family

  UCSF Transplant Surgery -  by Sarah Krumholz - September 01, 2006

  

  When Gloria Ramos received the call in August 2000 that UCSF Medical Center had a liver for the transplant she badly needed, the Ramos family drove to the hospital with great anticipation and excitement. But further testing of the available organ revealed it wasn't a good match for Gloria and her daughters and husband expressed their disappointment. "This only means that I'm at the top of the list," Gloria recalls assuring her family. "I'll get called again!" Gloria contracted Hepatitis C through a blood transfusion in 1982 but the deadly virus lived undetected in her body until the summer[...]

  Story Tags: CirrhosisHepatitis CLiver TransplantLiving Donor Liver Transplant
• Karen Peterson

  Brothers in Arms - Working Nights at UCSF to Cure Mesothelioma, Spurred by a Widower's Grief and Hard-Raised Cash

  UCSF Thoracic Oncology Program Richard Barg August 14, 2005

  

  SFGate.com reports on the collaboration of David M. Jablons, M.D. and Jeff Peterson whose wife Karen and died from mesothelioma, a devastating disease. Dr. David Jablons couldn't save Karen Peterson's life or even extend it. But he could give quality to whatever life she had left. That turned out to be about nine months, long enough for her twin boys to see her waterskiing on Lake Tahoe and boogie-boarding in Oceanside and laughing more than coughing.  Jablons, chief cardiothoracic surgeon at UCSF, was the last in a line of specialists Peterson had sought out coast to coast in a 22-month [...]

  Story Tags: Malignant Mesothelioma
• Mike Wooldridge

  Cancer survivor takes fight against disease to the streets

  UCSF Thoracic Oncology Program April 23, 2004

  

  SFGate.com reports on the the journey of Mike Wooldridge after getting a devastating diagnosis and being turned away for surgery by M.D. Anderson, and being told it was incurable, only to get treatment at UCSF that enabled him to run in a marathon not long after that. Running a marathon without a third of your right lung might seem impossible, but for Mike Wooldridge it's just another day on the road.  Diagnosed with a fist-sized tumor in his right lung a year ago, the Pleasant Hill Web site designer was initially given a 10 to 15 percent chance of surviving. Today he's running 30 miles a [...]

  Story Tags: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer