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Patient Stories

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Featured Story

Idaho Brain Tumor Patient Finds Home She Needed at Hoag

Pictured: Paul and Tricia Dietzler take a selfie together the morning before her second surgery at Hoag. What was an Idaho woman with a brain tumor doing driving almost 1,000 miles across two state lines to get to Orange County, California? Tricia Dietzler was in too much pain to contemplate that question as her husband, … Read More

First-Time Mom is Thankful for the Support She Received from the Hoag at Home Postpartum+ Program

As a first-time mom, Melissa had questions and worries about postpartum. Starting with the prenatal consultation in her third trimester through postpartum, those were put at ease knowing how involved the personalized care would be that she received from Erica Golden, the Hoag at Home Postpartum+ family nurse practitioner. During Melissa’s pregnancy, Erica was accessible … Read More

Featured Story

For Stroke Patient, Day at the Beach Becomes Most Important Day of Her Life

Pictured: Lisa (far right) with her two friends, Jaclyn and Julie, who helped save her life with their quick action. It was July 10, 2023, and already blazing hot in Rancho Cucamonga when Lisa Peterson and her daughter, Haylee, left their home for Newport Beach to enjoy some respite in the waves with friends. They … Read More

Women's Health

The Road to Parenthood: Grateful Patient Grows With Hoag

As a young sixteen-year-old starting her health journey, Kailyn Hutchinson first crossed paths with Hoag OB/GYN, Lisa Karamardian, M.D., Jeffrey M. Carlton Endowed Chair in Women’s Health, in honor of Dr. Anne M. Kent and medical director of Maternal Child Health at Hoag Hospital. Little did Kailyn know that this initial meeting would mark the … Read More

Heart & Vascular

Hoag Gives Cardiac Patient a ‘Second Chance at Life’

Abi Basu and his wife traveled to India to perform a religious ritual honoring their deceased parents, but it was his own mortality that faced a terrifying threat. Multiple times on the journey, Abi lost his breath for several minutes. At night he awoke, gasping for air. He blacked out on a train platform. He … Read More

Hoag at Home

New Mom Attributes Hoag at Home Postpartum+ Program to a Better Postpartum Experience

Carly was first introduced to the Hoag at Home Postpartum+ program during a routine check-up with her doctor, Dr. Marina Maslovaric. As a new mom, the comfort the program would provide her with was invaluable. During the first few weeks postpartum, Carly had a lot of questions that she was able to ask Erica Golden, … Read More

Heart & Vascular

New Wireless Pacemaker Has Patient ‘Going Strong’

Photo: FinisherPix Gina’s heart “paused” twice while she was in the ER with one of the longest atrial fibrillation (Afib) episodes she had ever experienced. It was 2022, and a newly FDA-approved dual chamber leadless (wireless) pacemaker was available through a clinical trial in only a few select sites across the country. Thankfully for Gina, … Read More

Featured Story

Dismissed by Others, Neck Surgery Patient Receives Relief at Hoag

Blair Allan knew exactly what it looked like to the Urgent Care team in Los Angeles: A late-20s, healthy woman who had suffered no injury, showing up to the Urgent Care complaining of pain and asking for relief. It’s September 2020. The opioid epidemic is in full swing. Blair forgives the nurses for their caution. … Read More

Featured Story

GERD Patient Finds Relief and a Team That Listens

Erin Bowlus played semi-professional flag football for two years with a broken hip. The lighting-intense pain flashing through her leg? She just sucked it up. So, when started to experience crushing chest pain in 2016, she didn’t believe her first set of doctors’ suggestion that she was suffering from anxiety. Erin is tough. She can … Read More

Spine

From Despair to Disneyland: A Spine Patient Journey

In her 20s, Candice Timmons was involved in a car accident that resulted in chronic back pain. Physical therapy helped for a few years until she developed sciatica during her first pregnancy. Her second pregnancy brought on even more pain. In November 2021, her pain grabbed hold and never let go. Her mobility diminished until … Read More