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HealthWays
vesicovaginal fistulas (VVFs) in young women
there. As a result, I’m fortunate to be able to
say I’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of
women both in Africa and the U.S. to lead
normal lives again by repairing these fistulas.”
His devotion to serving women afflicted
with fistulas has taken himmore recently to
Uganda, East Africa, where he has led a team
of fistula surgeons from UCLA, the University
of Kansas and Mbarara University of Science
and Technology to help the women there.
“For our 2013 trip, we invited Sarah
Benjamin, as she had indicated she wanted
to give back and help other women,”he says.
“I have to say she was a tremendous help to
our team, and the Ugandan fistula patients
absolutely loved her because they found a
kindred spirit. And, while I’ve helped hundreds
of women with fistula repair, Sarah is the only
one who has given back by joining our fistula
team in Africa.”
Help forUrinary Incontinence
Dr. Margolis helps women with a variety
of pelvic disorders, including urinary
incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
“This is a problem that affects thousands of
women today,”he says.“It’s embarrassing,
and most women don’t wish to talk about
it. But the good news is that there are some
very simple outpatient procedures we can
do to correct this issue that have a high
probability of success.”
Dr. Margolis will be conducting an
education seminar on the topic of Urinary
Incontinence and Pelvic Prolapse at
ValleyCare Medical Center onWednesday,
May 28.
Dr. Margolis has clinic hours
at ValleyCare Medical Center,
Medical O ce Plaza East,
5575W. Las Positas Blvd., Suite 330,
Pleasanton. For an appointment,
please call
650 375 1644
.
W
hen your doctor’s of ce is closed and you need immediate—but not emergency—
care, our urgent care centers can help.
Consider urgent care for:
A cold or cough that doesn’t get better in several days or is accompanied by fever
A minor cut that may need stitches
A rash, especially with fever
Vomiting or diarrhea that lasts for more than a few hours
A severe sore throat or problem swallowing
A minor bone fracture
An insect or animal bite
Earaches, bladder infections or migraine headaches
After returning from Africa, Benjamin wrote her exit paper on
stula statistics in America. In doing her research in American
medical journals, she learned that women with stulas were hard to
nd. She found that so little research has been done because there
is a misguided belief that stulas are eradicated in the U.S. “That
is not true, and I am out to change that thinking,” she says. After
graduating from UC Santa Cruz in June 2013, she started working
full time for the Santa Cruz Police Department and has applied to
become a police of cer. She also hopes to be able to make more
trips back to Africa to help Dr. Margolis and his team.
Feeling so alone and knowing rsthand what it’s like to have
a stula has made Benjamin a crusader. In addition to her blog,
Benjamin is part of a Facebook group for women with stulas
and continues to share her message of hope. “So many women
are affected by this condition
yet too embarrassed to talk
about it,” she says. “What
makes it even worse is that any
normal person has no idea
what a stula is, and many
doctors don’t know how to
make a successful repair.
So, we absolutely have to
speak out in order to get the
needed attention.”
She further explains: “It
is physically, emotionally
and psychologically
draining and affected my
life for a long time. I want
to make sure people here
in America, especially in
the medical profession,
know that stulas still
exist and that the correct
treatment needs to be
made available to all
women suffering from
this horrible condition.
And I want these women
to know they are not
alone and treatment is
available.”
Today, Sarah Benjamin is healthy and happy. “I am so
thankful for the support of the women on the Facebook page
and especially to Dr. Margolis, who is more than a surgeon. He
is an amazing man, a real hero who has a heart for these women
and what we suffer. He gave me my life back,” she says, smiling.
—Continued from front page
—Continued from front page
HELPING WOMEN
Urgent Care
EXPANDS
HOURS
optimistic, but still needed to wait a couple of months to be 100
percent sure. “At the three-month visit, he told me it was time to
celebrate, as the stula was gone forever,” Benjamin says. “I was
so thrilled that my life could be normal again, but also knew
there were thousands of women out there suffering the same
way I did and just too embarrassed to talk about it. Through
the blog I started after my failed surgeries, I now had a message
of hope in Dr. Margolis.”
Because she was on MediCal at the time, Benjamin was unsure
about costs. That is also another reason why it took so long for
her to get help, as many doctors don’t accept MediCal. However,
as she explains, “I paid nothing.” It turns out that Dr. Margolis
and ValleyCare donated the surgery, and
The Doctors
program
did air a program on it. “I’m so grateful to all who were involved
and helped to change my life for the better,” she says.
GIVING BACK
When meeting with Dr. Margolis,
Benjamin found out that he makes
a trip each year to Africa, where
obstetric stulas are very common
due to the young age of these mothers
and lack of medical help these women
have during childbirth. In February
2013, with scholarship funds, Benjamin
joined his team in Uganda to help in
any way she could.
“It was an amazing experience that
gave me a new perspective on life,”
she says. “The lack of basic necessities
and condition of the hospital was an
eye-opener for me. These people have
nothing, yet they are very, very happy,
and that taught me something about life.
I became very close with many of the
women because we shared a common
bond and I understood what they were
suffering.”
Benjamin says that Dr. Margolis was
surprised she actually made the trip, as
many women say they are interested in
going, but end up not following through.
“I told him I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t have a
stula and move on. I know there are women out there suffering
and believe I had this for a reason,” she explains. “I’d like to
believe that I am a voice for all women suffering with stulas
and that this is part of my life calling. Although I am healed, I
am not done with stulas.”
Sarah with a Ugandan fistula patient.
Urinary Incontinence and Pelvic Prolapse
DATE:
Wednesday, May 28
TIME:
7:30 pm
SPEAKER:
Michael T. Margolis, MD
From
Embarrassment
to
CRUSADER
LOCATION:
ValleyCare Medical Plaza,
5725W. Las Positas Blvd.,
2nd Floor Conference Room, Pleasanton
RSVP:
Register online at
valleycare.com/educationseminars
or call
800 719 9111
.
Urgent Care Location and Hours
ValleyCare Medical Plaza–Livermore
1133 E. Stanley Blvd., Livermore
925 373 4018
, 10 am to 8 pm daily
ValleyCare Health System–Dublin
4000 Dublin Blvd., Suite 150, Dublin
925 479 3773
, 10 am to 8 pm daily
