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Please congratulate Sarah! She’s cancer-free and enjoying life with her young daughter, after several surgeries, 16 roun...
09/06/2026

Please congratulate Sarah! She’s cancer-free and enjoying life with her young daughter, after several surgeries, 16 rounds of chemo, 30 rounds of radiation and other treatments for breast cancer!

In 2021, Sarah noticed a lump in her breast, but her doctor in Santa Rosa wasn’t worried because she was young with a history of benign cysts. Eventually, Sarah found a lump in her armpit and sought a second opinion. Tests unfortunately revealed stage 3 breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes. Sarah’s local oncologist referred her to UCSF, where she began treatment with Dr. Laura Huppert, after completing a round of IVF for fertility preservation at our Center for Reproductive Health.

In 2023, Sarah began a new UCSF trial with Dr. Huppert, which successfully reduced her cancer by 40% in three months. She also did 16 rounds of chemotherapy, using a cold-cap device to help prevent complete hair loss. “I would 100% do it again because I could go about my everyday life without people noticing,” she says. “Also, my daughter was 2 at the time, so it shielded her a bit.”

After completing chemo, Sarah had a double mastectomy with reconstruction from her thighs, and our surgeons removed most of the lymph nodes in her right arm. Sarah completed 30 rounds of radiation, immunotherapy and aromatase inhibitors and now takes daily medications to remain cancer-free. She also chose to have our team remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes. She currently sees a plastic surgeon at UCSF and is receiving bone infusions for the next two years.

Sarah loves spending quality time with her family, especially her daughter, who is now 5! When she’s not working, Sarah enjoys working out, taking walks and accompanying her daughter on playdates!

👏 Please help us celebrate our Blood and Marrow Transplant nursing team! This awesome group of nearly 200 nurses, patien...
09/04/2026

👏 Please help us celebrate our Blood and Marrow Transplant nursing team! This awesome group of nearly 200 nurses, patient care assistants and unit secretaries make sure our patients get excellent, specialized care for blood cancers like leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma every day of the year!

Please congratulate Erin — she’s doing great after a liver transplant in 2024!In late 2023, Erin began experiencing extr...
08/30/2026

Please congratulate Erin — she’s doing great after a liver transplant in 2024!
In late 2023, Erin began experiencing extreme fatigue, nausea, confusion and large blood clots. At her husband’s suggestion, she saw her doctor, who attributed her symptoms to perimenopause.
In May 2024, Erin went by ambulance to another hospital, where she received multiple blood transfusions and learned she needed a hysterectomy and had stage 4 liver cirrhosis. Erin had alcohol-use disorder and had been afraid to seek help. Unfortunately, her drinking ended up causing liver damage.
Erin detoxed in the hospital and focused on her sobriety. Unfortunately, she developed double pneumonia and sepsis in August and transferred to UCSF by ambulance. Our team placed Erin on the transplant list, and she continued to work on her recovery.
In October, she had a successful transplant with a donor liver.
“My donor was my wounded warrior, wounded in addiction, the same as I was,” she says. “He struggled in his life and ended up saving mine.”
Erin is doing great and has stayed sober. She loves playing with her 2-year-old nephew and recently traveled to Hawaii with her family to snorkel, hike and boogie board. She also was thrilled to attend a mother/daughter school retreat with her daughter and to move her son into his sophomore dorm at college.
“Thanks to transplant and sobriety, I can do hard things,” she says.

🎉🥇Congratulations to UCSF dermatologist Dr. Garrett Patrick for winning this year's The San Francisco Marathon!“Running ...
08/27/2026

🎉🥇Congratulations to UCSF dermatologist Dr. Garrett Patrick for winning this year's The San Francisco Marathon!
“Running is a great way to learn,” he says. “There is an aspect of exploration in it that's also present in research and treating patients.”
https://ucsfh.org/4zq2koU

👏 We unveiled a new CT scanner at our Stanyan hospital! The new state-of-the-art machine specializes in advanced imaging...
08/27/2026

👏 We unveiled a new CT scanner at our Stanyan hospital! The new state-of-the-art machine specializes in advanced imaging, higher-resolution images and faster scan times, improving the scanning experience for patients and helping doctors make better care decisions!

🎉 For the eighth year, U.S. News and World Report has ranked our neurosurgery program in the top three in the nation! “W...
08/26/2026

🎉 For the eighth year, U.S. News and World Report has ranked our neurosurgery program in the top three in the nation! “We’re not following trends,” program chair Dr. Edward Chang says. “We’re leading ideas.” https://ucsfh.org/4xXDgEn

Please congratulate Jennifer! She’s been seizure-free for 19 years after brain surgery to control her epilepsy!Jennifer ...
08/21/2026

Please congratulate Jennifer! She’s been seizure-free for 19 years after brain surgery to control her epilepsy!
Jennifer experienced seizures as a toddler, but they stopped after a couple of years, only to return again when she was 13.
For years, Jennifer worked with a local doctor in her hometown of Napa but couldn’t find a medication that controlled her epilepsy.
Eventually, she came to UCSF, where neurologist Dr. Daniel Lowenstein treated her with medication for several years. Unfortunately, Jennifer eventually became resistant to the drugs, and she needed brain surgery.
Our team used a technique called brain mapping to pinpoint the location of the seizures, so we could perform surgery without affecting normal brain functions. A quarter-sized area in Jennifer's brain hadn’t fully developed, causing her to seize. Our neurosurgeons were able to remove that portion of her brain, and after recovering from surgery for a few weeks, Jennifer completely stopped having seizures. In fact, she hasn’t had one since July 1, 2007!
Jennifer was able to get her own place (something that wouldn’t have been possible when she was actively seizing). She went on to get married and give birth to fraternal twins!
“I was able to start living the life I never dreamed I’d have,” she says.
Jennifer loves nature and strives to be outdoors whenever she can. Her favorite place is Bodega Bay, where she goes for clam chowder and calamari. And fun fact: Jennifer was also born at UCSF! “Not only was I born there, but the doctors saved my life there,” she says.

👏 Congratulations to our heart team on completing its first successful ELEVATE III procedure! UCSF is participating in a...
08/20/2026

👏 Congratulations to our heart team on completing its first successful ELEVATE III procedure! UCSF is participating in a multi-hospital national study to evaluate a new device that provides circulatory support for high-risk patients during certain types of heart procedures called percutaneous coronary interventions, which open blocked arteries.
Interventional cardiologists Drs. Krishan Soni, Yousif Ahmad and Arturo Gasga performed the successful procedure earlier this summer! 🎉

Please congratulate Roland — he’s back to enjoying life and hiking after a double-lung transplant last year!A decade ago...
08/15/2026

Please congratulate Roland — he’s back to enjoying life and hiking after a double-lung transplant last year!
A decade ago, Roland’s immune system began attacking his lungs, and he experienced serious inflammation. Roland's lungs continued to decline over several years, and his struggles with shortness of breath prevented him from enjoying one of his favorite activities: hiking.
In 2024, Roland came to UCSF and met with pulmonologist Dr. Nicholas Kolaitis. Testing revealed he was eligible to join the transplant list. Several months later, Roland was admitted to our hospital with low oxygen levels and, during his stay, learned donor lungs had become available.
He had a successful 10-hour lung transplant surgery with our team and recovered in the hospital for about a week.
Roland lives in San Rafael but stayed in the city for several weeks to attend appointments. He walked each day, building up to a 7-mile walk to and from Ocean Beach!
Roland is thrilled to be hiking again and has plans to see family and travel soon. He was also Mr. January in this year’s UCSF transplant calendar!

Please send your best wishes to Raquel! She’s recovering well after a bone marrow transplant two years ago, with her sis...
08/08/2026

Please send your best wishes to Raquel! She’s recovering well after a bone marrow transplant two years ago, with her sister as her donor.

Raquel’s journey began when routine lab work at her local hospital in Turlock showed that she had low platelet counts. She had a bone-marrow biopsy with a local provider, but it was unsuccessful, so she traveled to UCSF.
After additional testing at our Parnassus hospital revealed a rare mutation affecting Raquel’s bone marrow, Dr. Peter Sayre recommended a bone marrow transplant.

Raquel initially chose to monitor her condition for about two years before deciding to move forward with the transplant. She completed several rounds of chemo and then received transplanted cells from her younger sister, Debbie, in July 2024. She then spent almost a month in the hospital before staying locally for four more months to go to follow-up appointments.

After returning home, Raquel faced another challenge: She developed graft-versus-host disease, a complication in which the donor's immune cells mistakenly attack the recipient's healthy tissues. Raquel returned to UCSF for another few weeks of treatment and returned home to recover further.

Today, Raquel is getting back to the life she loves! She's traveling for work again, spending quality time with her family and recently enjoyed trips to Switzerland and Portugal!

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