After Miles had passed away, the doctors had gone through the original paperwork Velkies had filled out when she started her treatment with UCSF.  And there it was.  One of the questions on the paperwork asked if Velkies had been exposed to DES.  She had marked, “yes,” but they had overlooked it.  I remember the doctor saying, “the medical community has failed you.”  We thought about a lawsuit, but after visiting with a couple of law firms, we just wanted it all to go away.  We were depressed and disenchanted with everything.  We decided to try again.  In March, Velkies was pregnant again.  This time she only wanted the best.  So now we would make our doctor visits to UCLA.  The doctor, here, was the best in the field.  The staff was excellent, but the doctor, himself, had the personality of a rock.  He never really spoke to us.  He was very blunt and to the point.  Never asked us how we were doing.  Why we chose UCLA when we lived in Oakland…. nothing.  Eventually, he would put in a cervical cerclage in Velkies.  The exposure to DES made Velkies cervix weak or incompetent.  This is the reason we lost Miles.  Her cervix was not strong enough to hold him.  The cerclage or stitches are sewn into the cervix to hold it shut during pregnancy.  After a few months, Velkies didn’t like his apathy anymore, and we moved our treatment to John Muir Hospital in the East Bay.  Thank God.  It was expensive going to LA every month, and now, it was a 20 minute drive to the hospital.

The due date was December 6th.  The date came and went, and two weeks later, the doctor would induce her to have the baby.  Eventually, Velkies had a c-section, and Isabella was born 8 lbs, 2 oz, and 19 inches.  After the birth, the doctor went in to take out the cerclage, but he said the UCLA doctor had stitched in a way that was too difficult for him to take it out and left it in there.  I had just cut the umbilical cord, and my baby was born.  Isabella Hwang.