http://fertilitypartnership.com
Dr. Elan Simckes: The Fertility Partnership is the final crystallization of a dream that I've had for a lot of years. I've been involved in the world of fertility for decades. In 1985 was my first opportunity to be involved in this and it was really in it's very beginnings. I ran down the hallway with eggs in my hand--I was still a medical student, and I was so excited and thought "wow." And years later, when I moved to St. Louis, I began working in a program here with a very well-known fertility expert and stayed there for 10 years, I learned a tremendous amount. You could say that was where I got my apprenticeship. The way it's done around the world is you spend a number of years with doctor. I learned quite a bit. And when when I saw that there was really no further room for for me to grow, I broke off and was approached by another group, worked with them and learned a lot there. And then it was time for me to go and put my own direction to it.
What I figured out--and it was very early in the career--was that there are people who get pregnant when others don't. I didn't understand if everything matched up, why were some getting pregnant and why and why some weren't? I felt it may have something to do with your attitude and their emotional well-being.
One bright morning I got a call about 6:30 in the morning from my partner, and he asked me to cover for him. He had an ovum pickup, or egg retrieval if you will, at 7, please show up. And I had a full day, I was annoyed, I didn't know anything about the patient. I showed up at the hospital, picked the chart up off the door, walked right into the room and of course never bothered to look at the chart. When I got there I found a woman, African American woman, sitting cross-legged bolt upright on her gurney, and there was a gentleman sitting in the chair. He looked about 9 feet tall and he was reading the newspaper like this. I couldn't even see him. I walked in and said "Hi guys, OK, my name is Dr. Simckes and we're get some eggs." And she looked at me and said "Who are you?" And I said "I'm doctor Simckes and your doctor hurt himself, I'm covering for him." And she said "Did you read my chart?" And I had to admit that I hadn't. And she said "Well if you had read you'd see that this is our sixth attempt at IVF, and on the only reason why we're even trying for sixth time is my husband over there plays in a major league sport." And I look at him and I said, "Oof, yeah. Play the week last week I got." And they just looked at me like, "Why are you so optimistic and rosy?" I felt like an idiot and I did know what to say. So I wanted to recoup and I thought "OK, well I'm going to have to come up with something." I said just intuitively well, what's going be different? "If you've done it five times there's one thing we haven't done, and that is a whammy. You need a whammy?" "Have you had a whammy before? And she looked at me like "A whammy?" And I said "You know, I'll give you a whammy if this is the sixth time, you need one." And the two of them looked at me and I walked over to the gurney and I put my hands on her head and--I'll jump to one of the caveats of the story is that she's a preacher's daughter, and I'm a preacher's son--and by the time we were done, her hands were up the air and I had my hands on her head and I was saying, "Do you feel like a green field in springtime? Can you see the those flowers popping out of your head in rapid-sequence photography?" And she said "yes I do!" She rolled down the hall into the operating room with her hands up in the air saying "I can do this."
And they had little girl and actually without giving away any HIPA information they named the little girl Melan, and it was just, I think when I look back on it I think that day that I was whammied, and not her so much. I was whammied because I realized then that there was something that is so difficult so intangible in this whole process about people dreaming and believing so that they can conceive and I wanted to build a program where people were going to go and feel like we're in it together and that you can do it. We're going to help you get that family, get that baby and so that you can then have your family.
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Fertility Partnership Embryology Labby FertilityPartnership582 views
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