Inside the infirmary: Senior gets closer look at the life of a surgeon

At 5 a.m., the City of Angels is asleep. A few cars roam the usually congested streets, cigarette butts lie unattended, apartment windows remain dark. But in the heart of the city, an entire hospital is awake: Classical music whispers through its bleached halls, and workers buzz with purpose. In the hospital waiting room, wide-eyed relatives pace back and forth, frustrating nurses preparing patients for early-morning surgeries. 

These were the days senior Bita Naimi woke up to this summer. As an intern at The Fibroid Treatment Collective and at The Center for Surgery in Beverly Hills, Naimi spent eight weeks building experience and knowledge about medicine. There, she worked with gynecologists, cardiologists, general surgeons and plastic surgeons, observing and assisting them with everything from heart generator change outs to uterine fibroid embolization.

Naimi got the internship by emailing her resume to the hospital and ended up later going in for an interview last spring.  It wasn’t long before she discovered she had gotten the internship.

At the Center for Surgery, Naimi was able to experience a range of different types of surgery and get a glimpse of what each field of medicine was like.

On the days when Naimi wasn’t working on research with McLucas in the afternoons, she would also volunteer at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Hospital’s Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) Clinic, a center for women’s reproductive health that primarily treats low-income patients.

“I was looking for an opportunity where I would be able to participate in medical research and also experience the clinical and surgical aspect of the medical world,” Naimi said.

At the Fibroid Treatment Collective and Center for Surgery, Naimi worked under Dr. Bruce McLucas, an OBGYN surgeon and a pioneer of uterine fibroid embolization, an alternative, minimally invasive procedure that treats uterine fibroids, which are cysts (masses of cells) on the uterus. Many women suffering from fibroids are falsely told that getting a hysterectomy (the removal of the uterus) is one of their only options.

“Embolization is a much safer and less invasive option [that] lets women keep their fertility, which a hysterectomy would eliminate,” Naimi said. “I think [embolization] is amazing for the future of women’s health because of how quick, safe and efficient it is.”

Naimi also worked with McLucas to conduct research on the procedure. In August, McLucas and Naimi submitted a research paper titled “Unusual ovarian artery blood supply to the uterus: a case report” to the Minimally

Invasive Therapy and Allied Technologies journal. A different paper, which discusses the effects of uterine fibroid embolization on levels of the Anti-müllerian hormone (the hormone that accurately measures ovarian function), is still in progress.

Prior to working with McLucas, Naimi had always contemplated becoming a surgeon. By the end of summer, Naimi said that her interest in medicine had solidified and that she had become more confident in the career path she wants to pursue.

“Originally, I was a little nervous about how I’d react to a live surgery, since I’d never experienced anything remotely close to it before,” Naimi said.

Despite her reservations, one of her favorite memories ended up being the first surgery she observed, a uterine artery embolization conducted by McLucas.

“I wanted it to be the first [surgery I observed] because that procedure was going to be a main focus of mine for the next eight weeks,” Naimi said.

Naimi said that the staff placed a rolling stool in the operation room for the first surgery in case she felt faint or lightheaded.

“But I felt the opposite of faint,” Naimi said. “I was so eager to learn more about what was happening, and I kept moving closer to get a better view. I’ve never felt more fascinated in my life.”

Out of all the surgeries she watched, Naimi particularly enjoyed the embolizations because they were so unpredictable.  She described them as being like “puzzles,” since they require locating the uterine artery based on what is projected on the X-ray.

Still, though there were many aspects of working in a hospital that Naimi loved, there were difficulties as well.

She said she sometimes felt sad for the patients that were dealing with fibroids because the symptoms can be very painful.

“Some of the patients had difficulty walking and even breathing,” she said. “I was always relieved when I talked to them at their post-op [check in after surgery] appointment, when they told me they felt so much better and pain free.”

These patients would often thank the staff through numerous cards and boxes of chocolate. One particular card read, “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for aiding me in my journey to optimum health. I finally have my life back!”

Naimi also made connections with the staff, who worked with her throughout the summer and watched her grow. UCLA Clinician Katie Siedel said that Naimi was receptive, helpful, diligent and thoughtful.

“Bita became so much more knowledgeable about OBGYN services provided by the clinic,” Siedel said. “She was extremely hard-working and inquisitive, and always willing to help out.”

Naimi has yet to decide the exact field of medicine she wants to study, but she has a strong interest in both gynecology and plastic surgery.

“So many types of surgeries were interesting to me, so it’s hard to pick a field I’m sure I want to go into at this point,” Naimi said. “But I do know that this is what I want to do in the future.”