How Hannah Came To Be…

When Kelly met Chris, he was a widow with two young sons. Kelly always wanted children — and she grew to love Chris’s boys — but she wanted a child of her own. Unfortunately Chris had a vasectomy a few years earlier.

But the two continued to date. As their relationship blossomed into romance and their conversations turned to talk of marriage, Kelly and Chris began searching the ‘Net for names of local physicians who could perform a vasectomy reversal.

However, not all urologists perform the microsurgical procedure, and not all local urologists trained in the technique were as experienced as Dr. Abe Hawatmeh of South County Urological.

A board-certified urologic surgeon and former chief of urology at St. Anthony’s Medical Center, Dr. Hawatmeh had been performing vasectomy reversals since 1985.

Hannah with Bow

“We went in for a consultation and just liked him,” said Kelly. Although the couple was guardedly optimistic, they took a couple of months to think and reflect. There was a lot to consider: a vasectomy reversal is not covered by insurance, and there are no guarantees that pregnancy would result.

Success hinges on several factors including the surgical expertise of the urologist and the duration of time. The longer it’s been since the vasectomy was performed, the less likely the chance for pregnancy to occur. Two years had passed since Chris had his vasectomy.

The couple took a leap a faith, married and scheduled Chris’s vasectomy reversal one month after their wedding. While they hoped for the best, “we prepared ourselves for it (the reversal) not working,” said Kelly.

But the reversal did work and within six months, Kelly was pregnant with Hannah.