Infertility

On the NBC program “Today” this morning, an egg broker was a featured guest and quoted egg donor expenses at levels three or more times that of the Columbia, SC specialty clinic.

“We have the benefit of having a good population of local donors who have been carefully screened for a benevolent attitude.

We look for qualified young women who truly have a heart for helping couples in need of a donated egg,” stated Dr.

Gail-Whitman Elia, Advanced Fertility’s director and founder.

“Only about two out of one hundred applicants are accepted through our rigid screening and the more affordable cost of living in our area allows us to service couples for a fraction of the expense associated with large city facilities.” Dr.

Whitman-Elia also credited the fine colleges and universities in the Columbia area as another reason top quality donors are available locally.

“The bottom line is that couples don’t have to deal with an egg broker and the associated higher expense,” stated Dr.

Whitman-Elia.

“Centers like ours eliminate the middleman leading to the same therapies at a more ...

What Hulet takes the most pride in is the high-risk OB clinic at St.

Mary-Corwin.

He founded it, has been the primary physician working it, and believes it has revolutionized the care of high-risk pregnancies in Pueblo health care.

"When I arrived here, obstetrics was in the dark ages," he said.

"I don't mean to offend anybody, but it just wasn't done right." Hulet explained that each OB-GYN physician working at one of the two hospitals took a one-month turn as the doctor on call to respond whenever a pregnant woman not under a obstetrician's care arrived at the emergency room.

"We were sending three bad outcome babies a month to Denver" following those deliveries, he said.

"It was appalling.

The lack of care they were getting before and after the deliveries was what was causing those bad outcomes." So, he refused to take his monthly turn.

Instead, the young doctor went to the St.

Mary-Corwin board of directors and made them an offer.

"I asked them to set aside a small amount of money and run a high-risk clinic for the city of Pueblo," Hulet recalls of the bold move two decades ago.

"I told them I'd spend a half-day twice a week at the hospital, offering complete care for women with hypertension, diabetics, women who were drug addicts, others who had other problems." He convinced Campbell to help him.

They hired a top-flight nurse, Lorena Fletcher - "a true ...