Welcoming her fourth child into the world was a joyous blessing, but for White Rock resident Sarah Hernandez and her family, it also introduced an unfamiliar health challenge: A painful umbilical hernia that led to persistent digestive issues and negatively impacted her quality of life.

Thanks to the surgical expertise and guidance of bilingual General Surgeon Humberto Martinez, MD, and the compassionate care of the clinical staff at LAMC, Sarah is back on track to feeling like her old self.

“The healing's been going well, the directions have been going well, and I feel a lot better now. My digestive system's starting to get back on normal,” she said. “It’s been a really good journey with Los Alamos Medical Center.”

Sarah, in particular, had wonderful words to say about how attentive, informative, kind and personable the entire surgical team was at LAMC, from pre-operative to anesthesia to recovery.

Her journey to the surgery on Dec. 9, 2025, was not a short one, as Sarah encountered many ups and downs before deciding to remedy the issue once and for all. “I was like most people, you tend to dismiss things until it really gets bad, right?” she recalled, noting that she had a referral to a surgeon since October 2024.

That turning point when it got really bad just so happened to occur more than 9,000 miles from home – when she was at the beach while visiting family in Kenya. “A wave hit me really hard in the stomach, and it hurt extremely badly, so much that I thought I was going to have to have emergency surgery in Kenya,” she said.

With a recommendation from Dr. Martinez that now was the best time to undergo surgery – before the situation worsened and the surgery would become more invasive – Sarah and husband were able to take advantage of the flexibility of scheduling an elective surgery at LAMC to line up help from her mom and plan around the family’s work and school obligations.

Looking back on her health before the successful surgery, Sarah now finds herself realizing what so many patients eventually do.

“You think, ‘Oh, I can handle it. I can handle it.’” And then when you finally get it done, then you're like,’ why was I living like this for so long?’”

Learn more about Dr. Martinez.

Family photo credit: Samantha D'Anna Photography