Annual Pub 2022 - Flipbook - Page 16
Life-Saving Medicine: an Answered Prayer
by Paul Harasim
For as long as she could remember, 15-year-old Annalisa
Gubler had heard about how excited her parents had been
to welcome her, their 昀椀rstborn child, into their family…how ill
she soon became as an infant…and how Dr. Michael Scheidler,
a Las Vegas pediatric surgeon now with the Kirk Kerkorian
School of Medicine at UNLV, saved her life.
It was the kind of story that 昀椀lled the curly-haired girl with
wonder, made her want to one day thank and meet the physician that her parents said lovingly called her “my little twisted
sister.”
Her parents, Dr. Michael and Rachel Gubler, had told her how
much they enjoyed the miracle of childbirth, when all seems
right in the world and only love 昀椀lls your soul, when that spring
in your step feels as though it will catapult you into a life where
you only know joy and goodness.
And the Gublers – they moved from Las Vegas to Arkansas
after Dr. Scheidler performed his life-saving surgery – also told
her it wasn’t too long after her birth that they began to worry
that their precious daughter wouldn’t live much longer.
DR. MICHAEL SCHEIDLER AND ANNALISA GUBLER
No matter what she ate, she kept little of it down. Month after
PHOTO: JENNY MANN
month, doctor after doctor in Las Vegas said she apparently
suffered from acid re昀氀ux, the stomach 昀氀u, or an allergy. Trip after trip was made to emergency rooms, where she
received IV therapy for dehydration.
She was so sickly and weak that she was missing milestones for crawling and walking. When she was taken for a
ride in the stroller, her mother carried a bucket to catch her retching.
Finally, when she was 18-months-old (Annalisa weighed half what she should), a doctor ordered imaging, a map
of the intestines, that was shown to Dr. Scheidler. It turned out her intestines were not 昀椀xated and aligned as they
should, a condition called malrotation. In
fact, her bowels were twisted and rotated and could have proved fatal without
Dr. Scheidler’s surgical acumen.
Dr. Scheidler
It was that brief sketch her parents – Dr.
Michael Gubler now has a dental practice in Arkansas – gave her of her early
life that Annalisa recalled when leaders
at her church said the 2021 Christmas
season was the perfect time to thank
someone who changed her life. She
searched the Internet until she found an
email address for Dr. Scheidler and sent
him a note on December 7.
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KIRK KERKORIAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT UNLV
SUMMER 2022
THANK YOU!
Hi Dr. Scheidler!
This is Annalisa Gubler. When I was little you…昀椀xed my intestinal malrotation. You
called me the twisted sister…I wanted to say thank you for helping me be alive and
healthy now. My parents say that you were an answer to their prayer. I am in high
school in Bentonville, Arkansas and run cross country and play the violin in orchestra…I want to express my love and gratitude for you, and for your dedication to help
people like me.
THANK YOU!
Love, Annalisa Gubler
