HE IS

The stork to more than 12,000 babies - and yes, he’s counted.
ON TO 13,000
Abbassi delivered baby number 12,000 Guiseppe Reece Garza of Simi Valley, on Feb 22 at Tarzana Hospital. Weighing 8 pounds, 8 Ѕ ounces, Guiseppe received a stroller to celebrate the milestone from the doctor who brought him to the world.
Abbassi didn’t stop at 12,000 that day; he delivered five more babies that day.

DOZENS OF MONTHLY DELIVERIES

Abbassi, 63, barely recalls the first baby he delivered during his internship.
“ We were so nervous. It didn’t really soak in what we were doing,” he said. He left his homeland of Iran for the U.S. in 1963, settling in California 21 years ago. He has offices in Tarzana and North Hollywood, and is a faculty member at UCLA.

“We deliver an average of about 25 to 30 [babies] a month,” Abbassi said. Last year, Abbassi delivered 117 babies at Tarzana Hospital and about 100 more at Northridge and Valley Presbyterian hospitals.

Abbassi has four children of his own: Two sons - one of whom has followed in his footsteps and become an obstetrician/gynecologist- with his first wife, who died of cancer in1975; and twin daughter- whom he helped deliver by cesarean himself – from his second marriage.

“I wasn’t nervous or anything,” he said. “It was very fun. My son took pictures”.

A photo of his wife, proudly showing off her almost-to-term belly, sits on a shelf behind Abbassi desk.

THE INEVITABLE TRAGEDIES

The hardest part of the job comes when something goes wrong. While he has never lost a mother during birth, he has delivered stillborn babies.

Abbassi has never forgotten the first stillborn baby he delivered. It was to an Ohio woman, whose husband was away fighting in the Vietnam War.

“In those days,” he said, “We didn’t have all the sophistication of ultrasound and amniocentesis to find out why [the baby was dead]. I had to deliver that baby on Christmas Day. “I never forgot that time. It was a bad time,” he said.

Fortunately, there’s been more good news than bad. “Later on, I (delivered) two babies to that woman,” Abbassi said. “It was beautiful”.

TEARS OF JOY

“When I was a child, my parents and (other family members) always said. “You’ll be a doctor some day, ” Abbassi said. “It’s a very enjoyable life. I thought it was great when you give a child to a parent. It’s a special feeling when you see a joyful tear in a mother’s eye”.

Abbassi has had a lot of special moments during the course of his career, including delivering 16 babies over four generations for one family.
“It’s always exciting. Each one is a little different”, he said: “ No matter how tired you are …it’s still exciting.”

He’s gotten used to the calls in the middle of the night telling him to rush to the hospital to deliver another baby.

Photographs of many of his deliveries throughout the years hang in his offices. Besides delivering babies, Abbassi also performs gynecological procedures, including surgeries.

“When I do surgeries, it’s amazing. This person has given me her body to cut open,” he said. “It’s a privilege”.