Proudly Part of Jefferson Health
Meet this caring physician who has devoted her career to the specialty she calls “happy”
Paula Youngdahl, MD, recently moved to the Lehigh Valley to be closer to her son and his family following a long career in the Pittsburgh area. She practices at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Pocono, where she specializes in robotic hysterectomy.
I actually wanted to be an astronaut, but my eyesight wasn’t good enough for the program. If you were good at science in the 1970s, you were encouraged to seek a career in medicine. In high school and college, I had a great interest in neurobiology. I researched areas of the brain responsible for eating, sexual behavior and memory.
I hope patients will take away that I care, and that I truly am trying to fix their problems.
The best part of my job is that in OB-GYN there are only a finite number of things that can be wrong, and we usually can fix them with medicine, therapy or surgery. Also, doing surgery and delivering babies are always exciting. It’s mostly a happy specialty.
The hardest part is giving bad news, such as a cancer diagnosis or a fetal anomaly. Fortunately, that is rare. Luckily, we seldom have patient deaths in OB-GYN.
The proudest accomplishment of my career was being voted one of the “Top Docs” by my patients and peers in Pittsburgh magazine six times. I didn’t even live in the city!
I love to travel, swim, boat, walk, cycle and read mystery novels. Right now, I am enjoying spending time with my three lovely granddaughters.
The most interesting place I’ve traveled to is the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. We went there on a mission trip with my son’s medical school. We got to see a lot of wildlife, sample the native foods, hike, meet some of the indigenous peoples and help patients, too.
My proudest accomplishment outside of medicine is raising a wonderful son, who is an emergency room physician for Lehigh Valley Health Network.
My favorite author is Agatha Christie, the dame of mystery. She is the all-time best classic mystery writer and wrote over 100 books. My favorite book of hers is “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” I also enjoy Harlan Coben, Tess Gerritsen – who is an internal medicine doctor, Iris Johansen, James Patterson, and Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston.
My go-to treat is lobster rolls. We often take trips up to the New Hampshire or Maine coast to get them fresh.
