Dr. Ana Elizabeth Miranda Maldonado
- August 01, 2023
Dr. Ana Miranda Maldonado was fearless and proud; she was a graceful poet, compassionate physician, and a warm and loving wife, mother, and friend. Ana’s life is one of resilience, pursuing education, forging her own path and creating a life filled with love and purpose.
Ana was born on November 8, 1978, in San Salvador, El Salvador to parents Ana Isabel and Julio Miranda. She was the younger sister brother Erick and Douglas. She honored and treasured her Salvadoran heritage, and it was a bedrock of the life she lived and shared with her husband Mario Maldonado, and their two sons – Nico and Tomas.
From a young age, Ana faced adversity that propelled her rapid maturity and nurtured her ferocious independence. When Ana was two years old, her father emigrated to Long Island, New York in search of work while Ana, her mother and two older brothers remained in El Salvador. Two years later, Ana and her siblings were hastily uprooted from their home in El Salvador to join their father in New York in search of refuge from civil war. Ana and her family made the undocumented journey to the United States and embarked on a path filled with uncertainty and hop for a better future.
In 2001, a year after completing her undergraduate studies at USC, Ana met Mario Maldonado, a man who would become her best friend, confidant and her biggest supporter. Ana was accepted to one of the country’s best medical schools – Stanford School of Medicine. Mario quickly learned how to support Ana through her long, taxing, yet rewarding journey as a medical student at Stanford and as a resident in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Ana’s true calling in life was to practice medicine and to serve her patients. She began her career as an attending in San Mateo County’s Fair Oaks Community Clinic and in 2013 came to work for Kaiser Permanente. Her medical career in primary care was a testament to her unabashed love of science and healing and her dedication to helping the underserved and most vulnerable populations.
Ana’s Legacy as a mother will forever resonate in the hearts of two boys. She instilled in them values of compassion, resilience, a thirst for knowledge, a love for music, the arts, and fine food, that will continue to shape their lives and guide them toward their dreams. The depth of Ana’s love will continue to inspire her tow amazing, strong, and confident children as they navigate the world, keeping her spirit, strength and love alive in their hearts.
On July 7, 2023, after aa two-and-a-half-year battle with renal medullary carcinoma (RMC), an exceptionally rare and aggressive type of kidney cancer, Ana departed from this world, surrounded by love, emanating her unyielding spirit of pride, beauty, dignity, and love. Her legacy as a loving mother and remarkable individual will forever resonate in our hearts, inspiring us to navigate life with strength, grace confidence, and the enduring spirit of this incredible mother, wife, physician, friend and colleague.