Andrew L. Da Lio, MD

The best part of having breast cancer was meeting Dr. Da Lio and his team, Kirsten & Letty. My oncologist recommended Dr. Da Lio as the best choice for reconstruction after bilateral mastectomy. I’ve never had a male doctor before and I was nervous meeting him at first, but when he introduced himself & his assistant, Kirsten (right before Covid restrictions), I knew I was working with a professional & efficient team. He is very knowledgeable and presented options to help me make confident decisions about my care with all of my three surgeries. Dr. Da Lio is attentive; I never felt rushed in any of my clinic visits through the reconstruction process. He is gracious & humorous with all of my questions & concerns. You can tell he is passionate and skillful with his work. I get compliments on how well done my sutures were, leaving minimal scars. Kirsten is diligent & thorough with every report required to get my medical clearance for work, while Letty is a very pleasant person as she helped me with the check in and settling in to my exam room on my many visits during the pandemic. As Dr. Da Lio reminded me today, I have graduated from my doctor visits, but I look forward to my follow up in a few of years as they’ve become a big part of my life through my cancer journey and making myself whole again.

Hi, back in 2005 I had breast cancer and had a mastectomy . I waited one year to do reconstruction. I had a free tram flap.they take the fat from your stomach and tunnel blood vessels up under your chest wall and use your own fat as a breast. Then you got a kind of tummy tuck after the fat is removed. My doctor was Andrew Dalio at UCLA. He did a fabulous job. The breast I show you is actually the fat from my stomach. I never bothered to get a nipple made. My insurance paid for this. By law your insurance has to pay for your reconstruction.

A little of my history: I had implants that were to big but looked beautiful. Five years later I found a lump which was breast cancer. My treatment was a lumpectomy and radiation. I waited eight years to have them redone by another surgeon since my first surgeon retired. But I was very unhappy, they were too big and I looked like robin red breast. I told him I wanted them small. I have a small frame and wanted to look natural. I decided to go to someone else very highly recomended to me. (I also need to state that both doctors told me my skin was beautiful and not affected by the radiation.) Dr Da Lio was highly recomended to me by a former colleague of his. We traveled for me to have a consult and surgery with him. At the consult he was so nice and acted like he totally understood what I wanted. But from the first day when I was allowed to see them, my left breast was perfect but my right breast (which was the radiated breast after having a lumpectomy) did not hang natural and at the same point as the left and it was misshapen. It was square on the bottom and a bit high on the top. He put a larger implant in my right breast. But something was wrong with it. So when I went to see him for the after surgery check up and I showed him where my breast was oddly shaped he blew it off like I was so ridiculous to think my breasts should look normal right after surgery. So I waited and then covid happened. Needless to say I didnt travel or call and I am stuck with a beautiful left breast and a totally oddly shaped different sized right breast that hurts and has had a bubble in it since day one and still does five years later. If anyone wonders why we need a place to write our grievences its because many of these doctors dont care. It was obvious my breast was not right in the surgery room but instead of fixing it when he could have he decided to leave it. And then I and many people who've had these poorly done surgeries have to live with a bad result. Its just unethical to screw someone up and ruin their life because you're not caring enough to fix it.

Dr Da Lio Not only has no bedside manner but is very disrespectful when he is not in a good mood. He does not know how to treat patients who have had trauma. We fired Dr Jaco The other plastic surgeon because he gave me too big of breasts, when I asked for the same size that I was, a large b. They both explained that they had to fill the skin. I did not understand because people have reductions all the time. I'm 130 lb and he gave me a size d. My oncologist for the lymphoma dropped her jaw when she saw how big my breasts were. He sent me home after my drains were removed and within 2 days he finally saw the picture and demand that I come back for emergency surgery. We were in Arizona traveling to UCLA. He exchanged the right breast with a expander explaining that he'll fill It slowly as the skin heels.Little Did I know they were going to put blue dye in with the expander in case it leaks. Apparently they've been having problems with their expanders or their doctors poking holes. I woke up the next morning to blue in my bulb and they did not tell me to expect that. They said it was normal and it would be absorbed by the next day. Next morning I woke up and it was completely full and I was completely deflated. Come to find out there was a 4 mm size hole. So back to surgery I go. With promises of 2 to 4 weeks to get back into my implant. Letty his nurse is just a puppet to him. I asked her to look at my breasts and help me show him what I was seeing and he gave her a dirty look as if to stay away.

Disappointing I came in a while back to see Dr. Andrew Da Lio. They were super weird about the consultation fee insisting it be paid before hand and must have mentioned it five times. After seeing the doctor for all of five minutes he advised against the procedure I wanted did not offer any other alternatives (which i have since received from other doctors) and left the room. I do not see how them keeping my consultation fee is justified in this situation.