POSTED UNDER Breast Reduction Reviews
MAYO CLINIC-5cm deep necrotic infection
UPDATED FROM lisastefanie
4 months post
Incompetent with post operative care
$10,000
These are 3 pictures that I sent into the Mayo Clinic portal after a breast reduction by James Waldorf.
One picture was sent with a message about being warm red and swollen. In less than one week -I sent another picture describing weeping yellow discharge. The reply I received by the trio of Waldorf/Phan/Alexandria is that this did “not necessitate a culture”. And my request for an ID referral was ignored. This is well documented in the Mayo portal.
I sought care outside of Mayo after being left with a 5cm deep necrotic infection of pseudomonas, Klebsiella, etc. The last picture attached is from my wound care team just prior to the first surgical debridement.
Since the May 17 2022 reduction surgery and subsequent necrotic infection - I began wound care on June 18th. Multiple debridements, wound vac therapy, skin grafts and 5 plus weeks of HBOT have changed the 5cm deep, tennis ball size crater in my left breast into a 1.2 cm hole that is still trying to heal.
I can’t begin to understand the Mayo medical culture that has left me with an outcome still unknown but most definitely with significant deformity.
The Mayo plastic surgery department is not educated in the importance of post operative care and how delaying the appropriate treatment of eschar and other signs of infection can have devastating results.
It’s too bad for me that Waldorf/Phan/Alexandria did not know or chose to ignore. But maybe less patients will have an experience like mine in the future.
One picture was sent with a message about being warm red and swollen. In less than one week -I sent another picture describing weeping yellow discharge. The reply I received by the trio of Waldorf/Phan/Alexandria is that this did “not necessitate a culture”. And my request for an ID referral was ignored. This is well documented in the Mayo portal.
I sought care outside of Mayo after being left with a 5cm deep necrotic infection of pseudomonas, Klebsiella, etc. The last picture attached is from my wound care team just prior to the first surgical debridement.
Since the May 17 2022 reduction surgery and subsequent necrotic infection - I began wound care on June 18th. Multiple debridements, wound vac therapy, skin grafts and 5 plus weeks of HBOT have changed the 5cm deep, tennis ball size crater in my left breast into a 1.2 cm hole that is still trying to heal.
I can’t begin to understand the Mayo medical culture that has left me with an outcome still unknown but most definitely with significant deformity.
The Mayo plastic surgery department is not educated in the importance of post operative care and how delaying the appropriate treatment of eschar and other signs of infection can have devastating results.
It’s too bad for me that Waldorf/Phan/Alexandria did not know or chose to ignore. But maybe less patients will have an experience like mine in the future.
lisastefanie's provider
ORIGINAL POST
necrotic infection ignored
James Waldorf and his PA Lee Phan mutilated me during a breast reduction surgery and left me with a 5cm deep necrotic infection the size of a tennis ball in my left breast. The poor treatment I received by James Waldorf and Lee Phan has had me dealing with multiple hospital acquired infections, surgical debridements and additional wound care for 10 weeks and counting. I will be permanently deformed but am truly lucky to have escaped their care with my life. Don’t fall prey into trusting Mayo Clinic because of what the general perception is. I will regret ever trusting them for the rest of my life.
Replies (3)
I’m really hoping for your healing to be strong and complete. Was this a satellite of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota? As you said, thank God you have your life. Reconstruction will be able to help you if you choose in the future. In the meantime, I’m wishing you peace.
Yes-this was a satellite of the Rochester Mayo. This was the Mayo Plastic Surgery Department in Jacksonville, FL. I developed eschar after the surgery and at my 2 week follow up appt Dr. Waldorf told me it would fall off on its own. The follow week the eschar on the areola was surrounded by warm and redness. The swelling had never improved. He told me that the warmth, redness and swelling was due to blood flow. A week or so later - when I was having weepy, yellow discharge and reported this in the Mayo portal with a picture. His PA-Lee Phan told me that this did not necessitate a culture. They did not want me to come back until the following week. By then - I knew they were incompetent and sought the help of a specialized wound care center - I had several surgical debridements, negative pressure wound vac, skin grafts to rebuild volume (where Mayo left me a pothole) Hyperbaric therapy etc. I am on week 12 with a small 1 cm opening that they are closing now. I will have a left breast that will be significantly smaller than the right-buy they did save my nipple. Fortunately, I did really a culture from my wound care team and I had pseudomonas, Klebsiella and serratia. All hospital acquired gram negative infections. With a 5cm deep necrotic infection - I was close to developing sepsis. Had I waited - as Mayo instructed- I truly don’t know what the outcome would have been. Mistakes happen. But for Waldorf and Lee Phan to ignore eschar, swelling, redness, warm and weepy yet discharge is incompetence by anyone’s definition. I am mad at myself that I let him convince me that the eschar, redness, warmth and swelling were normal.
I understand feeling mad at yourself but PLEASE give yourself a break, and focus the anger on whom it belongs which is the medical team. I know too well the helpless anger we can feel when a trusted doctor fouls up that badly. My husband has had a situation in which a doctor did a procedure on him while he’s taking chemotherapy that should never have been attempted and now we’re in trouble. I kept asking myself why we “let” him but these people are our physicians, and we trust them by necessity. I, too, would think redness, heat, and swelling indicate infection, but if the doc told me it wasn’t that I’d probably assume he knew what he was talking about. I hope somehow you can get some justice for what sounds like negligence that’s caused you both physical and psychological pain. Please stay strong!
Replies (3)
I will always wonder if they had treated that the red blistering around the areola and subsequent eschar - would I have ended up with a tennis ball size necrotic infection that caused me to lose half of the volume in that breast.