Breast Cancer - Reconstructive Surgery - Washington, D.C.

I had a bilateral mastectomy as a patient of the Georgetown Lombardi Breast Center. I chose Georgetown and the Breast Center, after much research. Dr. Shawna Willey was the Breast Surgeon and Dr. Maurice Nahabedian was the Plastic Reconstructive Surgeon who made up my breast surgery "team," as the Breast Center refers to the professionals who will oversee and provide a breast cancer patient’s care. My experience with the Lombardi Breast Center, and Georgetown as a whole, turned out to be horrible. The catchy use of the word “team” is a farce. It was explained that my “team” had the goal of collaborating and working together to ensure the best outcome. That didn’t happen for me, and I’ve seen other comments on line from others who complain of similar experiences at the Lombardi Breast Center. I would never recommend someone go there for breast cancer surgery.
I have a very bad breast reconstruction outcome, performed by Dr. Maurice Nahabedian as the plastic surgeon. It’s so awful; I am actually deformed. Although I required the removal of one implant four months later due to an infection – which is hideous enough – both breasts were always deformed from the get-go: both shaped like a watermelon rather than a round breast; both flat on the front rather than rounded; both placed very high towards my collar bone and more to the side than the front...so bulging on the sides under my arms causing my arms to constantly rub against them or bang into them, and making it hard to sleep on my side without pain; both with protrusions as well as indented areas around the perimeter of each breast; and, both with very crooked purple scars. Dr. Nahabedian left a fold in the skin in my right breast, so even getting nipple tattoos wouldn't bring any level of normalcy to how I look. Moreover, rather than looking better with time, as I was promised, both grew worse in both appearance and shape.
I also agree with other patients who have had experience with Dr. Nahabedian, asserting that his bedside manner requires extensive improvement. He's arrogant, he doesn't listen, he doesn't remember plans and promises, and he doesn't do what was discussed and agreed upon with his patients. And, Dr. Nahabedian may not even show up for your appointment! If you are going to use him for your breast reconstruction, you’d better be absolutely trusting of Residents because they will circulate in and out during your care more often than you will ever see Dr. Nahabedian. It is my theory that Dr. Nahabedian believes he has achieved some level of celebrity status, and so can’t be bothered with patients or the time required to produce good work.
This part is amazing: When I complained about the abnormal shape of my reconstructed breasts, Dr. Nahabedian’s response was that ‘he could only work with what the Georgetown Breast Surgeon left him.’ Wait….isn't that what "reconstructive plastic surgery" is all about...taking a bad or complicated situation and making it good?
Finally, I'm not impressed with the Lombardi Breast Center's surgeon either. When I learned I had breast cancer, I put my terrified self and my future entirely in the Center's hands. The fact that they were called a “Breast Center” made me trusting and confident that they had my back. As the Center’s lead breast surgeon organizing my “team,” she should have recommended the best plastic surgeon for my reconstruction, based on her professional observations and experiences. Unless she never saw Dr. Nahabedian’s inferior work (which seems unlikely) or unless she didn’t care enough about her patients to speak out about it, or unless she didn’t say anything about his poor reconstructive surgery because doctors don’t say negative things about each other, especially when they’re both working for the same hospital. The breast surgeon did not have my back at all. When the Breast Surgeon saw how horrific I looked during my recent appointment, she had the opportunity to help me. I was positive that she’d be horrified, angry, and would go to bat for me; insisting that the botched job be made right, not only for me but for the ‘Breast Center’s’ reputation. Instead, she provided a few sympathetic overtures, a couple of sad faces, acknowledged that I am supposed to have “symmetry,” and then she was gone and I was left alone in the exam room. Then a social worker came in. She offered sympathy too, but neither of them said ‘we’re going to get this right.’ If a 'Breast Center’ doesn’t have your back, who does? If the reconstructive surgeon’s work is indeed dependent on the Breast Surgeon's work, and together they are “my team” the Lombardi Breast Center is nothing but a name to get your trust and then your money.
Georgetown’s Lombardi Breast Center failed me as a woman with breast cancer. My closing recommendation to any woman who finds out she has breast cancer is to never, ever put your trust in the Georgetown Lombardi Breast Center. It should be de-funded and disappear.
I believe Georgetown’s Lombardi Breast Center may signify a common problem with women’s breast cancer across the U.S. Breast Centers are everywhere today. Their existence makes people feel that breast cancer is finally getting the attention it needs, that there are concentrated numbers of experts in those Centers who will be the patient’s breast cancer champion. But I wonder if the rise of Breast Centers has actually created a false confidence about breast cancer when, in fact, some if not many professionals who work in the Centers, are not champions at all: their eye is on the money generated. That is what my experience has shown me.
My worries should have been lifted when I learned that the cancer was completely removed. Instead, I am now depressed every day, embarrassed of how I look, and fearful that I will remain this way. After giving a heap of money to Georgetown, a year later I am searching for a competent plastic surgeon to repair Dr. Nahabedian’s horrible work. I’ve been afraid to put my confidence in another reconstructive surgeon and even now, after meeting with another ‘highly regarded’ plastic surgeon at another Breast Center in my area, the signs are already there: the surgery date for repairing the damage was never scheduled; the surgeon’s scheduler was unsympathetic about the promises made or the delay which will add months to repairs; and now the surgeon is on vacation. This has to change.