RICHMOND, Va. — Angela Oliver, a 59-year-old grandmother and nurse from Brodnax, Virginia, recently filed a $25 million lawsuit against her breast surgeon, Dr. Sasa Grae Espino, along with the Richmond Breast Center, Chippenham Johnston Willis Hospital, and a number of HCA-affiliated entities.
Oliver's complaint is one of 36 lawsuits that have now been filed against Espino and the Richmond Breast Center since CBS 6 began investigating the surgeon in November of last year.
The majority of the lawsuits claim the doctor breached the standard of care by performing breast surgeries she was not qualified to perform.
The suit alleges HCA, Richmond Breast Center, and Chippenham Hospital engaged in practices that maximize profits at the expense of safety for its customers, including empowering Espino to perform medical procedures outside of her training, education, and experience.
Oliver hopes to find love again after being widowed for 10 years, but she does not feel comfortable putting herself out there right now, in part because of what she sees in the mirror.
"The scars," Oliver said. "I see Frankenstein. I see a bunch of cuts.”
The longtime nurse told CBS 6 investigave reporter Melissa Hipolit those scars tell the story of a surgical journey that began with a breast cancer diagnosis in 2019.
"So that is the up under my arm where the tissue was supposed to be the breast, but it ended up under my arm," Oliver said. "It swells. I have had fluid removed from it twice in the last four or five months."
Oliver's lawsuit goes beyond breast reconstruction surgeries.
It alleges Espino negligently performed or attempted to perform a "tummy tuck" or panniculectomy on her.
A panniculectomy is a procedure that removes excessive hanging skin and fat from the lower abdomen.
"I was like, how did I trust this lady, and I'm a nurse, how did I trust her to get this far, to mess me up this bad I was, I was just like, you know, was I that naive?" Oliver said. "But then I think about it, no, she convinced me that this was going to be all right."
Attorney Rand Robins represents Oliver and many other plaintiffs who filed lawsuits.
"What's difficult about this story is that Angela put her trust in Dr Espino and put her trust in HCA, and they broke that trust over and over and over again. And the consequences of that broken trust for Angela are going to follow her for the rest of her life," Robins said.
Espino's lawyers told CBS 6 in late February they deny all allegations of negligence in the lawsuits.
They say Espino's specialized fellowship, education, training, and surgical experience qualifies her to perform breast reconstruction surgeries.
When asked if Espino performed tummy tucks or panniculectomies, and if she was qualified to perform them, they declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
Dr. Lewis Ladocsi, a board-certified plastic surgeon at Richmond Plastic Surgeons, is now treating Oliver.
He has reviewed hundreds of pages of her medical records.
"This muscle sparing latissimus flap reconstruction that left breast mound in Angela's underarm instead of running her anterior chest, is just shocking," Ladocsi said. "The other operations were done too quickly, too aggressively. And then worst of all was this abdominal procedure that was performed."
Ladocsi says tummy tucks and panniculectomies are complex procedures nearly always done by board-certified plastic surgeons, something Espino is not, according to the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
He says he is troubled by the information in her medical records. In a progress note written by Espino from one month before Oliver’s abdominal procedure, she stated Oliver noticed a new lump in her lower quadrant abdomen that was mildly tender to palpitation, and staff will coordinate an abdominal wall mass excision.
But in Oliver’s surgical operation note, Espino wrote that Oliver had new painful swelling in her lower abdomen wall after a fall and desired an excisional biopsy for symptoms relief. The surgical note also said Oliver wished to proceed with a lower abdominal wall skin excision. There is no mention of a mass or tumor.
Espino wrote that an approximately 60-centimeter squared area of tissue was dissected, which is about the size of a smartphone screen.
But a pathologist who analyzed the nearly 5 pounds of abdominal tissue described it as soft tissue measuring 40 centimeters by 16 centimeters by 5 centimeters, and found no evidence of cancer.
"So if you do the math, that is somewhere around, I believe it's 640 square centimeters, 10 times what the operative note indicated," Ladocsi said. "When I examined Angela and looked at the scar across her abdomen, one six centimeters, 10 centimeters, was 60 centimeters, all the way from side to side. Again. I would love to have an explanation."
Ladocsi claims Espino’s statements in the medical records are not consistent with the pathology report, billing codes, and scars on Oliver’s body.
"First of all, there was no medical indication to remove that abdominal wall tissue. There was also no indication of discussion of risks and benefits with Angela, she had this procedure on the basis of swelling, which is not an indication for a biopsy. She had pain, but that's also not an indication for a biopsy," Ladocsi said. "The abdominal wall procedure that was dictated and billed as an excisional biopsy did not correspond with what was actually done, and the pathology report confirmed that no mass was actually present. The billing codes that were submitted by Dr Espino did not correspond to the operation, and again, it was disastrous, because it prevented Angela from having a definitive reconstruction."
Oliver says she is angry about the numerous breast reconstruction procedures and the abdominal procedure she underwent with Espino that she now alleges in her lawsuit were performed negligently.
"I could have avoided all of this pain, all of the surgeries, all of the time out that I wasn't able to do stuff with my family because I was here with open wounds, that I couldn't go out and do stuff and just angry, angry," Oliver said.
Three additional women who have filed lawsuits claim Espino performed abdominal surgeries on them. According to their lawsuits, two of them involved abdominal wall tissue excisional biopsies, and the third is described in the lawsuit as a hip-to-hip excision of the patient’s lower abdomen.
Oliver's lawsuit claims HCA-affiliated entities learned in 2022 that Espino was fraudulently documenting and billing procedures, yet allowed her to continue in order to reap financial benefits.
HCA spokesperson Wes Hester provided a statement regarding the allegations.
"Patient safety and quality care are our top priorities. We are reviewing the claims and will address them through the appropriate legal process,” Hester said.
Espino's attorney, Elizabeth Papoulakos, declined to comment on specifics, saying the matter is in active litigation.
She said they "remain confident in Dr. Espino and the care she provided to her patients."
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