Welecia is grateful to her care team at Lenox Hill Hospital for safe and prompt breast cancer surgery.
Edited by: TJVNews.com
When Welecia Magsisi, 73, went in for her routine mammogram, she was not expecting any unusual findings. But when the Queens, NY, resident learned the scan had revealed a “spot,” she knew she wanted to take care of it as quickly as possible.
“The hospital set me up right away with a sonogram,” she said. “The sonogram showed the same spot. I had a biopsy, and they told me it was early stage breast cancer. The doctors said I needed surgery.”
Unfortunately, her diagnosis came around the same time that COVID-19 was rapidly spreading through New York City. Just as Welecia needed a procedure to remove the breast tumor, the city had temporarily banned surgeries like the one she required, as they are considered elective.
“It was so scary because we didn’t know how long it might be—we just had to wait,” she said.
Paul Baron, MD, chief of breast surgery and director of the breast cancer program at Lenox Hill Hospital, assured Welecia that she’d be one of the first patients in the operating room once the state gave the hospital the green light to reopen for elective procedures.
The program, which is part of Northwell Health’s Cancer Institute, offers patients like Welecia a team-based approach to care, which includes on-site breast cancer specialists and plastic surgeons, as well as state-of-the-art equipment and treatments.
“The advantage of this kind of program is that it is staffed with people whose primary focus is taking care of patients with breast cancer,” Dr. Baron said. “We can all work as a team to come up with an optimal treatment plan. We communicate with one another from the start to get every one of our patients the best possible outcome.”
Dr. Baron kept his word to Welecia. When elective procedures were cleared, he performed the surgery to remove her tumor. Using an oncoplastic approach, which combines tumor removal and breast reconstruction within the same surgery, he was able to provide Welecia with a curative cancer operation and a great cosmetic result.
Now a few months out from her surgery, she is feeling quite well. She is not in any pain and her prognosis is excellent. Pleased with her outcome, Welecia is now back to enjoying time with her family, exercising and watching her favorite sport, tennis, on television.
“In life, sometimes you stumble, but you have to get back up,” she said. “I’m glad I had Dr. Baron and his team to help me get back up in this situation.”
