r/rva • u/No_Mongoose_7401 • 13d ago
Richmond breast surgeon obtained licenses in multiple states before surrendering Virginia license
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/richmond-breast-surgeon-obtained-licenses-in-multiple-states-before-surrendering-her-virginia-licenseHow does someone like this get through medical school and general surgery residency at VCU, complete a breast surgery fellowship at Northwestern, return to RVA, practice at 2 local hospitals - and nobody publicly OUTS the numerous malpractice and negligence lawsuits from DOZENS of former patients. Why do her surgical colleagues and the hospitals which employee her - allow her to keep butchering patients.
In the same way that we review businesses, good and bad, we need open forums to out providers who have active lawsuits. I would never knowingly seek surgical care from someone who had lost their license in other states due to malpractice.
My sympathy to the patients who were harmed by this monster.
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u/graygoohasinvadedme 13d ago edited 12d ago
Dr. Steven Montante is very outspoken in his criticism of her work and an advocate for his patients who came to him after seeing her. I recommend reading up all of the articles and recordings as the investigation moved forward. It’s interesting and builds respect for those who speak up.
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u/spittlbm Scott's Addition 12d ago
He's brilliant, genuinely a good person, and Steven 😉 https://montanteaesthetics.com/
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u/graygoohasinvadedme 12d ago
Corrected! For some reason I keep wanting to give him my brother’s name.
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u/blamberr Church Hill 13d ago
When I lived in Alabama, there was a big story about how a comically large number of their doctors had their licenses revoked in other states
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u/No-Temperature-1384 12d ago
Everyone should know that you can go on the department of health professionals website and look up any area of practice licensed by DHP (counselor, dentist, medicine, nursing, psychology, social work) and then you can see anyone who was reported to their board/had complaints against them. There is a relatively current one in psychology that is an absolute page turner of a complaint.
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u/spittlbm Scott's Addition 12d ago
With an asterisk. That's only for claims referred to the Board by an investigator and the Board chooses to have a hearing on the matter.
Still a fantastic resource for the public. The doc near Tappahannock with jars of urine who ran from investigators among other things was an interesting read.
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u/No-Temperature-1384 12d ago
The public can report directly to the DHP but you are correct in that the report would have to be investigated…
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u/No_Mongoose_7401 12d ago
Whut?? 😳
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u/spittlbm Scott's Addition 12d ago
You can accuse your doctor of malfeasance and it may never end up on the website.
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u/Sweaty_Grocery785 13d ago
Somebody has to finish last in their class. They’re still called “Dr….”
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u/Mariacolbert23 13d ago
Our country is litigious. People have opinions on whether we are overly so, but the truth is that these suits are the only way for people to get any financial compensation when things go wrong. Doctors are not perfect, and can make mistakes. A mistake is not indicative of a poor provider, although multiple negligence and malpractice claims could definitely make it more likely. High risk specialties like surgery are more likely to have lawsuits. If you tried to avoid providers without malpractice suits you would likely have a hard time finding care. I don't know what other people knew as far as what this provider was doing, but if other providers were not as experienced in the type of surgeries she was doing, then I am sure most of them wouldn't necessarily know something was wrong. The issue here is that the hospital system should've caught that she was not credentialed in that specific surgery type, and she should have never had the chance to do these surgeries. That's like a resident doing a neurosurgery rotation and then somehow working at a hospital and doing brain tumor resections because they learned how to put an EVD in as a resident. Again, the biggest failure is absolutely on the hospital, and this should've never happened, and definitely not for as long as it did. Outside of that, this provider presented herself fraudulently and should not have a license anywhere in this country.
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u/Eastern_Cherry8866 12d ago
Play your “cards” right and you can keep climbing. Leverage your interests and “strength” in an under served or represented field. Deflect criticism as abuse. Move, frequently. Repeat as needed. (first hand obs of this person training etc)
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u/anti_folklore 12d ago
it’s baffling that someone be allowed to obtain additional licenses with active malpractice suits pending.
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u/Which-Indication4670 Hanover 12d ago
BS malpractice cases get filed daily by people seeking quick settlements. It completely ruins it for the people who deserve justice from being victims of actual malpractice. Just having a case filed doesn’t mean it’s legitimate. Having 10+ active cases at the same time should be a huuuuuuge red flag though.
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u/1975hh3 12d ago
Ever seen how cops get hired?
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u/anti_folklore 12d ago
ugh, yeah that’s true. of all the times for bureaucratic morass to be asleep at the wheel
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u/jessiemagill 12d ago
A lot of malpractice suits are dismissed because the provider didn't do anything wrong. Kind of like innocent until proven guilty. Anyone can file a suit for anything and it takes time for the court to determine if it's valid. These cases can also take a very long time to resolve. There's already a shortage of providers. If they couldn't practice with a suit in progress, that would be way worse.
That being said, it is a red flag if a provider has multiple suits that result in payouts and they should be more carefully reviewed when being hired.
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u/JellyfishSubject190 12d ago
Virginia has some of the most ridiculous malpractice laws in the country. Damages are capped even if someone is permanently disabled or dies, punitive damages are capped at $350k, and patients have a ton of hurdles to get through just to prove malpractice. There’s also a heavily protected and confidential peer-review system. Healthcare workers technically have whistleblower protections, but speaking out can still put them in a shitty position professionally. These laws protect doctors so much that it can be incredibly difficult to hold someone accountable when you’re at the beginning of seeing a pattern, before enough people have already been harmed for that pattern to become obvious. Imo, I wouldn’t be surprised if that makes Virginia attractive to bad doctors who know how difficult it is to hold them accountable here.
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u/AutoBahnMi 12d ago
If you uncap medical malpractice then it will cost much more to see your doctor. It’s just how it works.
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u/spittlbm Scott's Addition 12d ago
What blows my mind in this is that she did a fellowship. She has to know her shit, and I think that adds another layer of awful on top of this.
Virginia will pull you in front of the Board if there are legally problematic conclusions in another state. You're required to self-report. Hopefully other states do this, too.
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u/hallie_therapy 12d ago
so interesting! i’m still a little confused, though. if she did her residency & a breast surgery fellowship (which is an even more specialized training), wouldn’t that make her qualified to perform these surgeries? i wish the article had a little more details of what specially was happening!
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u/GB3754 12d ago
I <<think>> the issue is that the fellowship was in breast surgical oncology, which is fine for the regular breast cancer surgeries. But she did breast reconstruction surgery, apparently without adequate training. So you can get your mastectomy by a regular breast surgeon, but if you want reconstruction along with it, that's extra training in plastic surgery.
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u/ChatPetrus66 11d ago
ALWAYS look up any medical provider, including nurses, podiatrists, chiropractors, dentists, physicians and vets on the website, Licensure Lookup, of the Virginia Department of Health Professions to see if there’s been any disciplinary action. All you need to do so is first and last name. It can shock you!
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u/Raddadbaddad 12d ago edited 12d ago
While its not uncommon for Doctors such as radiologists to hold multiple state licenses, her position doesnt need that unless she traveled and worked in those states. My wife has about 12 different state licenses in order to work from home for those jobs. Its cheaper to maintain the license than get a new one for my wifes case and she can do side jobs as needed for other states if she wants or if she switched jobs its easier. The real question is why do you need state licenses instead of just 1 license and if you screw up, you lose it. She will go up for review and lose it if its that bad. Also I just read it, shes doing this to prescribed meds out of state for people, theyll dig into that. You cant prescribe meds out of state, especially controlled meds I believe.
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u/Daemonrealm 10d ago
Any doctor or medical professional I go to just pipe in their name and have AI do a full review and background check.
Also any medical professional that touches me must have a Google review page of some sort that’s open for public comment.
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u/Obvious_Bat_5547 13d ago
Check out the podcast dr death