WDIV
Like many people during the pandemic, Nikoa Dean’s annual mammogram was canceled. It was when she felt a pain in her chest months later that led to the discovery of stage 0 breast cancer. Dean decided to have a double mastectomy. Instead of having implants, she chose to have a reconstructive surgery called deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap, which Mihaela-Elena Rapolti, M.D., MBA, FACS, specializes in. Dr. Rapolti is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and a member of the Breast Cancer Multidisciplinary Team at Karmanos. She joined Dean for an interview on Local 4, where they described Dean’s case and the breast reconstructive options breast cancer survivors have.
Watch the interview here.