Short YouTube transcript of an interview with Robert Whitfield MD discussing emotional challenges faced by patients after breast implant explantation and how his organization provides peer-based support across roles. Dr. Whitfield emphasizes meeting patients where they are, having team members who themselves had explants, and cautioning against rushing to reconstructive surgery without doing emotional/work preparatory steps.
Chapters
Okay, so one last question for you, and you touched upon it a little bit. But the majority of people that don't want an X plan, I'm assuming, don't want it because of how they will look, like you said. But then that causes that emotional aspect of this, meaning then they don't like how they look, which causes, you know, this emotional challenge. And so how do you guys help people with this emotional challenge? What advice do you give to those that have had an explant, that are dealing with this emotionally?
Yeah, so at every level of my organization, I have somebody who's had an explant, who's part of the team. So my nurse practitioners have an explant. I have a patient concierge that's had an explant. We have. My detox practitioner had an explant. So at each level of the organization, there's someone to, you know, you know, talk with specifically about that because obviously as a surgeon, I can't, you know, relate specifically to what's going on. And, you know, we try to, like, you got to meet people where they are, like you said, like, some people are going to have a lot of challenges with it. And I don't want anybody to rush in after hearing this and go see plastic surgeon for at X plant. You know, there are a lot of steps to take to get yourself in both, like the right, you know, mindset, I would say, where, where that's not going to be the main problem, which is what you're talking about is you have to get all the, the work done and feel comfortable with. Yeah, it's going to be a big body chain. It's going to go back to, you know, potentially something they didn't really like beforehand. And they have to be, you know, comfortable with that. None of us can make anybody comfortable with that situation. That's something that they have to arrive at on their own.
