Dr. Sasa Espino Lawsuits: What Richmond Breast Center Patients Need to Know

Dr. Sasa Grae Espino practiced as a breast surgeon at the Richmond Breast Center, with offices in Richmond, Colonial Heights, and Spotsylvania, Virginia. According to CBS 6 (WTVR), the Richmond television station whose investigative team broke the story, she left the practice at the end of 2024 and later moved to Alabama.

The lawsuits filed since June 2025 share one central allegation: that Espino performed breast reconstruction surgeries she was not qualified to perform, and that patients were never told she is not a plastic surgeon. Espino and her lawyers deny all of it. Everything in this article is drawn from court filings, a Virginia Board of Medicine consent order, and CBS 6's reporting, and every allegation belongs to the person or record that made it.

Richmond and the surrounding counties are in our firm's home region, so this is a case we have followed closely. It sits alongside our other coverage of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery litigation, including our article on the Dr. Dare Ajibade lawsuits and our AirSculpt lawsuits article. For the general legal background, see our article on surgical errors.

The qualifications question is the heart of the case. According to Virginia Board of Medicine records reported by CBS 6, Espino is a board-certified general surgeon. She completed a general surgery residency at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016, a breast surgical oncology fellowship at Northwestern in 2017, and received an Oncoplastic Surgery Certification from the National Consortium of Breast Centers in 2023. She is not board-certified in plastic surgery, and she did not complete a plastic surgery fellowship.

The lawsuits allege that she nonetheless performed implant reconstruction, DIEP flaps, fat grafting, breast reductions, and liposuction, procedures that plaintiffs and their experts say require plastic surgery training. Dr. Anne Peled, a board-certified plastic surgeon who spoke with CBS 6, said procedures like "placing implants, doing fat grafting, doing flaps" fall into "a plastic surgeon purview."

CBS 6 also questioned how Espino's training was described to the public. In an HCA promotional video, Espino said, "I also did implant reconstruction training at Northwestern, meaning I do my own implant reconstruction," and HCA materials described a "Breast and Reconstructive Surgery fellowship at Northwestern." Northwestern told the station it offers a breast surgery fellowship, not a combined breast and reconstructive surgery program. Two breast surgeons who trained at Northwestern told CBS 6 they spent about one month rotating on plastics, and that the rotation was meant to expose fellows to plastic surgery, not to train them to perform reconstruction on their own.

The litigation started with a single case and multiplied. In November 2025, a patient named Mandy Moore filed a $25 million lawsuit alleging that Espino performed an unnecessary preventative double mastectomy with reconstruction. A fourth woman sued in December 2025, alleging procedures beyond the scope of Espino's practice. By late January 2026, six women had sued. CBS 6 reported that by March 2026 the number had reached 29, and by April 23, 2026, the station reported 36 lawsuits filed against Espino and the Richmond Breast Center since it began investigating. Later reporting describes the total simply as dozens.

The complaints allege breaches of the standard of care, unnecessary surgery, and botched results that left patients with infections, revision surgeries, and lasting injuries. One plaintiff, a 59-year-old nurse named Angela Oliver, told CBS 6 that after her surgeries, "The scars. I see Frankenstein. I see a bunch of cuts." Another plaintiff, Audrey Andrews, filed a suit involving a flap reconstruction. These are allegations. The defendants have demanded jury trials, and none of the claims have been proven in court.

Espino denies wrongdoing, and her position deserves to be stated plainly. Her lawyers said in early 2026 that they "deny all allegations of negligence," and that her "specialized fellowship education, training and surgical experience qualifies her to perform breast reconstruction surgeries." They have said she was trained by surgical oncologists and plastic surgeons during her fellowship.

In the Moore case, Espino's response stated that she "was qualified, credentialed and practiced as an oncoplastic breast surgeon," denied that she "breached the standard of care in any manner causing harm or injury to Moore," and denied that she used "coercive fear tactics or fraudulently deceived Moore in any manner." In April 2026, her attorney Elizabeth Papoulakos told CBS 6 that the defense would "remain confident in Dr. Espino and the care she provided to her patients."

The Richmond Breast Center has denied that it or any of its employees breached the standard of care. HCA's Capital Division told CBS 6 that Espino's request for hospital credentials "was carefully reviewed." A lawsuit is a set of accusations, not a verdict, and a defendant is entitled to contest every one.

The regulatory story runs on a separate track from the lawsuits, and it started earlier. CBS 6 reported that five people filed complaints against Espino with the Virginia Board of Medicine beginning in August 2022. Among them was Dr. Steven Montante, a board-certified Richmond plastic surgeon, who filed a complaint in 2023. He told the station, "I felt that this provider was causing harm, practicing out of scope of her training," and that patients "all explained the same thing. We did not know that she was not a plastic surgeon." The board did not take disciplinary action at that time.

That changed in 2026. After the board issued notice that it was considering discipline, Espino permanently surrendered her Virginia medical license on July 1, 2026, under a consent order. According to the order, the board concluded she had violated Virginia's regulations governing the practice of medicine in her care of two patients. Espino "did not admit nor deny the findings of fact and conclusions of law" in the order, and she agreed that she will never be eligible to apply for reinstatement of her Virginia license. A surrender under these terms is not a criminal conviction and not an admission of the allegations in the lawsuits.

She still holds a medical license in Alabama, which she obtained in November 2024. On June 18, 2026, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners fined her $1,500 for issuing about 143 controlled substance prescriptions between December 31, 2025, and May 7, 2026, without the certificate Alabama requires. CBS 6 reported that fine in August 2026.