Dr. Sasa Espino Held Medical Licenses in Nine States Before Surrendering Her Virginia License: What Patients Should Know

In September 2026, CBS 6 (WTVR) in Richmond reported that Dr. Sasa Grae Espino holds active medical licenses in nine states: Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Delaware, Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. According to the station, she obtained the eight non-Alabama licenses in late June 2026, days before she permanently surrendered her Virginia medical license on July 1, 2026. She had obtained her Alabama license back in November 2024.

This is a new detail on a story we have covered before. Our earlier article, Dr. Sasa Espino Lawsuits: What Richmond Breast Center Patients Need to Know, laid out the malpractice claims, the qualifications dispute at the center of them, and the Virginia license surrender. That piece noted the Alabama license. The nine-state picture is what CBS 6 has now added, and it is the reason we are publishing a follow-up rather than editing the original.

A few things this report does not say, and we will not imply. It does not say Espino is operating on patients in nine states. It does not say any of the eight new boards knew about the Virginia proceeding when they granted a license, and it does not say any of them has taken action. Espino has not been charged with a crime, and none of the malpractice claims against her has been proven.

The sequence is what drew attention. According to CBS 6, Espino left the Richmond Breast Center at the end of 2024, about a month after she obtained her Alabama license. The malpractice lawsuits began in June 2025 and grew over the following year to dozens of separate filings in Richmond, all sharing the core allegation that she performed complex breast reconstruction she was not qualified to perform. Espino and her lawyers deny that allegation in full.

The Virginia Board of Medicine issued notice that it was considering discipline. Under a consent order, Espino permanently surrendered her Virginia license on July 1, 2026, and agreed never to seek reinstatement in Virginia. In the order she did not admit or deny the board's findings, which the board framed as violations of the regulations governing the practice of medicine in her care of two patients. A surrender on those terms is not a criminal conviction and not an admission of the lawsuits' allegations.

CBS 6 reports that the eight additional licenses were granted in late June 2026, in the same window as the Virginia surrender. Separately, on June 18, 2026, the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners fined Espino $1,500 for issuing about 143 controlled substance prescriptions between late December 2025 and early May 2026 without the certificate Alabama requires. That fine is a prescribing paperwork violation, not a ruling on surgical care.

Espino's position deserves to be stated plainly, and it has not changed. Her lawyers deny all allegations of negligence in the lawsuits and have said her specialized fellowship education, training, and surgical experience qualify her to perform breast reconstruction surgeries. On the multi-state licenses, CBS 6 reported her lawyers' statement that she does not maintain an active clinical or surgical practice in any of those states.

Holding a medical license is not the same as practicing. Doctors keep licenses active for many lawful reasons, including telemedicine, consulting, chart review, expert work, or simply preserving the option to relocate. The public interest here is narrower and fairer to state as a question than as a conclusion: patients and reporters are asking why a surgeon facing dozens of lawsuits and a pending state disciplinary case would add eight licenses in a matter of days, and whether the boards that granted them had the full picture.

In general, yes, disciplinary action in one state is supposed to become visible in others, though it does not happen automatically or instantly. State boards report license surrenders and discipline to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to the Federation of State Medical Boards, and most boards can open their own action based on another state's order. How quickly a board acts, and whether it acts at all, varies by state and by the specific facts.

For patients, the practical takeaway is the one we make in our article on how to check a surgeon's disciplinary record before surgery: do not assume a clean-looking profile in one state tells the whole story. A doctor can hold an unblemished license in State B while a public order sits on file in State A. Anyone weighing a procedure can and should check the license record in the state where the surgery would happen, look for public orders, and search the doctor's name against news coverage and court records before committing.

You can verify a Virginia physician's status and any public orders through the Virginia Department of Health Professions license lookup, which will reflect a surrendered or revoked license. For other states, each board runs its own online verification tool, and the Federation of State Medical Boards operates a national lookup that points to them.