"Your eye is my eye." The profound kindness in Dr. César Briceño’s sentence continues to touch and reassure Scheie patient Dorothy Duffy. Dorothy, amidst navigating an ongoing journey with metastatic lung cancer treatment, presented to the Scheie Eye Institute with a seemingly minor eyelid lesion—a minor concern at the time, which she described as a mere “bump.” Dorothy's case soon grew in complexity, emphasizing the necessity for both a remarkably skilled and empathetic specialist—a specialist she found in Dr. Briceño.
Dr. Briceño's initial intervention involved a meticulous shave biopsy, revealing basal cell carcinoma—a finding that necessitated a more aggressive approach than expected at first glance. The subsequent Mohs surgery, renowned for its precision in excising cancerous tissue while preserving healthy surrounding areas, required multiple passes due to the tumor's intricate spread along Dorothy’s eyelashes.
Dorothy’s case required state-of-the-art equipment and advanced surgical techniques—both feats for which the Scheie Eye Institute is known nationwide. The reconstruction phase—which Dorothy underwent on the same day as the Mohs procedure to address potential adrenal insufficiency and to streamline the treatment process—involved flaps and grafts that were advanced but known well to Scheie's ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive specialists.
According to Dorothy, one of her primary concerns was the lapse of time between the Mohs and reconstruction procedures. “I might have been unnecessarily concerned,” she admits now, “but I was worried that I couldn’t withstand the procedures being performed on different days or with a lengthy delay in between [. . .] due to adrenal insufficiency.” Dr. Briceño listened to Dorothy’s concern and personally arranged for the Mohs procedure to be performed on the same day as the reconstruction. In retrospect, Dorothy states, “Dr. Briceño could best explain the course of an untreated basal cell tumor on an eyelid, but it would not have been a good idea to leave the tumor alone. I can’t even imagine those ramifications.”
Around the exact time that Dorothy’s eyelid lesion was discovered, she had recently undergone 16 weeks of chemotherapy. At various periods, Dorothy also underwent targeted therapy, biopsies, cryoablation, thermal ablation, microwave therapy, and bland embolization—the last of which resulted in an unanticipated necrotic hole. Additionally, after having open adrenalectomy surgery with subsequent physical therapy, hormone replacement therapy, and ongoing current targeted therapy, Dorothy felt a multifaceted and tremendous weight that—under Dr. Briceño’s care—began to ease. Dorothy attests, “I am so thankful that, given other medical issues that I needed to address. Dr. Briceño’s attention to detail made the quality of the reconstruction one less thing for me to deal with.”
Following Dorothy’s successful Mohs and reconstructive operations, she continues to follow up with Dr. Briceño to check on the integrity of the reconstruction and to watch for any further development of basal cell or any other malignant bumps—as well as irritation and blurry vision related to dry eye and fine hairs and lashes pointing in askew angles necessitated by the flap. Dorothy jokes that Dr. Briceño’s skillset is high above these issues, which she finds minor after all she has faced medically. Dr. Briceño invariably responds, “Your eye is my eye.”
Scheie clinicians are committed to providing a compassionate, patient-first approach within their cutting-edge medical treatments. This much is evident. After a life-changing Mohs surgery followed by reconstructive surgery, Dorothy underwent holistic post-operative care, with a team addressing complications like dry eye and misdirected lashes with the same diligence as the primary treatment. In kind, Dorothy returns the holistic compliment: “He is an excellent doctor,” she says of Dr. Briceño. “And human.”
by Maressa Park