This is true of not just cosmetic procedures, but reconstructive ones—where the patient has been ravaged by something much more brutal than the simple passing of time. As late as the mid-1970s, many doctors believed that reconstructing the breasts of post-mastectomy cancer patients was a frivolous, unnecessary endeavor. The notion that women who had undergone radical mastectomy might be traumatized by the permanent disfigurement of their bodies was scoffed at, including by some of the most respected physicians at the time. T.A. Watson, a leading radiation oncologist treating breast cancer
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