Inside Dorothy Amuah's 17-hour-long mastectomy surgery to deal with stage 3 breast cancer

Chief Executive Officer of Chic Optique, Base Dynasty and Base Lounge, Dorothy Amuah, has opened up about the difficult experience she went through during a 17-hour-long mastectomy surgery after being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

In an interview with Kafui Dey, Dorothy recounted how she struggled to secure insurance coverage for the procedure after discovering that the surgeon she trusted was not covered by her insurance plan, forcing her to pay for the surgery out of pocket.

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She said she had confidence in the doctor and decided to proceed with him despite the high cost, while continuing to negotiate with the insurance company until the night before the operation.

“...the doctor that I had faith in and confidence in was not under my insurance plan. So I ended up paying out-of-pocket for it. It was very expensive,” she recounted.

Dorothy said the reality of what she was about to go through hit her when she was wheeled into the operating room on the morning of the surgery.

She recalled how her mother held her hand and prayed for her before the operation, after which the surgeon used a black marker to draw several lines on her body to indicate the areas where the procedure would be performed.

According to her, the sight of the markings made her realise the seriousness of the operation and the possibility that she might not survive it.

“Then the surgeon came, and he had this black marker, and he started drawing lines all over my body like a chopping board and I was like wow, is he really going to cut me here and there and there and there and I think that's when it hit me and I realized I could possibly not even come out of surgery,” she said.

Dorothy recalled how her mother had been informed that the surgery would take about 12 hours, but it eventually lasted 17 hours, leaving her family worried as they waited for news from the medical team.

She said she came out of surgery after 17 hours in severe pain, with about six inches of her body removed during the procedure, making her recovery difficult.

“I came out after 17 hours and in a lot of pain, a whole lot of pain. Yeah, it was very uncomfortable. It was a lot of pain and my body has also been shortened. They took out about six inches,” she recounted.

Dorothy said her recovery took several months, as she had to learn how to stretch her body and stand upright again after spending months hunched over.

She also had to manage several drainage tubes attached to her body to remove excess fluid following the surgery.

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“I couldn't stand, I was hunched over for a few months, a couple of months because you have to learn to stretch again. I had drainage tubes all over me, they call it milking,” she explained.

Dorothy was just 29 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. At the time, she was actively modelling.

Watch the video below:

A 17 Hour Mastectomy Surgery

Dorothy Amuah had a 17-hour long mastectomy surgery to deal with her stage 3 breast cancer.

Watch full interview here https://t.co/oG85WcA1by

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— Kafui Dey (@KafuiDey) November 2, 2026