Breast cancer survivor grateful for groundbreaking dual surgery she received at HSC

Karin Carlson is a professional musician. She plays trombone in various local ensembles, including the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Marny Barnes.
As Karin Carlson confronted the reality of needing a mastectomy, a surgery to remove one of her breasts due to breast cancer, she was relieved to discover that her best option for reconstructive surgery was available close to home.
“I was astonished to learn that Health Sciences Centre, just 12 minutes from my home, offered this world-class surgical option,” Carlson recalls.
A Winnipeg resident with her husband of 32 years, Carlson began breast cancer treatments in early 2021. She required a skin-sparing mastectomy, a surgery that involves removing the breast tissue while preserving the overlaying skin. Following a mastectomy, patients are medically evaluated to determine which reconstruction option is best suited for them. Generally, the options are implants or autologous reconstruction—using tissue from their own body.
While learning about the possibilities, Carlson discovered the Dual Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator (DIEP) flap surgery, a reconstruction surgery that uses tissue from the patient’s lower abdomen, which is available at HSC. Not all breast reconstruction surgeons offer DIEP flap surgery, and the procedure is not widely available in hospitals.

Karin Carlson during her last radiation treatment in 2022.
“I discovered that my surgeon, Dr. Edward Buchel, helped bring the technique for the DIEP flap surgery, and the dual-procedure approach, to HSC,” she explains.
For Carlson’s surgery, oncologist Dr. Andrew Cooke and his team undertook the mastectomy, before Dr. Buchel led the reconstructive surgery, which includes meticulously reconnecting the patient’s blood vessels and ensuring proper blood flow. Thanks to the HSC Foundation’s Operation Excellence campaign, which funded five Leica microscopes, including one used in Carlson’s surgery, the team was equipped with cutting-edge technology for enhanced precision during the procedure.
The “dual” aspect of the DIEP procedure refers to a coordinated approach where both the mastectomy and reconstruction are performed in one continuous operation.

Karin Carlson on stage with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Keith Levit.
“I went to sleep with a breast and woke up with one; I never had a conscious moment when I didn’t have a breast,” she says. “I was prepared to have a deep and profound sense of loss, but it never happened. For me, having the reconstruction in place when I woke up made my emotional recovery so much easier than it would have been had the two surgeries happened separately.”
Carlson was discharged on November 18, 2021, after her surgical team removed the cancerous breast tissue and 18 lymph nodes, including one that was cancerous, and rebuilt her breast with her own tissue. She was one of the first patients to undergo follow-up procedures in HSC’s redeveloped, donor-funded Plastic Surgery Clinic, which opened in November 2022.
While her recovery has been challenging, Carlson is deeply appreciative of the care she received at HSC. “Every single person who attended to me before and after the surgery was compassionate and took the time to address my questions,” she adds. “I’m so lucky to have had access to these doctors and this surgery. The cancer is gone, and the reconstruction is so natural – I feel like me, I feel whole. I am grateful every day.”
As she progresses in her recovery, Carlson remains active as a computer software trainer and professional musician. She has gradually returned to the stage to perform trombone with various local ensembles, including the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra.
To learn more about the Operation Excellence campaign, and to make an online donation, visit OperationExcellence.ca.
By Jen Golletz