The surgeon that lied about insurance coverage

I had my followup appointment after the rather traumatic breast biopsy after the mammogram found I likely had breast cancer.

The head of the breast center, Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Zieger, the one who does the operations and plans the medication and radiation for breast cancer patients, saw me and my partner. I’m very glad I had my partner with me. It was a very upsetting appointment.

After a 2 hour wait, because he was busy attending a birth at the time my appointment was scheduled, we got in. This waiting time is pretty normal for all the gynecological specialists, both here at the Schwarzwaldbaarklinikum hospital in Villingen-Schwenningen, and back at the Uniklinikum hospital in Leipzig when I visited for endometriosis treatment (that was also a deplorable doctor, but a story for another day).

His behaviour during the appointment was completely unprofessional - constantly talking to my partner (who was male) and not me, the patient. Then answering a personal hone call while in the room - from his wife - to talk about his dinner and evening plans for a good 15 minutes - while we were still sitting there, waiting to discuss next steps in my cancer treatment.

But it’s the lies that he actually told me that made him so despicable.

He said that the insurance company would not pay for a mastectomy. That I would need to have from 3 to 6 lumpectomies, depending on when the edges are clear - that would be the only option that my insurance would allow.

When we both said we did not believe that, he left the room for 10 minutes, then came back in and said he had just called and spoken to DAK (my insurance company) and they would not allow a mastectomy.

Additionally, for the first of the lumpectomy operations, I would need to wait about 3 months until a spot in his operation queue was free.

Direct to a DAK office

Of course, I was in tears, shaking with anger and fear. We drove directly to the DAK office in the center of Villingen, taking the biopsy report and mammography result with us. We had regularly dropped in there to deliver sick certificates, and they had always been helpful.

The DAK lady was incredibly understanding and supportive. Read through the mammo and biopsy letters, and said “Of course, you’ll be getting a mastectomy on that side, right?”

The relief, and fury …

The DCIS - calcicied ductal cancer - was throughout one entire quadrant of the left breast, from the furthest milk lobule all the way to the exit at the nipple. All of this would need to be cut out, and the edges cleared.

That’s over a 1/4 of the breast.

It made more financial sense to DAK, and more physical sense for my body, to just do one operation - cut the entire thing off and rebuild it - rather than many smaller operations, each with increasing risks of things going wrong.

Of course, my insurance would prefer an immediate mastectomy on that side.

But, equally obviously, they would not allow a double mastectomy. The other breast was healthy, and they do not allow ‘healthy’ breasts to be operated on paid by insurance.

Second opinion

Thankfully, the German system allows for second opinions for operations and cancer treatments, so I wrote to my endometriosis specialist, the one who had done the partial hysterectomy and who was the leader of gynecology in Martin-Luther-Krankenhaus in Berlin for his advice.

He wrote back immediately, recommending the breast center there. I sent over the biopsy results and mammography scans (on CD).

The lead breast surgeon in Berlin agreed immediately to the mastectomy, and with some additional photos of my belly and breasts to the plastic surgeons, said they would do the reconstruction in the same single operation.

She organised this completely for me while I was down in Villingen. All I needed to do was turn up on the arranged date in July.

The relief when a doctor is professional and takes you seriously is immense.

As is the anger at the doctor in Villingen-Schwenningen, Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Zieger in the Schwarzwaldbaar klinikum, who had lied so outrageously.

Update 2026: Dr Zieger retired in Germany in 2022, then moved to Switzerland and now heads a gynecology section at a private clinic in Zurich.