New Meritus plastic surgeon helps cancer patients ‘pick up the pieces’

Dr. Eric Maiorino now seeing patients in Hagerstown

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Breast cancer is a traumatic experience for patients, often leaving them questioning who they are because of scars after treatment.

Eric Maiorino, M.D., the new surgeon at Meritus Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery, said he’s there to help those patients get back some semblance of their identity.

“It’s a difficult time for patients. They’re always very afraid of looking deformed or not themselves,” Maiorino said. “My goal is to help them be able to pick up the pieces.”

Maiorino grew up in Queens, N.Y., about 15 blocks away from where his practice partner, Salvatore DiMercurio, M.D., grew up. They even went to the same elementary and middle schools, albeit years apart.

After earning his medical degree in 2012 from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Maiorino did his residency in general surgery at Temple University Hospital, which, among other things, focused on underserved populations.

In 2018, Maiorino began a plastic surgery fellowship at the University of Texas in Houston at Hermann Memorial Hospital.

“It was my first rodeo,” he joked, saying he’d never been to a rodeo before living in Texas.

He also trained at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, part of the University of Texas. There he focused on reconstructive surgery for people dealing with a variety of cancers.

“Plastic surgery is so broad,” he said, noting he gets to work with physicians in everything from cardiology to gastroenterology. “When you think of it, you think it’s just face lifts and breast enhancements. Plastic surgery touches so much more than that.”

Eventually, Maiorino moved back to the East Coast and set up a practice in Washington, D.C. He was voted Top Doc the past three years by Washingtonian magazine.

He became aware of Meritus Health thanks to its commitment to expanding medical education and training the next generation of doctors. The health system has residency programs in family medicine and psychiatry and is planning to add surgery in the near future. It also is set to open the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine, the first medical school to open in Maryland in 100 years, this summer.

“I was a high school science teacher before I went to medical school, so this interested me,” he said.

At Meritus Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery, Maiorino said he hopes to expand services for breast cancer patients, allowing them to avoid traveling out of the area.

And he is looking forward to helping grow Meritus’ educational offerings.

“I’m excited to help in making this more of an academic center,” he said.

To learn more about Meritus Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery or to make an appointment, visit www.meritushealth.com/plastics or call 301-714-4460 in Hagerstown or 717-261-1620 in Chambersburg.

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Meritus Health, Western Maryland’s largest health care provider, is located at the crossroads of Western Maryland, Southern Pennsylvania and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The mission of Meritus Health is to improve the health of the region by providing the best healthcare, health services and medical education. As an anchor organization for the community, Meritus has 4,000 employees and serves more than 200,000 residents of the tristate region through Meritus Medical Center, Brook Lane Health Services, Meritus Medical Group, Meritus Home Health, Meritus Equipped for Life, and the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine. More information can be found at www.MeritusHealth.com or visit our Facebook page or LinkedIn page.