Death of US music star Kanye West’s mother highlights cosmetic surgery concerns

The 8 hour operation was performed by Dr. Jan Adams. Reports suggest that Donda West suffered uncontrolled bleeding after being discharged to recover from her radical surgery.

The Los Angeles County Coroner arranged an autopsy and a spokesman from LAPD said that his department were ‘looking at possible complications of surgery’. In reports today the autopsy results have been described as inconclusive and there were no physical findings to explain her death.

Reports refer to the fact that Donda West had consulted another plastic surgeon Dr Andre Aboolian earlier in the year. This surgeon had concerns over her health and recommended that before her operation she should undergo a cardiac stress test because of her age. He said she had pushed him and asked ‘can I go home after surgery?’ but he advised her against this and when interviewed after her death said: "The most dangerous time after surgery is the first 48 hours. I told her you have to go to an overnight care facility with nurses who look after you’. In response to these reports Dr Richard D’Amico President of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said ‘if … the surgeon tells you it is too risky, you don’t find someone who will do it for you’.

The Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in USA commented that fatal outcomes from cosmetic surgery operations were relatively rare, occurring in one of 51,459 operations.

The number of total cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. since 1997 has increased 446% to about 11.5 million surgical and non-surgical procedures in 2006, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Women had 10.5 million procedures last year. The top surgical procedures were liposuction, 403,684 procedures; breast augmentation, 383,886; eyelid surgery, 209,999; abdominoplasy, 172,457; and breast reduction, 145,822. More than 3.1 million non-surgical Botox procedures were performed last year, according to the ASAPS.

Michelmores have regularly expressed concerns over the perils facing patients undergoing cosmetic surgery, where clinics and surgeons have not been properly vetted and much of the surgery is unregulated.

‘We have known for some time of the dangers inherent in cosmetic surgery procedures ’, explains Laurence Vick, head of clinical negligence. ‘Many of these operations are invasive and involve full-scale surgical procedures carried out under general or local anaesthetic. The concern is that clinics and practitioners do not explain the risks and patients do not understand what can go wrong. Because of the way these operations are marketed patients tend to have unrealistic expectations. The patient needs to be aware of the complication rates. Long-term study of many of these operations is not available but risks of cosmetic surgery include infection and anaesthetic problems, scarring and disfigurement for which further surgery may be needed, perforation of surrounding organs, damage to nerves and loss of sensation, DVT and worse, pulmonary embolism. Conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes increase the risk of complications during these operations, as do smoking and medication such as the oral contraceptive."