Lawmakers in the state senate and assembly of California are pushing for tighter rules to govern plastic surgery after a 58-year-old woman died following breast reduction and other procedures last year.
Donda West died in November 2007 in a Los Angeles hospital, a day after having breast reduction, a tummy tuck and liposuction at an outpatient centre. Now Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, Democrat, Los Angeles, and Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter are each pushing for new legislation.
Ridley-Thomas, who chairs the senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development, wants to introduce regular inspections of outpatient clinics that perform cosmetic surgery procedures.
His senate bill SB 1454, which is in its third reading, seeks to amend sections of the Business and Professions Code and the Health and Safety Code relating to healing arts so that cosmetic surgery centres are inspected at least every three years.
There are also proposals to tighten advertising, for instance banning pictures that create “unjustified expectations”.
According to the Los Angeles Times, cosmetic surgery procedures are increasingly carried out in outpatient clinics, where “doctors can avoid the type of rigorous review they would expect at traditional hospitals”.
Although there is a law that says such clinics have to be accredited, Ridley-Thomas said it’s not enough. He told the LA Times yesterday, Monday, that:
“These [clinics] are not hospitals,” adding that, “you have to raise the standards”.
Assemblywoman Carter said West’s niece, Yolanda Anderson, asked her to introduce a bill that would require every patient who undergoes cosmetic surgery to have a health check first. She is calling her bill the “Donda West Law”.
Numbered AB 2968, Carter’s bill also seeks changes to the Business and Professions Code, and so far it has passed one reading of the Senate.
The coroner’s autopsy report said the exact cause of West’s death was unknown, but heart disease and clogged coronary arteries were given as contributing factors. West was sent home five and half hours after the operation. The coroner did not cite any mistakes in the surgical procedures as contributing to her death.
The doctor who performed the surgery, Dr Jan Adams, has denied doing anything wrong, said a report by the Associated Press.
Anderson said her aunt did not receive a physical exam from Dr Adams before her surgery. A spokesman for Adams was reported by the LA Times to have said it was his understanding that West had been questioned thoroughly by Adams and the anesthesiologist before the surgery.
According to the paper, West had already been turned down by one doctor who said she was at risk of having a heart attack if she had cosmetic surgery.
California is not alone in pushing for tighter regulation of outpatient centres that do cosmetic surgery. Florida has a law that requires patients know more about the qualifications of the doctor who is proposing to carry out the surgery. And in Canada, the death of a Toronto woman prompted Ontario health officials to seek changes in the law governing such procedures.
Sources: LA Times, Associated Press, California State Legislature.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD