Personal Injury Law

Plastic Surgeon In Kanye West Mom's Case Surrenders Medical License

By Jane Akre

He was the plastic surgeon who appeared on Larry King Live defending the procedures he had performed on Donda West shortly before her death in November 2007.   

Dr. Jan Adams has now surrendered his medical license, according to People magazine quoting the California Medical Board. 

He reportedly decided to give up his medical license instead of fighting a series of complaints filed against him. 

According to People magazine, the complaints include four malpractice judgments, a failure to pay child support and two DUI convictions.  The magazine does not report whether the death of Ms.  West was included in the complaints.

Dr. Adams decided to perform several surgeries at once on the mother of rapper Kanye West.  Performing both liposuction and a breast reduction, Ms. West returned home to recuperate, despite a recommendation she receive post-operative care.

At home she was not hooked up to any monitoring equipment which, given her history, should have been required, experts said to the Los Angeles Times after her death.

The next day she died of heart failure and "coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty" says an autopsy report.

Donda West had been turned down by another surgeon for the multiple procedures after a pre-operative review of her health revealed she had risk factors for a heart attack.

Dr. Adams says there were no complications during her surgery. But by the next morning she had trouble breathing and was in pain. She was found unresponsive in her bed and pronounced dead at an area hospital after being discovered by friends.

In November, 2007 Larry King returned from a vacation with his family to conduct an exclusive interview would be Dr. Adams' opportunity to answer speculation about what might have gone wrong during the 58-year-old West's surgery, his first extensive on-camera interview since her death November 10, 2007. 

So King showed up at CNN's New York studios. Three minutes until the 9 p.m. live show Dr. Adams is still not on the set.  Then King got the word.  Dr. Adams had just received a letter from the West family and a fax to the CNN newsroom warning him NOT to appear on the Larry King program.

Dr. Adams announced finally, "I'm going to apologize to you because I think I'm taking up your airtime, but I will not be on the show and I will not discuss any of that. I'm going to honor their wishes."   Then he walked off the set.

Donda West was the former chair of a university English department and had been in higher education for 31 years before leaving to help her son's education nonprofit foundation.

Her death influenced legislation among California lawmakers that could make the procedures safer for others in an outpatient setting.

Assembly Bill 2968, also known as the Donda West law, pushed for increased oversight of doctors performing cosmetic procedures and required patients to receive a physical exam before undergoing cosmetic surgery.  It was vetoed by the governor suring the 2008 legislative session.  

Donda West did not have a physical exam by surgeon Jan Adams says her niece.

Increasingly common are outpatient facilities that are not as strictly reviewed as a hospital.  Senate Bill 1454 would have required outpatient facilities, such as the one in which West had her surgery, to undergo inspections every three years. Currently there are no inspection requirements. Part of a massive bill, it was killed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in 2008. 

"These [clinics] are not hospitals. You have to raise the standards," said state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) to the Los Angeles Times.

Florida tightened the regulations in 2006.   The "Truth in Medical Education" law required cosmetic surgeons to disclose their background, education and specialty training before treating patients. Increased oversight of non-hospital settings increased after a dozen people died in clinics in 1998.

There were 11.7 million cosmetic procedures in the U.S. in 2007 up 50 percent from 2000.  #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on April 10, 2009 (boomark / email).