Orange County Register

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed the toothless “Donda West Bill,” which would have required doctors to check a patient’s medical history and perform a physical examination before cosmetic surgery.

The bill wouldn’t have established any criminal penalties for doctors who violated those basic safety standards. In effect, it was aimed at letting legislators believe they had done something to make plastic surgery safer in response to last year’s death of Donda West (pictured), the mother of rapper Kanye West.

As I said in August in the post “Donda West Law is futile attempt to make plastic surgery safer”:

That’s a bit like passing a law to require surgeons to wash their hands before an operation. Anyone who would ignore such basic safety precautions isn’t likely to worry about the prospect of such a technical infraction.

See the post “How to avoid bad doctors” for a more helpful method of protecting yourself against slipshod work by careless surgeons. That post includes information on the California medical board’s disciplinary action against Dr. Jan Adams, the plastic surgeon who operated on Donda West.

Schwarzenegger said he vetoed the bill because this summer’s budget stalemate left him with time to deal with only top-priority bills.

“This bill does not meet that standard, and I cannot sign it at this time,” he said, which was the same reason he gave for rejecting many of the 131 bills he vetoed Sunday. Facing a Sept. 30 deadline, he signed 64 bills that day.

Donda West, 58, died Nov. 10, 2007, while recovering from breast reduction, tummy tuck and liposuction procedures. An autopsy report found that West likely died of heart disease coupled with complications from the plastic surgery.

Adams, her plastic surgeon, has denied wrongdoing. West’s family believes a physical exam would have revealed that she had coronary artery disease, making the surgery hazardous.

Plastic surgeon / blogger Dr. John Di Saia  of San Clemente called the bill “Feel Good” legislation, which was passed because “legislators probably felt impelled to appear as if they are doing something even if it really does nothing.” He said:

Good doctors already do this. The bad ones will probably not change or they will offload the responsibility to someone else.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Tenley K. Lawton of Irvine added:

Patients should be educated about the importance of seeking a board-certified plastic surgeon to perform their procedure. There are many doctors out there who perform plastic surgery but are board-certified in other specialties. This becomes confusing to patients who do not understand the difference. They only see the words board-certified and assume that the physician has the appropriate training.

Related links:

• How to avoid bad doctors
• Donda West Law is futile attempt to make plastic surgery safer
• Death of Kanye West’s mom sends message — be careful
• Surgeon denies blame for death of Kanye West’s mom
• Donda West’s plastic surgeon arrested on drunk driving charge

For more on cosmetic medicine, see links on the right side of this blog.

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