me bad blogger. just so much going on.
off to FL Saturday to do NASCAR and FISH.
American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery President Discusses Kanye West's Mom's Death
November 14, 2007
The tragic death of Donda West, rapper Kanye West's mother, should be a warning to people considering a tummy tuck, said Steven Hopping, president of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.
The procedure, he said, is invasive, risky and often taken too lightly.
West died Saturday from complications related to tummy tuck and breast reduction surgeries she'd received a day earlier. The high-profile doctor who performed the surgeries was not a board-certified plastic surgeon and has twice lost malpractice suits, with several other suits outstanding. Another surgeon had declined to perform the surgeries because West had a heart condition.
I spoke this afternoon Hopping, who said tummy tucks are one of the riskiest cosmetic procedures:
There is no such thing as a minor procedure in cosmetic surgery, and this is a good example. It's not like going to the spa or salon.
Tummy tucks are a big operation, and in my mind, one of the most dangerous cosmetic procedures -- and the patients who have them tend to be a high-risk group. They're older, often they've had children, often they're heavier. [...]
There's risks of strokes, bleeding, post-operative problems. Episodes like this make us look at that. [...] And sometimes it's hard to tell patients about these things, but it's got to be safety first. This is cosmetic surgery.
Surgeons performing the tucks, he said, need to minimize the time a patient spends unconscious consider the possibility of blood clotting. People considering tummy tucks need to be very careful.
Don't combine it with facelifts and other things, as attractive as that is. We see it all the time in patients -- they only want to have one recovery doctor, one anesthetic doctor -- and we fall into that, too. [...]
It really behooves [plastic surgeons] to tell patients that they're really increasing their risks. We need to have the patient involved with a haematologist who's going to help with the anti-coagulation afterwards. [...] In some parts of Europe, it's a standard of care that patients all be on anticoagulation therapy. That's not true here in the United States.
