Donda West Law Passed in California

You are indeed fortunate.  And I think you make a good case.  Your surgeon is responsible and undoubtedly top drawer, but unfortunately that is not always the case.  There are surgeons out there that operate within a veil.  They use surgical center's where there is little oversight and where there is not likely to be another set of eyes looking on as is the case in a hospital.  Therein lies the problem.  And the other side of that issue is the patient who may be poorly informed and not only does not ask the right questions but does not even have a clue what questions need to be asked. 

 My PS surgeon publicly stated that he refused surgery on this woman because she did not meet the standards of physical rigor required for the procedures she was seeking.

AND ... he requires that his patients have clearance from any doctors they see regularly, plus a baseline physical OK from another doctor.

Surgery -- any surgery -- puts tremendous stress on a body, and it should not be considered superficial or trivial (though it often is).  I certainly think it's rational and prudent to seek another doctor's OK on the patient's health before operating, and I'm very glad that every surgeon I've ever had --  right here in California -- has thought so.

This also prevents doctors from using solely their own perspective on a patient's health.

I'm VERY glad this law is in place.  I had no idea that it wasn't.

Hi Charming, well I know you used Dr A, and I would expect no less because he was our star resident in the training program at UT-Houston when I was faculty there. He and I spoke about the case over the phone after the story came out, and he let me know a lot about the past "practices" of Dr. West's "plastic surgeon."

I think it's a sad day when doctors (and medicine in general) cannot police themselves, and ethics, morals, and regard for patient safety go out the window for a doc after a few dollars...and like BIg City indicated, doctors can be bought by the rich and famous. Sad.

It would make no sense whatsoever for a 25 year old undergoing a 45min breast aug to have medical clearance from another doc.  A PS (not a lawmaker) should know who needs what kind of clearance. 

There are already regulatory agencies that certify office facilites and a State Medical Board that should be checking records and handing out license suspensions to stop sloppy practices that endanger patients. 

 Dr. L -- I would have no idea which procedures are too minor to merit clearance from a second party.  In my limited personal experience, unfortunately nothing was ever "small" enough to not require it, I suppose.  

In this town, there are an awful, awful lot of procedures performed, and in my totally uninformed opinion, it would be great if each procedure required not only physical clearance from another doc, but psychological or psychiatric clearance, as well.  I'm sure that's part of a discussion for another day, but wow -- It seems like there are no brakes on the standards, sometimes.   I agree that it's too bad that the practitioners are not able to agree on fundamental criteria.  And as usual, when ethics fray, the law steps in to create more regulation (not always to the greater good).