LOOKING FOR A PLASTIC SURGEON

BYLINE: Carolyn Susman, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATE: November 16, 2007
PUBLICATION: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: ACCENT
PAGE: 5E

Regardless of how or why Kanye West's mother died after plastic surgery, there are lessons to be learned from that tragic outcome.
"Buyer beware," is how West Palm Beach plastic surgeon Dr. Fred Barr puts it.

But no matter how many celebrities or others die during or after elective cosmetic procedures - reports say Donda West had a tummy tuck and breast reduction - those lessons never seem to be told enough.

Olivia Goldsmith, the novelist who wrote the savagely funny book The First Wives Club, died of complications of plastic surgery in 2004 at 54, shocking her readers.

"Everything is about selection," says Barr, immediate past president of the Palm Beach County Plastic Surgery Society and a volunteer professor in the University of Miami plastic surgery department.

He and others are warning consumers to be very careful about selecting a surgeon and to be sure they are healthy enough to undergo a medical procedure before opting to do so.

In Florida, for example, it is legal for doctors to perform cosmetic procedures even if they aren't certified in that procedure. Barr mentioned an obstetrician/gynecologist who is doing BOTOX® Cosmetic "parties."

"No longer does board certification give anybody more security," he said. "It's just part of the selection process."

That process should include:

• Check that the doctor has a license to practice medicine.
• Determine whether the doctor has hospital privileges to perform the procedure in a hospital. (It's not illegal to do surgery in an office, but if a doctor has hospital privileges for plastic surgery, Barr says, it means he or she has been reviewed to determine his or her background, training and ability to do the work.)
• Ask if the doctor has board certification recognized by the state to perform plastic and cosmetic surgery.

"If you've done your homework, the majority of plastic and cosmetic reconstructive procedures are safe," Barr says. "But anyone can have a pulmonary embolism (after surgery) or a heart attack if a cardiac patient, or something we might recognize as a natural cause, as opposed to negligence."

Copyright (c) 2004 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc