Autopsy conducted on Kanye West's mother
Investigators wait for final test results before entering a cause of death. Jan R. Adams is listed as the doctor who performed surgery on Donda West the day before she died.
Los Angeles County coroner's investigators have opened an inquiry into the death of Donda West, the 58-year-old mother of rapper Kanye West, officials said today. She died Saturday, one day after undergoing cosmetic surgery.
Officials described the case as an "operative death as a result of surgery or anesthesia."
An autopsy on West was conducted today. The deputy medical examiner deferred entering a final cause of death pending additional tests, coroner's officials said.
"It is anticipated that the final test results will be received within the next six to eight weeks. Once those test results are received and reviewed, a final, definitive cause of death will be entered for Ms. West." said coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey.
In the meantime, Harvey said investigators will look at West's past medical history.
West had surgery on Friday in a procedure that took more than five hours, according to authorities. Coroner's officials said the surgery took place at an outpatient surgical center on Wilshire Boulevard in Brentwood.
The doctor who performed the surgery was Jan R. Adams, according to a report filed with the coroner's office by authorities at Centinela Freeman Regional Medical where West was taken Saturday evening after she was found not breathing at her Playa del Rey home.
"She was not responsive on her arrival," said Cyndee Woelfle the hospital's director of business development.
Emergency room physicians at the hospital's Marina Campus in Marina Del Rey attempted to resuscitate her for about 10 minutes before pronouncing her dead at 8:30 p.m.
Adams is not on the hospital's medical staff, Woelfle said.
Adams is a Los Angeles plastic surgeon who according to state officials is currently the subject of an inquiry that could result in the suspension or revocation of his medical license. He has appeared frequently on television, including as host of Discovery Health Channel's "Plastic Surgery: Before and After," according to his website. Adams also wrote a book titled: "Everything Women of Color Should Know About Cosmetic Surgery."
On April 10, 2007, the Medical Board of California and state attorney general's office filed a complaint seeking to revoke or suspend Adams' medical license, citing multiple criminal convictions for alcohol-related offenses since 2003.
In 2003, Adams pleaded no contest to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and was placed on a three-year probation, according to the complaint.
