Plastic Surgery

In this crummy job market, Stephanie Yang figures any little advantage will help. Even double eyelids. So on a cold January morning, the 21-year-old college senior walked into one of dozens of plastic surgery clinics here and plopped down $730, the equivalent of one year's tuition. An hour later she came out with two big bandages over her eyes. When she removed the dressing the next day, Yang was aghast at her red, puffy eyelids.

To say I disliked my nose as a teenager would be an understatement. Both its size (too big) and its shape (hooked) made me feel as if I stood out. Though I sometimes fantasized about getting it "done," a nose job wasn't something I ever considered seriously. At the time, the plastic surgery boom was just beginning to gain steam and, for the most part, adolescents weren't on-board. Times have certainly changed.

Medical experts say cosmetic surgery should be performed only on relatively healthy people. But Donda West, the 58-year-old mother of rapper Kanye West, had a number of serious health issues, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and cardiac artery blockage, according to an autopsy report released this week. Still, a Brentwood plastic surgeon approved her for extensive cosmetic surgery last year. She died Nov.

Beirut Forget getting behind on your payments. Maysa, a 31-year-old accountant, is making payments on her behind. For years the Beirut resident felt uncomfortable with her derriere. She tried dieting, exercise and weight-loss pills, to no avail. Then she discovered that her bank was offering thousands of dollars in loans for nose jobs, breast implants, face-lifts and liposuction.

Six months after the mother of Kanye West died following liposuction and breast implant surgery, the reverberations of the tragedy continue to be felt. Now lawmakers and physicians are urging greater protections for patients undergoing cosmetic surgery. Across the country, such surgeries are increasingly done outside hospital settings in outpatient clinics, where a doctor can avoid the rigorous review that, say, a heart surgeon would face at a traditional hospital.

The Los Angeles plastic surgeon who operated on rap star Kanye West's mother before she died last year was arrested in Solano County early Thursday on suspicion of drunk driving and driving on a suspended license. Dr. Jan Adams was stopped by the California Highway Patrol after it received calls about 2:41 a.m. of a car traveling south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 680 near Benicia after using an offramp to enter the freeway, officials said.

A measure intended to prevent cosmetic surgery-related deaths fell victim to a rash of vetoes Sunday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill was written after the death last November of Donda West, mother of rapper Kanye West. The 58-year-old woman died one day after breast reduction and liposuction surgery, and an autopsy found health problems, including high blood pressure and cardiac artery blockage.

Marines and soldiers who suffered disfiguring injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving advanced plastic and reconstructive surgery at UCLA Medical Center under a partnership between the center and the military's top hospital for burn victims. So far, five Marines and four soldiers have undergone surgery at UCLA. One was injured in Afghanistan, the others in Iraq. More patients are scheduled to arrive in coming weeks.

More than a year after the death of rapper Kanye West's mother, state officials are investigating her nephew, a registered nurse who oversaw her recuperation after her plastic surgery, according to a person with knowledge of the probe. Stephan Scoggins, who received his nursing license in 1990 and has an advanced degree in public health, was in charge of caring for Donda West when she returned home Nov. 9, 2007, after a 5 1/2 -hour operation.

Youssif was playing outside his Baghdad home in January when unidentified assailants doused him in gasoline and set the 5-year-old boy ablaze. Even by modern-day Iraqi standards, the attack was brutal. Now Youssif and his family -- whose last name is being kept private for security reasons -- are adjusting to life in the San Fernando Valley, as he awaits months of treatment for severe facial burns.