(CNS) Posted Saturday February 5, 2011 – 10:30am
A doctor already under investigation in connection with the death of an overweight patient who died after getting the stomach-constricting ``Lap Band' surgery is also being investigated in the December death of a Lawndale woman, it was reported today.
Tamara Walter, 52, went into cardiac arrest Dec. 23 after surgery at a Beverly Hills clinic and was rushed to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she died three days later, her sister, Betty Brown, told the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Atul Madan, who is now the subject of two medical board investigations, did the surgery. In letters to the dead patients' families, the board said it was reviewing the ``quality of care" Madan provided, The Times reported.
Ana Renteria, a 33-year-old office worker, died in February 2010, days after Lap-Band surgery performed by Madan at the same clinic.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office concluded that Renteria ``died due to complications from laparoscopic gastric band placement" and hernia repair, according to an autopsy report. Diabetes was a contributing condition, the report said.
The coroner's office has not made public Walter's cause of death.
Walter became the third person to die after having Lap-Band surgery at the Beverly Hills Surgery Center, 9001 Wilshire Blvd.
Willie Brooks, a 35-year-old school custodian, died in June 2009, three days after his operation there by surgeon George Tashjian.
The Riverside County coroner attributed Brooks' death to ``peritonitis due to Lap-Band procedure due to obesity."
Brooks' family is suing the clinic and the doctor. The lawsuit is scheduled for trial June 21.
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