Many doctors and other medical experts will, at least privately, tell you that there is no such thing as minor surgery. Whenever the body undergoes an invasive procedure, some risk exists, no matter how careful, capable and well-researched the patients and practitioners may be.

Then there is the kind of elective surgery that recently claimed the life of Donda West, the mother of entertainer Kanye West. She had undergone a tummy tuck and breast reduction and had gone home to recuperate. Complications from the surgery apparently took her life. The attending physician contends the death was the result of a heart attack, but records show he had settled two malpractice lawsuits in 2001, one for $217,337 and the other for $250,000.

The experience in the West case should serve as a fresh reminder to the dangers of focusing too much on appearance and self-image. West certainly felt she was doing the right thing to make her life seem a bit better, but did she check as carefully as she should about the potential aftereffects?

We are seeing more and more cases of people, young and old, male and female, deciding they want to be “prettier” or “curvier” and choosing to go under the knife to achieve such goals. That means more people are likely to encounter physicians with dollar signs in their eyes who will convince patients they can work wonders, even if they are not fully qualified to do such work.

How many times in recent months have we seen horrid photos of people who trusted corrective surgeons and wound up disfigured, injured for life or, worst of all, dead? Corrective surgery has become faddish in these times of self-immersion and the ultimate costs often have extended far beyond the realm of the checkbook.

There are countless occasions where people need surgery and where fully capable people do it to the patient’s benefit. But there are a lot of doctors who contend that there is a trend toward overdoing surgery, particularly in the cosmetic field. Many of them step away when there is the slightest prospect for trouble.

With today’s emergence of new drug-resistant staph infections and with hospitals and medical facilities, the best rule of thumb for everyone needs to be that there is no such thing as minor surgery, needed or not.