An anesthesiologist's "suboptimal" care caused a woman to die after recent weight-loss surgery at a Beverly Hills clinic connected to the 1-800-GET-THIN advertising campaign, according to an autopsy report by the Los Angeles County coroner. The report does not identify the anesthesiologist, but lawyers for the clinic and the dead woman's family said it was Daniel Shin, MD, a Marina del Rey physician. Shin was on probation with the state medical board at the time of the surgery because of his conviction for assaulting a process server with a meat cleaver, according to medical board records. Tamara Walter died Dec. 26, three days after she had a Lap-Band device implanted at the Beverly Hills Surgery Center, a lawyer for her family said. She is one of four Southern California patients to die after Lap-Band surgeries in the last two years at clinics that received referrals from the 1-800-GET-THIN advertisements, according to interviews with relatives of the deceased patients, lawsuits and autopsy reports.
