Coroner: Kanye West's Mom Died of Apparent Surgery Complications

An autopsy on the singer's mother, who died Saturday, is set for Tuesday

Photo: Dennis Van Tine / LFI

Donda West, the mother and onetime manager of rapper Kanye West, died of possible “complications from surgery,” the Los Angeles coroner said Monday.

Paramedics brought West, 58, into Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center on Saturday. Hospital staff tried to revive her, but she died shortly after admittance, says a spokeswoman for the facility.

Coroner’s spokesman Lt. Fred Corral says preliminary information indicates West died from “complications of surgery,” the Associated Press reports. It wasn’t known where the surgery was performed. West did not have any procedures at Centinela, the spokeswoman says.

An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.

“We have taken jurisdiction in the death,” Chief Coroner Craig Harvey said in a statement.

Earlier Monday, BBC News quoted Donda West’s publicist as saying she passed away “as the result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure,” but provided no further details.

Conflicting Reports on Cause

Spokeswoman Patricia Green, however, clarified for PEOPLE that she never confirmed the cause of death to the BBC – she had only forwarded the network unconfirmed, incomplete information she had received – and is still unsure because she has received conflicting reports.

Kanye West’s spokesman said the family “asks for privacy during this time of grief.”

Donda West, a retired professor and former chairwoman of the Chicago State University English department, was a tireless supporter of her son as he both earned success and stirred up controversy.