A Colorado plastic surgeon was convicted Wednesday in connection to the death of a 19-year-old patient who lost consciousness on the operating table during a breast augmentation after she was given a high dose of anesthesia.
After a week-long trial, the jury found Dr. Geoffrey Kim guilty of attempted reckless manslaughter and obstructing telephone services for not allowing staff to call 911 for five hours after Emmalyn Nguyen went into cardiac arrest and slipped into a coma.
"It is finally some justice for the family to have Dr. Kim answer for what he did to this young lady," said lawyer David Woodruff, who represents Nguyen's family. "Obviously that does not bring her back. They have lost Emmalyn, who had a wonderful, bright future, so this is bittersweet."
The panel acquitted Kim of negligent homicide, the most serious charge against him.
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Nguyen, then 18, was administered anesthesia Aug. 1, 2019, before a breast augmentation operation at Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery.
Nurse anesthetist Rex Meeker had given Nguyen seven times the typical dose in a practice known as "snowing," which puts the patients under more quickly, according to Woodruff.
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She lost consciousness, then went into cardiac arrest before Kim made an incision.
Woodruff said "snowing" is not illegal or uncommon but no one noticed that she was in distress until her heart stopped after about seven minutes.
Meeker testified that he and other staff wanted to call 911 but the plastic surgeon refused.
"We should send her to the hospital, and I added it’s standard operating procedure," Meeker testified in Arapahoe County District Court, FOX31 reported. Charges against Meeker were dismissed in exchange for his cooperation against Kim.
The team was able to get Nguyen's heart beating again, but her brain had already suffered severe damage from lack of oxygen, according to Woodruff.
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"It was obviously a huge mistake by Mr. Meeker to overdose the child," Woodruff told Fox News Digital.
Nguyen's mom showed up at the office to pick her up and Kim kept telling her not to worry. "Hours passed and Dr. Kim kept coming out and telling her mom everything went fine, she’s doing great, but she's taking a little longer than usual to wake up," Woodruff said.
Only after Nguyen's mom demanded to see her daughter did Kim call for help.
"The huge travesty here is the location of this office is in a parking lot shared by a fire department, and the EMTs could have been there in 45 seconds to a minute," Woodruff said.
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By the time Nguyen got to the hospital, there was nothing that could be done. She remained in a vegetative state for more than a year before she passed away. Kim's lawyers argued at trial that it was Meeker who killed Nguyen, not the delay in calling 911.
Nguyen's family sued Kim, Meeker and the practice and settled for $3 million, Woodruff said.
Meanwhile, Kim, who only temporarily lost his license after Nguyen's death, continued to perform surgeries until his trial. The felony conviction should eventually trigger the revocation of his license, Woodruff said.
"But, right now, as of this morning, he’s allowed to perform surgery on people," the attorney added. Meeker gave up his license to practice.
Attorneys for Kim and Meeker couldn't immediately be reached.
