A prominent Colorado plastic surgeon is being charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of an 18-year-old client 14 months after a botched surgery.
Dr. Geoffrey Kim, 52, surrendered to Arapahoe County sheriff’s officials Wednesday following the issuance of an arrest warrant for him.
Although prosecutors have not yet filed a criminal complaint, the surgeon is expected to face multiple charges, including felony negligent homicide, reckless manslaughter, and misdemeanor obstruction of service, according to Vikki Migoya, a spokesperson for the 18th Judicial District’s Office of the District Attorney.
Kim was released from custody shortly after his arrest on a $5,000 bond.
Kim was scheduled to perform a breast augmentation surgery on Emmalyn Nguyen, 18, on Aug. 1, 2019, when the teen suffered a cardiac arrest following anesthesia administered by nurse anesthetist Rex Meeker.
Kim did admit to investigators that he didn’t even call 911 for at least five hours. Nguyen was rendered brain dead and therefore unable to speak or walk as a result of the incident. 14 months later, she died.
According to Lou Shapiro, a criminal defense attorney based in Los Angeles, it is extremely rare for a medical doctor to face criminal charges for treating patients, but the purported facts in Kim’s case are “disturbing.”
“The more a doctor deviates from the norm, the more likely he will be prosecuted,” Shapiro said. “The last high-profile case we saw where that occurred was Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s doctor. That was proven to be egregiously dangerous treatment.”
According to Arapahoe County sheriff’s investigators, Kim refused his staff’s request to call 911 after performing CPR on Nguyen. Kim allegedly misled Nguyen’s mother, telling her her daughter was “fine” even as her condition deteriorated.
According to the affidavit, Meeker failed to notice Nguyen was not breathing for about 15 minutes after administering anesthesia to her. Investigators say Meeker attempted to manually ventilate Nguyen after another nurse started to notice her skin turning blue from lack of oxygen.
After an hour, Nguyen collapsed and Kim began “resuscitation efforts.” Investigators claim Kim denied Nguyen’s mother access to the operating room.
For 4 hours, Meeker injected Nguyen with different medications to try and reverse the anesthesia, but Nguyen never managed to regain consciousness.
According to CBS Denver, Nguyen’s family filed a civil suit against Kim and Meeker in December 2019. The disgraced doctor and nurse settled and agreed to pay $1 million each.
Kim’s medical license was also suspended by the Colorado Medical Board.
Source: The Post
