A plastic surgeon from Colorado has been found guilty of attempted manslaughter over the death of a teenage patient.
On Wednesday (14 June), jurors found Dr Geoffrey Kim, 52, not guilty of negligent homicide, a more serious charge.
Emmalyn Nguyen went to Kim for breast augmentation surgery in August 2019 when she was 18, where she suffered a cardiac arrest after receiving anesthesia.
She fell into a coma and was unable to walk or speak. According to her family's attorney, her condition was beginning to improve and she was even seen smiling at times, but tragically she developed severe pneumonia and died 14 months later in October 2020, at the age of 19.
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Dr Kim admitted he didn't call 911 for five hours after the teen suffered the cardiac arrest when she received the anesthesia by nurse Rex Meeker.
As a result, Dr Kim was also found guilty of obstructing a telephone - which is classed as a minor wrongdoing.
However, the attempted manslaughter charge could see Kim have one to three years in prison, as the crime is a Class 5 felony in Colorado.
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Prosecutors argued Dr Kim caused the teenager's death when he failed to call for help for five hours after Nguyen went into cardiac arrest.
While Dr Kim's place of work was an outpatient surgery center, immediate care at a hospital would have provided more suitable care.
Dr Kim's defense lawyers argued during the jury trial that nurse Meeker was to blame for the teen's death.
They said that Meeker gave Nguyen a mix of dangerous drugs before her surgery and a dose of fentanyl that stopped her heart altogether, as per the Denver Post.
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Meeker did actually face manslaughter charges too, but that was dropped in September in exchange for testimony at trial, according to 9News.
Meeker went on to say in the trial that Dr Kim refused to allow him to call for help for five hours.
The pair have already been forced to pay the Nguyen family $1 million each in a wrongful death settlement.
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While Dr Kim faces a jail term, Meeker gave up his license to administrate anesthesia but still has a medical license.
Her parents, Lynn Fam and Sonny Nguyen, told KDVR in 2019 their daughter wanted breast implants to shore up her self-image and had saved a lot of money to do so.
Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Captain of Investigations, Travis Stewart, told the New York Post: "The investigation has taken more than two years to complete and involved dozens of interviews and search warrants.
"Our hope is that this will be the beginning of bringing justice and a sense of closure to Emmalyn’s family."
Callum Jones