ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — A plastic surgeon was found guilty of attempted manslaughter Wednesday in connection with the 2020 death of a patient, 18-year-old Emmalyn Nguyen.
A jury deliberated for about five hours before finding Dr. Geoffrey Kim guilty of attempted manslaughter and obstruction of telephone service. He was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said Nguyen went in for a surgical procedure at Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery on Aug. 1, 2019, and went into cardiac arrest after being administered anesthesia. She fell into a coma and died 14 months later, deputies said.
A nurse who was interviewed during the initial investigation reported that she and other staff members made "multiple requests" to call 911. She said Kim "would not initially agree" to that and assured staff that Nguyen would wake up "if given some additional time," the affidavit says.
Kim and a nurse anesthetist gave conflicting stories to Nguyen's mother about what happened and appeared to be blaming each other for what went wrong, an arrest affidavit said.
Initially, the nurse anesthetist also faced charges in connection with the case. Those charges were dismissed in September.
Court records show Kim's Colorado medical license was briefly suspended in January 2020, as a result of the incident involving Nguyen. The next month it was reinstated but put on probation for a three-year period, during which Kim was only allowed to perform procedures that required "general anesthesia and conscious sedation with an anesthesiologist present and on-site," the document says.
An attorney who represented Nguyen's family in a civil lawsuit said in September that suit was settled.
Kim is set to be sentenced on Sept. 8.
Previous 9NEWS reporting is included in this story.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Investigations & Crime
