ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — Last month, state regulators suspended the license of a plastic surgeon who was convicted in the death of an 18-year-old patient after they recently learned about a second patient who went into cardiac arrest during a 2020 procedure but survived.
In June 2023, an Arapahoe County jury convicted Dr. Geoffrey Kim of attempted manslaughter and obstruction of telephone service related to the 2020 death of 18-year-old Emmalyn Nguyen. He was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide. Kim was sentenced to 15 days in jail and two years on probation in November last year, but was still allowed to practice medicine.
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.
Court records show Kim's Colorado medical license was briefly suspended in January 2020, as a result of the situation 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.
Last month, the Colorado Medical Board panel reviewed the findings of an investigation related to a complaint made in 2023. The actual incident occurred in October 2020 while Kim was on probation related to Nguyen's cardiac arrest.
Documents obtained by 9NEWS Investigates indicate that a woman went into cardiac arrest during a procedure on Oct. 14, 2020. According to the letter, which ordered Kim's license to be suspended, chest compressions were given for several minutes until the patient was successfully resuscitated.
It's noted that the patient's significant other was allowed to drive her to an emergency room in a private vehicle. She was admitted to the hospital and remained there until the next day.
The letter says that multiple providers noted "disbelief" in her hospital chart that she had "walked in" for care. It goes on to say that an ambulance should have been called and that the patient had just emerged from anesthesia and was not in a position to make decisions about her medical care.
There were also "significant" discrepancies related to the length of resuscitation the patient received. The hospital note indicated it was 30 seconds, while an anesthesia record documented it lasted four minutes.
The letter says the decision not to contact EMS was a "significant error" and a "clear violation" of the standard of care.
Kim's license was suspended effective 4 p.m. on June 18.
