A Colorado plastic surgeon whose staff administered seven times the required amount of anesthetic to a teenage girl undergoing breast augmentation surgery and then waited five hours to get help when she stopped breathing will spend just 15 days behind bars .
Dr. Geoffrey Kim, 54, was found guilty in June of attempted reckless homicide and obstructing telephone service for expressly prohibiting his staff from calling 911 for hours after Emmalyn Nguyen turned blue, went into cardiac arrest and fell into a coma. The Arapahoe County Circuit Court jury ultimately acquitted the doctor of the most serious charge against him – manslaughter.
Kim was sentenced on Thursday, November 16. After serving 15 days in jail, according to court records obtained by Fox News Digital, he will remain on probation for two years.
Kim must pay about $70,000 in fines and complete 120 hours of community service at a facility for those with brain injuries, according to Arapahoe County court records.
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Dr. Geoffrey Kim was sentenced to just 15 days behind bars and two years of probation last week for attempted reckless homicide stemming from the death of Emmalyn Nguyen during a breast augmentation procedure. (Arapahoe Sheriff’s Department/David Woodruff)
The Colorado Board of Medicine suspended Kim’s license indefinitely on Nov. 17. the board acknowledged the suspension in a Monday email to Fox News Digital, but did not comment further.
In August, the body allowed him to continue practicing on condition he disclosed his conviction to prospective clients. Fox News Digital could not reach the medical board for comment by press time.
Nguyen, then an 18-year-old recent graduate of Mountain Range High School, saved up $6,000 for the procedure, which took place on Aug. 1, 2019, her mother said. CBS News in December 2019, when her daughter was living in a vegetative state. After a 14-month coma, Nguyen died in a hospice at the age of 19.
Although her heart was still beating, family attorney David Woodruff previously told Fox News Digital that her brain had been severely damaged by prolonged oxygen deprivation.
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Emmalyn Nguyen died after a botched breast augmentation procedure after Dr. Geoffrey Kim waited five hours to call 911. (David Woodruff)
Nurses who worked with Kim at Colorado Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery testified that they wanted to call for help when Nguyen’s heart stopped beating during her breast augmentation procedure — but after performing CPR on the girl, Kim he said not to do it.
“Not only does he not call 911 himself, but [Kim] telling every other staff member in the operating room that they can’t even call 911,” prosecutor Kelsey Tipps said in her opening statements at the trial, according to the Canon City Daily Record.
Kim gave Nguyen’s mother repeated assurances that her daughter was okay as the hours passed. Eventually, after the woman demanded to see her daughter, emergency services were called.
When first responders arrived at his office, Tipps told jurors, Kim told them she had just gone into cardiac arrest, further delaying proper medical care.
“The huge irony here is that 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 told the court.
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Emmalyn Nguyen, left, in a vegetative state after a botched breast augmentation. He died over a year later. At right, Nguyen is seen at her high school graduation. (David Woodruff)
Rex Meeker, the former anesthesiologist at the Greenwood, Colorado clinic, faced charges of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Those charges were dismissed in September 2022, and Meeker would continue to testify against Kim.
“I told him we have to send her to the hospital,” Meeker said on the stand, FOX 31 reported. “It’s standard operating procedure.”
According to court documents, Meeker saw Nguyen “turn blue.”
Investigators later determined Meeker had administered seven times the amount of fentanyl to the teenager, according to court documents.
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Nguyen reportedly went into cardiac arrest before Kim made his first incision, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The anesthesiologist would voluntarily surrender his license, according to Colorado Medical Board documents — despite Kim’s “orders” to the contrary, the board said, Meeker was required to call 911 when Nguyen stopped breathing.
Kim’s defense team argued in court that no matter how late emergency services were, the amount of fentanyl administered would have been fatal.
“[Prosecutors] have a big discussion about how this delay happened,” John Richilano, Kim’s lawyer, said at the doctor’s criminal trial in June. “And it shouldn’t have been that long – period. But it was not a result. He did not cause Emmalyn’s injury.’
Lynn Fam cares for her daughter, Emmalyn Nguyen, who suffered severe brain damage and later died after a botched breast augmentation. (David Woodruff)
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Richilano said he did not know why Meeker administered the massive dose, according to the Canon City Daily Record.
“But Mr. Meeker did. All the while Emmalyn was under his sole care, and Dr. Kim was in the hallway, waiting for the patient to be ready for her surgery,” Richilano told jurors.
Fox News Digital could not immediately reach Richiliano or a spokesperson for the Colorado Medical Board at press time.
Nguyen’s mother, Lynn Fam, declined to comment Monday, saying she was still “processing” her daughter’s death and Kim’s sentence.
Kim reportedly paid $1 million to Nguyen’s family in an out-of-court settlement, per CBS News.
