A Denver-area plastic surgeon has been arrested in connection with the death of an 18-year-old patient who died after undergoing breast augmentation surgery. The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday that Dr. Geoffrey Kim turned himself into police after an arrest warrant was issued on charges of first-degree aggravated assault and criminally negligent homicide. The charges stem from a procedure at Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery on Aug. 1, 2019, during which 18-year-old Emmalyn Nguyen went into cardiac arrest. She spent more than a year in a coma before passing away in October 2020. David Woodruff, an attorney for Nguyen’s family, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Kim alleging the teen “was left unobserved in the operating room” after she was administered anesthesia, The Denver Postreported. After she was left alone for several minutes, staff returned to find her “lips and face were blue,” the complaint said. Rex Meeker, a nurse anesthetist at the plastic surgery center, also faces a manslaughter charge in connection with Nguyen’s death, but he has not yet been taken into custody, according to the sheriff’s office.
