18-year-old wanted breast implants. Now she has permanent brain damage, CO suit says

What was meant to be a two-hour procedure for breast augmentation left an 18-year-old woman permanently brain damaged, her family says.

Emmalyn Nguyen, from Thornton, Colorado, went to Greenwood Village Dr. Geoffrey Kim for breast implant surgery on Aug. 1. According to the lawsuit filed by her family against the doctor, Nguyen wasn’t monitored for the first 15 minutes after being administered anesthesia.

She went into cardiac arrest but Kim performed CPR and stabilized her. Nguyen went into cardiac arrest for a second time and was stabilized again, but no one called 911 for five hours even though she was “neurologically unresponsive,” the suit says.

The family has sued on Nguyen’s behalf against Kim and nurse anesthetist Rex Meeker for negligence.

Meeker called 911 and Nguyen was taken to the Littleton Adventist Hospital ICU and stayed there for 22 days. She didn’t show signs of recovery from brain damage and was eventually transferred to Vibra Hospital of Denver, where she is now. She’s still in a “minimally conscious neurological state” and requires around-the-clock care, according to the lawsuit.

“Her body is still there but she’s not there, so we feel like we lost a daughter,” Lynn Fam, Nguyen’s mother, told Fox 31.

Nguyen’s family told CBS4 that she will likely be in this state “for the rest of her life.”

Fam also told CBS4 that she had been “misled” about what was happening to her daughter during the procedure. She said that Dr. Kim told her, ”Everything went fine, the only thing is we didn’t proceed with the procedure because her heart rate dropped but she is fine. He said everything is fine, Emmalyn is fine, everything is good. She’s young, she’s healthy, she’ll be okay, it’s just taking her long to wake up.”

Nguyen’s parents told Fox 31 that their daughter “wanted to improve her self-image” by getting implants.

Meeker was sued for a similar case in 2009 after he served as the nurse anesthetist for Paula Harty’s breast implant surgery. Harty died after she suffered brain damage during the procedure. Her husband sued and the case was settled in 2012, according to Fox 31.