Woman, 18, in Coma-Like State After Her Breast Enhancement Surgery Goes Wrong
(IBEXNews) - A Colorado teen has been in a coma-like state for months after a breast enhancement surgery went terribly wrong last August, her devastated parents say.
Emmalyn Nguyen, 18, is confined to a bed, unaware of her surroundings due to an anoxic brain injury suffered during the Aug. 1 procedure, the parents allege in a lawsuit filed this week in suburban Denver.
The suit, obtained by the Daily News, accuses Dr. Geoffrey Kim and Nurse Anesthetist Rex Meeker of gross negligence, claiming they failed to property monitor Nguyen after she was administered anesthesia.
It claims medical staff actually left Emmalyn “unobserved” for 15 minutes, a catastrophic breach of the normal standard of care.
When staff returned, they discovered the teen’s “lips and face were blue and that cyanosis was quickly spreading to her upper extremities and torso,” the lawsuit states.
Emmalyn suffered cardiac arrest twice and did not respond to drugs meant to reverse her condition, the paperwork states.
Despite the signs Emmalyn suffered a brain injury, medical staff did not call 911 for more than five hours or alert her mother that something went wrong, the lawsuit claims.
“We’re hoping that she does hear us, that she recognizes our voice,” mom Lynn Pham told KDVR as she stood at her daughter’s hospital bedside during one of her recent daily vigils.
“We try to believe that she can hear us, but we just don’t know,” she said.
Dr. Kim and Meeker did not respond to calls from The News seeking comment Friday.
“We tried our best as a family to protect Emmalyn and kept this private with family and close friends, but we’ve decided to share her story to prevent this from happening to anyone else and to help others be aware of the risk that can happen,” she wrote.
“Please think carefully when trusting your own life under someone else’s hands. This could happen to anyone and unfortunately it happened to our beautiful daughter,” she wrote.
“By sharing this, we just want justice for Emmalyn and prayers she’ll pull through and recover from this,” Pham said.
“Praying for a miracle and hoping Emmalyn will pull through and recover from this,” she wrote in a follow-up post.
