Emmalyn Nguyen Biography
Emmalyn Nguyen was a Colorado teenager who suffered cardiac arrest during a breast implant procedure in August in 2019 and was left with severe brain damage. She died on October 4, 2020, 14 months after the procedure.
Emmalyn Nguyen Age
She was 19 years old at the time of her death.
Emmalyn Nguyen Parents
She is the daughter of Lynn Pham and Sonny Nguyen
Emmalyn Nguyen Mother
Her mother is Lynn Pham, who according to the family lawyer said that the doctor’s office told her that her daughter was fine and just slow to wake up from the anesthesia. Kim told Pham that the procedure would have to be postponed, but he did not tell her they had twice performed CPR on Nguyen after she had suffered cardiac arrest.
Pham said she decided to share the story of her daughter to prevent such a thing happening to anyone else.
“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.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.”
Emmalyn Nguyen Surgery
Emmalyn underwent breast augmentation surgery on Aug. 1, 2019 at the office of Dr. Geoffrey Kim. His practice, the Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery center, conducts invasive surgeries but is not subject to licensing, regulation, or inspection by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which regulates other medical facilities like hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and nursing homes.
Her family alleged in a lawsuit that she was left unattended for 15 minutes after receiving anesthesia. She then suffered cardiac arrest twice during the procedure, the medical professionals overseeing her care did not call 911 for more than five hours. She was left unable to walk, speak, eat, or take care of herself and was likely to remain in a neurologically unresponsive state for the rest of her life.
Emmalyn Nguyen Go Fund Me
Emmalyn Nguyen Lawsuit
Nguyen’s parents have filed a lawsuit in Arapahoe County accusing Dr. Geoffrey Kim and Nurse Anesthetist Rex Meeker of gross negligence. The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Geoffrey Kim and nurse anesthetist Rex Meeker, left Nguyen “unobserved” for 15 minutes after putting her under anesthesia, which the parents claim is contrary to medical best practices. During their absence, something went wrong with the anesthesia. As a result, Nguyen now lives “in a permanent ‘semi-conscious’ state” and faces “permanent mental and physical impairment” from her brain injury that requires round-the-clock care, including a permanent feeding tube, the suit says.
The lawsuit says that after the anesthesiologist and nurse returned from leaving Nguyen unobserved, the doctor found that the teen’s lips and face had turned blue and that discoloration was spreading across her body.
After checking her vital signs, the doctor and nurse discovered that Nguyen had suffered cardiac arrest and after a short pause they performed CPR for two to three minutes before Nguyen’s heart rate and pulse returned. Nguyen crashed again, however, requiring another three minutes of CPR before she stabilized. The lawsuit claims she appeared “neurologically unresponsive” after that and had likely suffered a brain injury, but the doctors waited five hours to call 911.
After Nguen’s death, the family attorney said the lawsuit will now become a case of wrongful death.
“In terms of the lawsuit filed against the plastic surgeon, Geoffrey Kim, M.D. and nurse-anesthetist, Rex Meeker, CRNA who caused Emmalyn’s catastrophic brain injury on Aug. 1, 2019: that lawsuit will continue as a wrongful death lawsuit by Emmalyn’s parents and siblings. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Emmalyn’s parents believe it is important to tell Emmalyn’s story, not only to bring her some justice but also to help prevent this from ever happening to another patient.”
Emmalyn Nguyen Death
Nguyen died on October 4, 2020 but her family didn’t want death publicized until the day of her funeral which was held on October 11, 2020.