SINGAPORE - Two people were charged in court on Monday (Jan 20) for causing the death of real estate firm boss Franklin Heng after a botched liposuction in 2009.
The high-profile case was Singapore's first recorded death resulting from aesthetic treatment.
Wong Meng Hang, 44, was charged with one count of committing a rash act causing death.
Zhu Xiu Chun, also known as Myint Myint Kyi, 56, was charged with one count of abetting Wong in his rash act.
Both were doctors at an aesthetics clinic, known then as Reves Clinic, in Orchard Road.
On Dec 30, 2009, Wong performed liposuction on 44-year-old Mr Heng who was then the chief executive of property management firm YTL Pacific Star. Wong was assisted by Zhu.
Wong chose to sedate Mr Heng with propofol, an anaesthetic drug and potent sedative. This was despite he and Zhu lacking the necessary training and experience to administer Propofol safely or according to the manufacturer's instruction, which states it should only be administered by physicians trained in anaesthesia or in the management of patients under intensive care.
He instructed Zhu to increase the drug dosage whenever Mr Heng was observed to show any signs of responding to pain stimulation, movement or discomfort.
The dosage of propofol administered by Zhu proved excessive, and caused Mr Heng to enter a state of deep sedation to the point of general anaesthesia.
While Wong had inadvertently caused multiple punctures to Mr Heng's intestines during the three-hour procedure, these wounds went unnoticed as the heavily sedated patient did not show any signs of pain.
After the procedure, Mr Heng was left unattended in the room by Wong and Zhu for at least five minutes.
It was during this period that his airway collapsed and he suffocated.
Propofol can impede respiration and cause the recipient's blood pressure to fall. An overdose of the drug had led to the death of pop singer Michael Jackson just months before, in June 2009.
Mr Heng was subsequently taken to hospital but died without regaining consciousness, despite resuscitation attempts by the hospital's doctors.
Wong and Zhu were fined $26,000 and $8,000 respectively by the State Courts in 2014 for not carrying out proper procedures in other liposuction cases. They had also been ordered by the Court of Appeal to pay $3.26 million in total damages to Mr Heng's family in 2016.
In November 2018, the Court of Three Judges, comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and Judith Prakash, ordered that Wong be struck off the register and Zhu be suspended for 18 months.
The court also ordered then that the case be reported to the Public Prosecutor so that the duo could be investigated for criminal offences that may have been committed, including that of causing death by rash or negligent acts.
For causing death by rash act, Wong and Zhu can each be sentenced to a maximum of five years' imprisonment, or a fine, or both.
They are expected to be back in court on Feb 21.
