Former doctor jailed for death of patient in 2009 liposuction procedure

SINGAPORE: A former doctor was sentenced to four months' jail on Thursday (Jun 16) for causing the death of his patient during a liposuction procedure in 2009.

Wong Meng Hang, 46, pleaded guilty to a charge of committing a rash act not amounting to culpable homicide.

The patient, 44-year-old Franklin Heng Ang Tee, was undergoing a liposuction procedure at Reves Clinic on Dec 30, 2009 when he was placed under deep sedation and could not be roused.

Wong admitted to instructing another doctor, Dr Zhu Xiu Chun, 59, to give Mr Heng an excessive dose of the sedative propofol. Wong also admitted to failing to monitor Mr Heng adequately.

The excessive sedation caused Mr Heng to be unable to maintain his own airway, according to an expert anaesthetist. Mr Heng died of asphyxia due to airway obstruction, a coroner's inquiry found.

Both Wong and Dr Zhu were found to lack the necessary training and experience to administer propofol as a sedative.

Wong had no formal training on the use of sedatives, and had learnt by observing a freelance anaesthetist at the clinic.

Dr Zhu had only used propofol in a minority of her cases and would usually involve a trained anaesthetist when sedation was required.

In 2018, the Court of Three Judges ordered Wong to be struck off the register of medical practitioners, while Dr Zhu was suspended for 18 months.

That court said the incident was "among the most egregious cases of medical misconduct we have come across".

DOCTOR LIED

Some time after the liposuction procedure was completed, Wong noticed that Mr Heng looked pale and was drowsy. He took Mr Heng's pulse and found that the man could not be roused.

Wong activated "code blue" for a life-threatening medical emergency and unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate Mr Heng.

The clinic called an ambulance at about 4.30pm. When paramedics arrived, Wong twice lied to them that he had not given his patient propofol.

At the hospital, Wong again lied to doctors that his patient was not given any sedation. Mr Heng was pronounced dead at 6pm, about an hour after arriving at the hospital.

Wong later amended the timings in his post-procedure notes to shorten the time between his discovery that Mr Heng was drowsy and being unable to rouse him, from 20 minutes down to five minutes.

During investigations, Wong was also inconsistent about the amount of propofol he ordered Dr Zhu to administer.

All his claims were false as they would have resulted in much lower levels of propofol than that actually found in Mr Heng's blood, court documents stated.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan, Andre Chong and Goh Qi Shuen sought four to six months' jail.

Wong's rash acts were "not once-off incidents but constitute a series of continued rash decisions" over the course of the procedure lasting more than three hours, they said.

"The risk was plainly unnecessary as there was no need to use propofol, a potent sedative," argued the prosecutors.

They also said that the manner in which the procedure was carried out breached at least five licensing conditions and international guidelines.

Wong was charged and prosecuted after the conclusion of the coroner's inquiry, regulatory action by the Ministry of Health and Singapore Medical Council proceedings.

TODAY previously reported that the High Court ordered Wong and Dr Zhu to pay Mr Heng's estate S$5.3 million in damages in 2015.

Dr Zhu was earlier given a charge of abetting a rash act not amounting to culpable homicide. She claimed trial, which is set to commence in September.

The offence of committing a rash act not amounting to culpable homicide, or abetting such an act, carries a penalty of up to five years' jail, a fine or both.