Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen Girl Dies After Botched Enhancement Surgery

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

A Colorado teen saves for months to pay for breast augmentation, but lapses into a coma after being placed under anesthesia. Emmalyn Nguyen, 18, suffered a cardiac arrest after being placed under by nurse anesthetist Rex Meeker. 911 was not call for at least five hours. Nguyen was left brain-dead and died 14 months later. Plastic surgeon Dr. Geoffrey Kim, 52, turned himself in to Arapahoe County sheriff’s officials, charged with manslaughter. Meeker is also facing a felony reckless manslaughter charge. Joining Nancy Grace today: David Woodruff - Denver Trial Lawyers, Representing Emmalyn Nguyen's Family Dr. Jorey Krawczyn - Psychologist, Faculty Saint Leo University; Consultant Blue Wall Institute, Author: Operation S.O.S.  Dan Corsentino - Former Police Chief, Former Sheriff, Served on US Homeland Security Senior Advisory Board, Private Investigator www.dancorsentino.com Dr. Terry J. Dubrow MD, F.A.C.S., "Botched" and ""7 Year Stitch" on E!, Author: "Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig Present The Only Guide You'll Ever Need to the Best Anti-Aging Treatments", "The Dubrow Diet: Interval Eating to Lose Weight and Feel Ageless" and "The Dubrow Ket Fusion Diet”, www.drdubrow.com, Instagram/Twitter @drdubrow, Nicole Partin - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Twitter: @nicolepartin Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A teenage girl dead after botched breast augmentation? Why is a teen girl getting breast implants to start with? That's the question, making a life-changing decision as a teen. die. Is it true that the doctor waited five hours before calling 911? Is that true? Right now, more questions than answers, but let's get some answers. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here on Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. If you think I won't go after a medical doctor, you're very wrong. I don't like people that have all the money, all the education, all the privilege, all the respect. Somehow ducking Lady Justice when she comes a knocking.

First of all, I want you to hear the 911 call. Let me remind you, this is always one of the first things I would play for a jury because unlike any opening statement or any judge's instructions or any witness on the stand or any picture I could show them, the 911 call takes you to the moment of the incident. It's real. It's unadulterated. It cannot be edited, airbrushed. You hear what's happening in the moment as it happened at the time of the incident. And in this case, when a 19 year old girl was lying on a gurney suffering from a botched breast job a boob job listen the address of your emergency uh 7180 what's the east orchard road okay tell me exactly what happened. 206.

Okay. Suite 206. Okay, tell me exactly what happened. Yeah, well, we have a patient who was anesthetized for surgery, and she had a brief asystole, and we need her transported to the ER. And your name, sir? Rex Meeker. Rex, I've got help on the way. Okay, for a 911 emergency call, he didn't sound like there was any emergency going on. And look, again, I'm just a JD, not an MD, but I really want to know what is a brief asystole? That's my first

question. And for that answer, before I introduce everybody, I want to bring in a well-known expert in plastic surgery. You know him well from Botched. I don't know if you haven't seen or at least heard of Botched. You've obviously been living under a rock in a cave, not just in a cave or not just under a rock, but under a rock in a cave. Dr. Terry Dubrow is with us, medical doctor, star of Botched and Seven Years Stitch, author of Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig present the only guy you'll ever need to the best anti-aging

treatments. Now, I found out what that was. He and his wife are the guinea pigs and they test all these theories and regimens and products on themselves. That said, Dr. Dubrow, thank you so much for being with us. I'm going to get away from the guinea pig facet of your practice and focus on the medical doctorate degree that you have. I don't understand what happened here.

But first of all, my question is, what's an asystole? Because this guy, whoever Rex is, doesn't seem very concerned that this teen girl, it says, who was anesthetized for a surgery. That means you're under. I think that's what that means. You're under anesthesia and had a brief asystole. What's that? Okay, so Rex Meeker, that's the nurse anesthetist. That actually was the person who put that patient, that 19-year-old, under anesthesia. When he did that, the patient

had either a reaction or they walked out of the room. That's what the allegation is, they walked out of the room after getting anesthesia. Wait, you mean the anesthetist walked out of the room? That's the allegation, you mean the anesthetist walked out of the room? That's the allegation. That's the criminal complaint. But what's an asystole? What does that mean? A asystole is when the heart stops.

No cardiac rhythm. There's no oxygenated blood being pumped to the body or the brain. And if it's long enough before you start getting the heart pumping again, you've deprived the brain of oxygen. And as it has occurred in this case, Nancy, she went into an irreversible coma. Oh, OK. You're actually, Jackie, I may need a doctor right now because I'm actually getting a chest pain. I'm a CPR. Because this is just a little girl.

I don't know why this little girl is having, I guess, breast implants. Nicole Parton with me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Nicole, was it breast enhancement? Was she getting implants? That's correct. Why does a teen girl need implants? Okay, just hold on just a moment. Just a moment.

A teen girl getting implants. First of all, before I go to all the other guests who are incredible guests, Dr. Jory Cross and psychologists, I need to shrink desperately. Dr. Jory is faculty at St. Leo University. He is a consultant with Blue Wall Institute, and he is an author of Operation SOS. I could go on and on, but Dr. Jory Cross, and who would encourage a teen girl? Dr. Jory, last night, I was up till I don't know what time reviewing and correcting and helping my twins, John, David, and Lucy, on an essay they had to

write for school. Now, the essay had to be point counterpoint, had to be X number of paragraphs. I think it was five or eight. And John Davids was on, oh, his was on adding supplements and enhancements to food. You'll be happy to know he was against it to make it grow faster or bigger or basically genetically engineer it. Lucy, which I found was really interesting, she would pick this out, was whether minors should be able to get tattoos and body piercings. I don't know. She wanted her ears pierced when she was three. During my brief stint on Dancing with the Stars, we were in California and she suddenly

wanted earrings and makeup, ear piercings and makeup. She had been in somebody's sandbox for one hour and came and told me she wanted ear piercings and makeup. Okay. I managed to fight that off until she was 12. And then there was, you know, I had nothing. She got her ears pierced. But Dr. Jory, why would anyone encourage a teen girl to make that kind of decision? Even my little girl, who was 14, at the end of her essay, I was holding my breath, said, this is a decision that should not be made by minors because it is a life-changing decision. Minors are not supposed to buy cars or enter into contracts or buy alcohol or tobacco for a reason because their minds are not fully developed. And a tattoo or a body

piercing can be a lifelong decision. Even my little girl who just got out of the seventh grade, for Pete's sake, knows that. Who would encourage a teen girl to get a boob job? Well, when I was in private practice here with a psychiatrist, we did evaluations on patients that were referred to us that were going to have cosmetic surgery. Sometimes the surgeon would say, you know, I want them checked out to make sure that, you know, they know fully what they're doing. An 18 year old, it appears, you know, from what I read that she was saving up money. So this was something that she had thought about and had been planning for some time. And that could be brought about by her friends.

Her peer pressure could have been brought about by various marketing techniques that they're exposed to. You know, not everyone that makes that decision does it for wrong or mental health problems. You know, some of them look at it and they make the decision understanding the full consequences of what it's going to do. It's almost like, say, a coping mechanism. Just trying to figure out what people around this young girl went along with her decision to get breast implants. Joining me right now, a very special guest, is David Woodruff, high-profile lawyer joining us out of Denver. He's the founding member of the Denver Trial Lawyers at denvertriallawyers.com. Very well respected in the Colorado area and beyond. David Woodruff is representing the family of this girl. I guess you can tell by now, this teen girl passed away. Hey, David Woodruff, hold on one moment. I want you to hear more of

the 911 call by Rex Meeker. I have a few questions for you. Are you with the patient now? I am. How old is the patient? 18. Is she awake? She's not conscious. conscious we've evaluated her and we've we are estimating a Glasgow score of six or seven is she breathing oh yeah she's breathing well she'll keep a sat of

about 95 on room air although we what's the name of the practice? Colorado Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery. And is this called a result of an evaluation by a nurse or doctor? Yeah, I'm a CRNA. Okay. All right. And Dr. Kim has been here. Okay.

Is the fact that the patient is unconscious a sudden or unexpected change in her usual condition? Yes. Okay. Hold on, David Woodruff. You and I are JDs. I need an MD again. Dr. Terry Dubrow is with me. You may know him from Botched or Seven Year Stitch on E.

Dr. Dubrow, what is a Glasgow of six or seven? What does that mean? So glass cow coma scale measures your brain activity. And when you're normally you're 15, when you're wide awake, when you're in a coma, you're six or seven, meaning you have no eye opening, you're not responding to command. Basically, your body is functioning in that your lungs are working, your heart pumping, but you have no real noticeable brain activity. You are in a vegetative state or a coma. Already, and they're just now calling 911. What is a CRNA? Okay, so there's two kinds of medical professionals that can give you anesthesia. One that you're used to is a board-cert certified anesthesiologist. Then there are also nurses that are trained to give anesthesia under

the supervision of a doctor. And so in some surgery centers, in some hospitals, plastic surgeons or other surgeons will use, rather than board certified anesthesiologist, they will use nurses to give anesthesia. And that's what Mr. Meeker was. He is a nurse anesthesia provider. Oh, so N-A means nurse anesthesiologist? That's C-R-N-A, certified registered nurse anesthesia. Gotcha. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. David Woodruff.

I'm a criminal prosecutor. I've been my whole legal career. I don't know even a tiny percentage of what you know about civil cases, but I don't understand what went wrong. At the outset, can I tell you who was a very dear friend of mine? Joan Rivers. Loved her. I was in New York, David, where I lived and was going to go do a hit. I remember exactly what it was with Debbie Norville, Deborah Norville, an inside edition. And Joan Rivers, I was in the building walking to their studio passed me in the hall well I nearly fainted and I didn't think she would remember me when I first

moved to New York I launched a show with the late great Johnny Cochran called Cochran and Grace and during that time Joan had me on her late, late night radio show. She had been thrown off. Remember she had the night talk show. I think she replaced. No, no. She started a late night talk show. And that ended.

And there was a vendetta against her. And she was trying so hard to make good. And she ended up with a radio show at like 11 o'clock at night. And I had first gone to her studios to do her radio show with her. And then we got to be friends and I passed her in the hall that day. And do you know, she spent, I don't know how long, it must've been an hour talking about children, raising children and her daughter, Melissa. She was just the greatest lady. And when I saw that Joan Rivers was having some minor, minor surgery, cosmetic surgery, and died, I mean, it's going to be a cold day in H-E-double-L before I have anything done, no matter how much I might need it.

And I don't understand with a young girl like your client's daughter, how this went so wrong, David Woodruff. Yeah, it's a, it's a really huge travesty, this story. And the parents explain, you know, to answer your first question about, you know, what is an 18 year old, a beautiful 18 year old doing? Having brought breast augmentation. That was my first question when I, when they approached me about. Now, breast augmentation. That was my first question when they approached me. Now, breast augmentation means implants, right? When you add, augment, you augment, you add. Correct?

Right. Boob job, we know it. Yeah. Okay. Yes, breast implants. Terry, it's breast implants. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

David and Dr. Terry Dubrow. I just, I'm scrolling through pictures of Emmalyn and I just hit one of her all crumpled up, kind of headed toward a fetal position in a nursing home with her parents fed via tube and hooked up to an oxygen machine to breathe. And then right below that, there she is on an earlier date, just gorgeous at some restaurant. Just she looks like a model. Sorry, I just saw that picture. It just struck me, David. Would you go ahead? The explanation that I was given by the parents, of course, this young lady was 18 years old.

So parents don't really get it. You know, she's not a minor anymore. They explained that she had been, as we've heard, saving up money. She had just graduated from high school and had been working through high school, saving up money for breast augmentation surgery. And I think this is, we can hear more from the psychologist who can explain what girls are going through in our society today that lead them to want this, but she's a beautiful young lady. And do girls at this age need to have breast augmentation? You know, that's really a different question than the legal question of why in the world did she suffer this kind of injury

and then ultimately die from it? What do you think happened, Dr. Dubrow? You just heard from the family's lawyer, high profile lawyer, fantastic, pristine reputation, David Woodruff. Dr. Dubrow, I don't understand what went wrong. If a teen girl can't get through a surgery, what about the rest of us? I mean, what happened? Okay, so she never had the surgery, Nancy. What happened was, there's either one or two things that happened. I mean, what happened? Okay, so she never had the surgery, Nancy. What happened was, there's either one or two things that happened. I looked at the medical board's description, and I looked at the lawsuit, and the details are somewhere in between the truth. But what happened was, the doctor was out of the room while the anesthesia was initially being given. So the nurse anesthetist gave some Versed, some Propofol,

and some Fentanyl, which are typical. You're giving me a bad throwback. I'm having a flashback to Michael Jackson, Propofol. Right, but this is the standard stuff we use. It is and can be and should be very, very safe. Now, one of the allegations is that the nurse anesthetist gave these medications and left the room for 15 minutes while the patient was under. Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute. Dr. Dubreuil, hold on. I'm trying to keep up with you, but I don't speak your language of medical procedure because I remember the last time I went under, before I went under, I said, where is Dr. Burrell? And then he just kind of like, he must've been on one of those rolly chairs.

He rolled over and looked down. He went, here I am. I'm like, okay. And I remember saying, remember Michael Jackson. Okay. Remember who's given the anesthesia. And that guy rolled over on top and he went right here. I'm like, I have twins that I need to raise. Remember

that? And then that's the last thing I remember. I started counting backwards and the next thing I knew, I woke up. But I didn't know that the doctor leaves once the anesthesia starts because my doctor was right there, Dr. Dubrow. Well, you're not supposed to leave. So the plastic surgeon wasn't even in the room yet. The anesthetist started the anesthesia and either the patient had a reaction to the anesthesia or one of the allegations, the main allegation is that the anesthetist left the room for 15 minutes, not monitoring the patients. And so the patients under anesthesia, they're not being monitored. They stop breathing. Their heart then stops, surprising oxygen to the brain.

And 15 minutes later, one of the nurses notices that the patient is blue and calls the anesthetist in. This is the allegation. The anesthetist comes in, starts resuscitation along with the plastic surgeon. They get cardiac activity back, but the brain, because it's been deprived of oxygen for too long a time, now is irreversibly damaged. And so although the patient was physically alive, they were in a chronic vegetative state, meaning a coma from which they never recovered. Guys, take a listen to our cut three, our friends at Fox 31.

She went in for breast enhancement surgery, something 300,000 women do every year. It's supposed to be low risk, but Emmalyn will never be the same. something 300,000 women do every year. It's supposed to be low risk, but Emmalynn will never be the same. Every single day for the past four and a half months, Sonny Nguyen and his wife, Lin Lam, take familiar steps to a hospital room

to see their oldest child, knowing she will likely never look back at them. You're OK. I'm always right here, OK? I'm right here. I'm always right here. You're OK. 18-year-old Emma Lynn will never see the family photos

on the wall or the words of encouragement that seek a miracle. So we're hoping that she does hear us, that she recognizes our voice. So that's what we're hoping. We try to believe that she can hear us, but we just don't know. The room with the feeding tube and the oxygen machine is Emmalyn's entire world for as long as she may live.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was not supposed to be that way. Joining me, Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Nicole, what do you know? So beautiful, Emmeline, as you said, the images of her, she's stunning. 18 years old, just out of high school. And so her plans were to travel the world. She was just starting into social media. She was wanting to become a travel vlogger and go out videoing and blogging about her travels of the world. And the first start to this big plan that she had was to have the breast augmentation.

She was wanting to feel better about herself, the report says, wanting in her eyes to look her very best. So she had saved all through high school, wanted to get this surgery, and then wanted to travel the world and video vlog about her travels. She had great, great desires to do this. She was loved by her family. Beautiful girl. She had researched the doctor. Her family says that she had went on WebMD and had researched and went in for consultation. And the doctor had said that she was a candidate for this bilateral augmentation. And she followed all the standard procedures the night before the surgery.

But tragically, she never got to pursue her career in travel. You know, Dan Cororsentino with me, former police chief, former sheriff, Homeland Security, senior advisory board, now PI at dancorsentino.com. You know, no offense Dubrow, but it's really hard

to get anything out of doctors. I mean, I have had so many homicide cases where I deal with other doctors other than the medical examiner. And I'm telling you, just trying to get in their office to meet with them. God forbid that I ask them to come down to the courthouse. That's not going to happen. But, I mean, have you ever tried to get a hold of a doctor as a witness and make them sit still for just 30 minutes so you can talk to them?

Yeah, it's extremely difficult to make contact with a physician. And from a law enforcement perspective, that's where you start getting in with the prosecution. As you know better than anybody, trying to get the medical records, the position notes, everything. And there's reasons for that, of course, to David Woodruff, high profile lawyer handling the family civil case in this. I mean, there have been times I've been trying a case where I get medical records during the trial. And of course, I can't use them because they're considered scientific reports. And there is a discovery, a statute that the other side, the defense has to get them X number of weeks before the trial. So, you know, it's great reading, but I can't use any of it because it takes so long to get because typically the patient is protected.

Their privacy is protected. But it's really, I mean, how many times have you tried to depose a doctor? Not you, of course, Dr. Dubrow, because you're perfect. But David Woodruff, I mean, help me. I can't tell you how many times I have taken depositions of doctors and found

that medical records have been withheld, have been altered. The doctor's testimony doesn't match up at all with the medical records. Hospitals often will go through and doctor records and take months to provide them to patients. It's a big issue. It's an issue we face in every lawsuit. And I've got to tell you, again, not you, Dr. Dubrow, because you're perfect.

But David, I have been in aggravated battery where somebody's lost an eyeball or an arm or a leg or a murder case. When I would have the actual attending physician that tried to save their life come in, they fly in in their scrubs and they're like, and they're looking, they're like, I got to be, I'm like, listen, I haven't bothered you on purpose prior to this. We've only talked on the phone because I didn't want to disrupt your schedule and your patience, but you are here to testify and you're going to have to wait like everybody else. I'm going to get you out as quickly as I can. But this is a murder trial, man. So, you know, suck it up, little sister, and get in there. I mean, at a certain point, their schedules, which I know are insane, have to bend for justice. And I don't think they get it. And I'm reaching a point, Woodruff, because I don't know what really happened in that room with Emmeline. I don't know how long she was

left alone. I don't know if the doctor was ever in there. I don't know if she had a reaction to the propofol or something, or if she had some other incident, choke. I don't know, because I don't know if I'm going to get the truth from the medical professionals. And almost every time in a case like this, we don't get the full truth. The doctors are prepared before giving their sworn testimony. They're carefully prepared by their lawyers to say precisely what the lawyer tells them to say. We almost never get the correct truth. Okay to you, Dr. Terry Dubrow. And hey, for the rest of the panel, I know I'm focusing on the doctor and the lawyer so much because I don't really understand the intricacies of this,

what happened to Emmalyn. So when you have a thought, please jump in. Don't wait for me to come to you. Dr. Dubrow, can I tell you what happened? My little nephew was about nine years old when a woman in a van ran over him and he had brain surgery to reduce swelling to the brain. And I was still prosecuting. And instead of having lunch, I would go to the Scottish Rite Hospital every day to see him and be with him. And I remember a little boy specifically, it was in the eighth grade. He'd been playing B-team football and was going to be a quadriplegic forever because of some injury he had. And I mean, when I said that, I mean, his whole life over what one play on a football field,

long story short, the family, they had all the pictures up on the wall. And they would try to talk to him and try to encourage him. And I hear the family here in the room with the pictures on the wall. This is before she passed away, trying to encourage Emmalyn. And it's heartbreaking. And this didn't have to happen, Dr. Dubrow. No, you know, it didn't have to happen. But in this case, there is a lot of evidence. First of all, you know, it didn't have to happen. But in this case, there is a lot of evidence. First of all, you have to understand the medical board does an immediate evaluation when there's been a major.

Do you trust them, Dr. Dubrow? I mean, they're doctors governing other doctors that they probably know. Well, I'm a certified expert for the California Medical Board. I can tell you the California Medical Board and the Colorado Medical Board where this occurred is run by the Attorney General's office now. So these are the police that are running the medical board. So these doctors are interviewed, the records, you are required to submit the records when the medical board asks for them within two weeks. Otherwise, you will be sanctioned. So you do submit. I'm not saying they're necessarily perfectly accurate, but, and then you're interviewed and then there was a civil lawsuit and you have to understand, are you ready for this? Yes. Even though there was just an indictment,

there was just an arrest made for reckless manslaughter and for first degree assault. The medical board in the last two years put the doctor on probation only. So the doctor has been practicing for the last two years and the anesthetist, the nurse anesthetist just surrendered their license. So this doctor for the last two years has been on probation and the rules of probation have been the doctor has to take an ethics course. Oh, please. He has to take an ethics course.

An ethics course and has to have an anesthesiologist, a doctor doing the anesthesia. But other than that, the doctor has been practicing without any restriction. And now, finally, they have made a civil complaint against the doctor and the nurse. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. David Woodruff, the world needs lawyers like you. The world needs doctors like Dr. Dubrow who will speak the truth.

Because I can't even tell you how many jury trials I've tried. But I don't understand the intricacies of a medical mid-mail case like you do. But I can tell you this. After this little girl dies, he, the doctor, gets to keep practicing medicine. Did I hear that right, Woodruff? Yeah, you did, and it's egregious, isn't it? The way that system works is the doctor can hire a lawyer when the medical board, you know, sends him a notice that they're suspending his license pending permanent revocation. He hires a lawyer.

The lawyer fights with the medical board and fights with the attorney general's office. And just like in the criminal world, Nancy, as you've seen a million times, there is a compromise. It's sort of like a plea deal. And the plea deal is he takes, he's put on probation. He is required to have an anesthesiologist perform anesthesia instead of a nurse. Which he probably should have done to start with i mean i guess in 2020 hindsight obviously something went very very wrong i mean what's your theory david woodruff did she have a reaction or do they simply leave her alone like michael jackson was left alone by conrad murray and he died yeah both it's both we had anesthesiology experts review the case. The nurse anesthetist here appears to have given Emmeline a dose of anesthesia, this cocktail, propofol and Versed fentanyl, for a patient about three times her weight. And that is ultimately what caused her to stop breathing.

It's actually a well-known thing that you can, what's called snowing a patient, put them to sleep right away, and it speeds things up. Get her under anesthesia quickly, and you can get her going more quickly. Did you say snowing, as in snowflakes, snowing a patient? Yep, snowing a patient. It's a known thing. And it comes with the risk that the patient will stop breathing. And so, of course, if the doctor and the anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist is paying attention,

as soon as the patient stops breathing, alarms on the anesthesia machine start sounding. They know immediately, and they can do, as Terry can explain, a jaw thrust, which gets her breathing again. And it's a scary five seconds thrust, which gets her breathing again. And it's a scary five seconds, but she'll start breathing again right away. The catch here was that neither the plastic surgeon nor the nurse anesthetist was paying attention. They had turned the sound off or the volume on the alarm down. Oh, my stars. Why? And so, yeah, that's the question is why. And, you know, maybe, Terry, maybe you can talk a little bit about the irritation of hearing alarms going off on an anesthesia machine and how reckless it is.

I bet they're more irritated now. Yeah, Terry, Dr. Dubrow, tell me. I can't bring myself to say Terry to a medical doctor. Go ahead. Call me, doctor. You can call me anything you want. Dubrow, tell me. I can't bring myself to say Terry to a medical doctor. Go ahead. Call me, doctor. You can call me anything you want. Let me just tell you something. You don't wait for the alarms to tell you anything.

You can see on the monitor that the oxygen saturation is starting to go down. Right. And you don't need to wait for it to get to critical levels before you say, oh, there's an issue. And you immediately take countermeasures to reverse that. You intubate the patient. You give them supplemental oxygen. Don't say that. When you say intubate, you mean put the tube down their mouth, down their throat, right?

Yeah, but Nancy, 95% of surgery is done that way. I mean, it's the safest way is to control the airway. So you don't need to wait for the alarms. If you're waiting for the alarm, you're not paying attention. Okay. Maybe because you're not in the room. Yeah. They're not in the room. I mean, if you're in the room and you're looking at the monitor, whether you turn the alarm off or not, and by the way, you can't completely turn the oxygen saturation alarm off. It won't let you. So it's by the time the alarm for oxygen saturation is going off, the patient is that is almost dead. And that's what happened in this case. The oxygen saturation went down so low,

the patient's heart rate started to plummet, which is the end of life. Okay. So this is an unattended, unobserved, inappropriately monitored patient who they basically just ignored and they let stop breathing. And that's just the beginning, Dr. Dubrow, because after the incident where the oxygen saturation, what that means, everybody since COVID, you know about the oxygen sat, as I call it, clip you can put on your finger. And it says what? Pulse ox. A pulse oximeter, correct. And it may say 95 or it may say that tells you the saturation of oxygen in your blood. Anyway, that's what that means.

But that's not where it ended. Take a listen to our cut five, our friends at Fox 31. Woodruff says the staff used CPR to restore Emelyn's heartbeat, but then he says they did something unforgivable. They leave her there on the operating room table for five and a half hours and don't call 911 for five and a half hours while Emmalyn's mother sits in the waiting room unaware of what's happening. The doctor finally came back out to tell me that I wasn't able to go back there to check up on her, but she's still doing fine. She's young. Maybe that's the reason why she's taking longer to wake up.

You don't let my daughter sit there because you thought she was going to wake up. Emmalyn never did wake up. An MRI shows permanent brain damage. Her heart works, but only with artificial help. Our body is still there, but she's not there. So we feel like we lost a daughter. I just want to find out the truth, what happened, and prevent this from happening to other people. And I want to find out the truth, what happened and prevent this from happening to other

people. And I want to find out the truth to go out and tell the parents she's not coming out of anesthesia. She's not waking up very quickly because she's young. What does what does that mean when you don't come out of anesthesia very quickly, Dr. Dubrow? It means that your brain has been injured. It means it either means that there's too much anesthesia and you can't reverse it. Now, there are chemical agents. If you give too much anesthesia, you can reverse that. So maybe you give a couple of doses, you wait a few seconds, but they don't wake up right away. Some things need to be done.

Now, I will tell you, if a patient goes into asystole, meaning their heart is not pumping at all, you automatically call 911. Because even if you can revive them, even if you can immediately wake them up, they need to go to the emergency room to be checked out. So this is wherein lies the criminality, the fact that they just ignored it, hoped and prayed. And they were in a state of denial that the patient was under too much anesthesia for five and a half hours, which is not a possibility. So this is where the criminal case will target the sort of reckless nature of the follow-up and the lack of calling for emergency services. David Woodruff, how did she ultimately, this little girl, a teen girl, how did she die? She suffered such a catastrophic brain injury that she could not recover. So one of the massive problems that patients with anoxic brain injuries face is that their immune system is compromised.

They don't breathe deeply enough. They're often on ventilators, meaning a machine's breathing for them. Emmeline ultimately developed pneumonia 11 months after this happened, and she had been basically catatonic for 11 months and was unable to recover from her pneumonia. And now, another update. Take a listen to our Cut 12, Our friends at 9 News KUSA. This week, the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office arrested Kim. He faces one count of first degree aggravated assault and criminally negligent homicide. Rex Meeker is facing a manslaughter charge. There are very few criminal cases filed against surgeons for botched operations. And it tells us that there's something more going on here

than just mere negligence. Nine News legal expert Scott Robinson says while charges against a doctor are not uncommon, the degree of the charges are. First degree assault convictions are serious business indeed. And they typically involve a minimum mandatory sentence and double digit prison time.

Emmalyn's family knows the criminal case won't bring their daughter back, but they hope what happened between these four walls never happens again. They don't want any other family to ever go through this kind of trauma. So let me understand, David Woodruff, the homicide charge is based on what, I guess, extreme indifference to human life? That's exactly right. So in Colorado, homicide is basically defined as recklessly causing the death of another person. And reckless is defined as an act when a person consciously disregards a substantial and

unjustifiable risk, the result will occur. In other words, not calling 911, knowing this patient has gone into asystole or cardiac arrest twice and not calling 911 is consciously disregarding the fact that she is going to suffer permanent injury or death if she does not get immediate level one emergency care. And Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, is it true that not only did he not call 911, he refused requests by others in the practice to call 911? He wouldn't do it. Absolutely. So it was early in the day, about 2.15. So she was taken back to the operating room at 1.45. Around 2 o'clock, the anesthesia begins.

It's about 2.15 when a nurse comes in, finds her lips are blue, calls the doctor and says, we need to call 911. It's at that point he refuses to call 911. It's five and a half hours later that they make the phone call. Oh, you know, Dan Corsentino, former police chief, now PI, DanCorsentino.com. The only way to really find out what happened that day is to crack somebody that worked there in the practice at that time. Maybe they're gone now. Maybe they've gone to that time. Maybe they're gone now. Maybe they've gone to another job. Maybe they're still there, and you've got to wait for them to walk out

and hit them with a subpoena. I've done it. I've hidden between SUVs and waited for people to come out of their office and literally jump out and go, Hi, I'm Nancy Grace. Here's a subpoena. Bam. And I had to do it because there was no other way for me to get them. Absolutely.

You're going to wait, and you want to make that connection with that individual for the interview and pull them aside and try and get as much information as you can or invite them to coffee, whatever it's going to take. You've got to reduce the fear level. Coffee? That they themselves are going to be somehow directly involved better show up with a subpoena subpoena and a subpoena duke is taken for documents if they have any nobody wants a cup of coffee okay you can try the nice approach you know better have sugar than vinegar but uh good luck with the coffee well no but what saying, Nancy, though, is, yeah, I understand when you get an issue of that subpoena, subpoena just take them. You want all the information.

You want the lab work, the medications, the anesthesia log to create that timeline of inconsistency from what the doctor is saying, what the nurse is saying, to what the facts are as you're going to try and extract them. That's going to be the foundation of everything. Dr. Jory, I just, Dr. Jory Croson, joining me, psychologist, faculty, St. Leo University. What can you, how do you, what do you tell the parents? How do you get them through what's happening? I mean, they haven't been able to grieve because this doctor and the nurse anesthetist have not been brought to justice. Yeah, they've had a long period of time to try to process this and make sense. And I can only imagine the frustration that they've encountered on a daily basis by not getting answers,

by not getting cooperation, by getting stonewalled, hopefully the criminal justice and the civil justice system will give them the answers. I mean, they're starting to come out now, and that's helping kind of bring closure, bring some kind of comprehension to what took place in the last moments of their daughter's life. Dr. Dubrow, everybody you can find Dr. Dubrow at drdubrow.com. You know, when I see a case where a lawyer has done some horrible thing, I'm embarrassed. I'm personally embarrassed because it makes us all look horrible. I'm mortified. I sometimes wish I hadn't even read about it. That's why they have so many lawyer jokes,

okay? We know why, because lawyers deserve every joke told about them. You're not just a plastic surgeon, but one of the most famous plastic surgeons there are in the U.S. How does this make you feel when you hear about one of your brethren doing something like this, refusing to call 911? It's bad enough what happened, but then to say, no, we're not going to call 911 yet. Well, it's grossly incompetent. You know, I've been a certified expert for the California Medical Board for 21 years, reviewing doctors' conduct every single year on cases exactly like this.

And what I don't really understand is when there's been such gross levels of incompetence, why they allow the doctor just to get a slap in the hand and get probation with an ethics course allowed to continue practicing medicine. I mean, you know, the first rule of being a physician, you say it the day you graduate med school, is first do no harm. And to have a cardiac arrest twice and not be able to get the patient awake and not call 911 is such a gross level of incompetence that I don't know why a medical board wouldn't just say, okay, no matter what, your license is suspended right now. Period. End of story. We're not letting you practice. And then let the smoke clear. Get all the records.

Figure out what happened. You shouldn't have to depend on the criminal justice system two years after the incident to really get to the details and really figure out whether this doctor and the medical team should be allowed to continue practice medicine. So I don't really understand what happened. I'd like to know more details. If this was the case I was reviewing for the California Medical Board, I would give my usual recommendation, which is this is an extreme deviation from the standard of care. It shows a gross incompetence and fundamental lack of knowledge, and the doctor should be suspended. And so I don't know.

The only good news now is once there is a criminal indictment, that does go back to the medical board. And the medical board typically, at least in California, will suspend a doctor until that criminal case has been adjudicated. I tell you, David Woodruff, I do not envy you. I wish you so much luck with this. You know, here's a problem, David. For me, anyway, juries love medical doctors. Love them.

You're going to have to fight fire with fire because you've got to bring in another great doctor, like Dubrow, to make the jury love him or her. Because when this guy comes in, you know, he's going to be very persuasive and likable. And I tell you what, David Woodruff, you got your work cut out for you. And Godspeed, I cannot even imagine what these parents have gone through, probably blaming themselves, thinking every day, what could I have done differently? I shouldn't have let her do it. How are they, David? They're devastated, as you can expect. They miss their daughter tremendously. They regret every day having her go to Dr. Kim and his practice.

You know, they wish they could go back and do this all again and discourage her. Oh, dear Lord in heaven, be with this family. Good luck to you, David Woodruff. Dr. Jory, Dan Corsentino, Nicole, thank you for letting me speak so much with Dr. Dubrow and David Woodruff. Dr. Dubrow, I'll see you on the airwaves. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.