ALTHOUGH he looked trim and fit, he was troubled by his love
handles.
His quest for perfection cost him his life after a liposuction
operation went horribly wrong.
Now, his family is seeking at least $1 million in compensation
from the clinic that performed the procedure and the two doctors
who own the practice, reported Lianhe Zaobao yesterday.
On Dec 30, 2009, 44-year-old Franklin Heng (left) was rushed by
ambulance from Reves Clinic to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).
The chief executive officer of YTL Pacific Star, a property
management firm, was pronounced dead at 6pm the same day despite
attempts by TTSH doctors to save him.
Although Mr Heng showed no signs of life when he arrived at the
hospital just after 5pm that day, doctors spent almost an hour
trying to resuscitate him.
Mr Heng’s death certificate indicated that he had died from
punctures to his intestines sustained during liposuction
surgery.
His death is the first in Singapore to be linked to liposuction,
a surgical procedure in which fat is drawn out through a tube
attached to a suction device while the patient is under general
anaesthesia or sedation.
He left behind a will and his family have appointed Rockwills
Trustee Limited as its administrator.
MOH ordered clinic to stop
According to its website, Rockwills Trustee provides various
types of trustee businesses, ranging from estate administration,
private trust services to corporate trust services.
It is now representing the beneficiaries of his estate in the
civil suit against Reves Clinic and its partners – general
practitioners Dr Jim Wong, 35, and Dr Zhu Xiu Chun.
Following the death, the Health Ministry ordered the clinic at
International Building on Orchard Road to stop offering liposuction
and liposuction-related procedures.
The family claims in its lawsuit that Reves Clinic did not
perform a thorough examination of Mr Heng’s abdomen and that it was
not aware that performing liposuction on the same area could lead
to complications.
It is believed that Mr Heng had liposuction surgery done
previously in the same abdominal area. It is not known who
performed the previous operation.
The family claimed that Dr Wong had not reminded Mr Heng of the
risks of the surgery before the operation.
These included which areas of the body posed more risks during
the operation and the possibility that his organs could be
perforated during surgery.
The family also claimed that the clinic did not inform Mr Heng
of the risks of having anaesthesia administered by someone other
than a hospital anaesthetist.
The statement of claims said that when Mr Heng first saw Dr Wong
on Dec 4, 2009, he (Mr Heng) had been asked to sign a consent form
and told that the clinic would make the surgery arrangements on the
same day.
It alleged that Mr Heng’s injuries – 13 puncture wounds in his
abdomen and one wound each in his appendix and colon – could not
have happened unless there was negligence or incompetence on the
part of Dr Wong.
The family was also unhappy that the defendants did not arrange
for an anaesthetist to administer the anaesthesia and to monitor
his condition.
It claimed that checks on Mr Heng’s blood pressure, heart rate
and breathing were not performed regularly during and after the
surgery, and that the clinic did not ensure that these readings
were normal or stable.
Previous marriage
Mr Heng has a son and daughter from his previous marriage. In
addition to giving his ex-wife and two children $9,000 in living
expenses, he had also paid for their travel expenses and other
expenditures.
His 90-year-old mother also incurs up to $1,000 in household
expenses a month and now has to pay for her own medical fees. Mr
Heng was previously paying his mother’s expenses.
Mr Heng had said that he would pay for his children’s overseas
university education and that he had expressed a wish to buy each
of them a piece of property and a car, said the family.
Lianhe Zaobao reported that Dr Wong had said in his statement of
defence that he had told Mr Heng of a seven-day “cooling off”
period before the surgery and that he could take as long as he
wanted to make a decision.
Dr Wong added that he had carried out a physical check-up on Mr
Heng and had found no abnormalities.
He informed Mr Heng of the risks of performing liposuction more
than once, and had checked with him if he had gone through the
procedure before.
Dr Wong also pointed out that although piercing the abdominal
wall during liposuction was a rare occurrence, in Mr Heng’s case it
was not a wound but a natural result of the surgery.
Dr Zhu was on hand to observe the procedure and, as Mr Heng’s
vital signs were stable, he had no reason to believe that his
condition would suddenly deteriorate.
When Mr Heng’s condition took a turn for the worse, he mobilised
all the medical staff in the clinic to treat Mr Heng.
As for Dr Zhu, she was said to be monitoring his vital signs and
was not directly involved in the surgery.
Although she was not an anaesthetist, she was said to be
experienced in assisting anaesthetists since 1993.
In the past, both she and Dr Wong had helped to monitor the
vital signs of each other’s clients without incident.
A pre-trial hearing has been set for next week.
Close friends of the divorced father of two said that although
he was “fit, trim and in the pink of health”, he was concerned
about the “love handles” around his abdominal area, The Straits
Times had reported.
-- TNP
