Well-known Singaporean plastic surgeon Martin Huang is in the
spotlight again.
This time, a 17-year-old girl is suing the surgeon for
pain, suffering, extreme mental distress and trauma arising from
photographs taken of her without her underwear before an operation.
Her mother filed the lawsuit on her behalf last month.
The clinic, The Specialist Surgery & Laser Centre, where Dr
Huang is a director, has been named as the second defendant.
Both the clinic and Dr Huang have denied the allegations in
their defence, filed on Monday, reported The New Paper.
It’s not the first time Dr Huang has hit the headlines.
In 2009, Dr Huang was fined $5,000 by the Singapore Medical
Council and censured for professional misconduct over a
cell-therapy treatment he performed.
In this latest case, the girl, who is not named, visited Dr
Huang’s clinic with her mother and younger sister on Nov 29 last
year. She wanted to get a scar revision and contouring of
underlying fat on her left upper thigh.
Her mother signed a consent form, acknowledging photographs may
be taken as part of confidential medical records.
An hour later, the girl was brought to an operating room where
she removed her clothes and put on disposable underwear, a medical
gown and an overcoat.
She was soon informed photographs would be taken, and after some
discussion, she was allowed to wear her bra but a nurse removed her
underwear. During the 20-minute process which involved Dr Huang, a
nurse, another female staff member and a photographer, the girl
said she “felt that her privacy had been completely violated”.
A total of seven photos were taken of her upper thigh and
surrounding area. No pictures of the girl’s face or upper body
were taken. But she claims that Dr Huang and the nurse
did not bother to explain or reassure her why she had to remove her
underwear for the photo-taking process.
She said she felt humiliated, afraid and confused after the
surgery and recounted the incident to her mother over the
phone.
She claimed to have suffered severe mood swings and was
depressed for a few days after the incident. She said she had to
seek post-operative care at another clinic.
She also claimed the consent form did not state that full
nudity was involved and that Dr Huang had failed to treat her in a
professional manner, abused his position of trust as her doctor and
was negligent in performing his duty of care.
She further alleged Dr Huang and clinic staff had committed
trespass to her by way of assault and battery.
The girl is also seeking a court order for the delivery of all
the photos in documentary and electronic form and for the photos to
be deleted from the computer database.
No amounts were specified in the lawsuit but damages sought
include medical expense claims and transport expenses to another
clinic, said TNP.
WHO TO BELIEVE?
In their defence, Dr Huang and the clinic said the girl and
mother “expressly consented” to the photo-taking of the scare and
surrounding area.
Dr Huang and the clinic denied the allegations of negligence,
battery and assault. They claimed the girl’s pain, mental
distress and trauma, if any, were caused by what happened between
the girl and her parents after the operation.
They claimed the girl appeared comfortable while waiting in the
operating room. Dr Huang said he explained that photos of her
lower torso and thigh would have to be taken to document her
pre-operative condition and to assist in the post-operative
analysis.
It was his standard practice to request she remove her clothes
so the photographer could take photos of the scar. They claimed to
have told her the photos would be taken quickly.
Dr Huang and the clinic claimed the photo-taking was uneventful
and the girl “voluntarily positioned herself” as instructed. The
session took less than three minutes and the girl’s face was not
photographed, they said.
The girl apparently was “cheerful” during and immediately after
the procedure. She looked pleased and said goodbye to Dr Huang
before she left the room.
However, according to Dr Huang, she became “increasingly upset”
in a subsequent phone conversation with her mum. She then told a
nurse her mother was upset her underwear had been removed, to which
the latter replied that it was standard procedure and part of the
medical management for her condition.
After the girl again spoke to her parents on the phone and
appeared upset, the nurse took over and spoke to them. But they
refused to accept the explanation for the removal of the
underwear.
When she left, the teen “was clearly upset by what her parents
had said to her, and how she should answer to her parents’
accusations,” they alleged.
Plastic surgeons told Yahoo! Singapore it is standard procedure
to take photos of patients.
Dr Woffles Wu said, “It’s 100 per cent neccessary to take
photographs of any body part that is being operated on. And if it’s
at the thigh and groin area, you have to remove
the panties.”
He will not perform procedures on patients who refuse to
take photos. “It protects us and the client as well. In case of a
dispute, the photo is there for evidence of what has or hasn’t been
done.”
To prevent miscommunications, Dr Wu said, “You have to discuss
things with patients thoroughly before hand”.
He added, patients also have to be “mature” to accept that
results may not be as discussed since plastic surgery is an
“inexact science”.
Perhaps there should have been clearer explanation in this
situation, said Dr Ivor Lim. He agreed that ”plastic surgeons
always take photographs of the patient” to asses pre- and
post-operation results.
But Dr Lim will defer to patients’ request if they insist on
not being photographed.
Last year, the Consumers Association of Singapore received four
cases of feedback regarding unsatisfactory results
from plastic surgery. There were no cases in 2009, and six in
2008.
-- Yahoo! News
