One of Asia’s richest families is suing a Korean hospital for misconduct after one of its scions died from complications following cosmetic surgery at the clinic, according to a Hong Kong news outlet.
In late January, the Korean police announced Bonnie Evita Law, the 34-year-old granddaughter of textile tycoon Law Ting-pong, died after falling into a coma following a liposuction procedure and breast augmentation at a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday said the younger Law’s widower, Danny Chi, filed a lawsuit in a Hong Kong court against two doctors and a nurse at the Ollim Plastic Surgery clinic, for what he claimed was “gross negligence, green and incompetence” on the hospital’s part.
Law Ting-pong is the founder of the Bossini clothing chain, a massive apparel retailer and franchiser based in Hong Kong that operates over 900 locations worldwide. The Law family is believed to have a net worth of around $7.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Bonnie Law visited the clinic in question at the introduction of a broker specializing in connecting foreign clients to Korean surgery clinics, and underwent liposuction and breast augmentation on Jan. 21 to celebrate her 35th birthday.
The surgery was headed by a doctor that the SCMP identified as Kim Sung-il along with another surgeon and a nurse, but with no anesthesiologists present. After the patient complained of intense pain, Kim allegedly had the other surgeon inject her with a mixture of sedatives twice, but her state quickly deteriorated as she began bleeding from her mouth and nose, according to a writ the SCMP cited.
There were few reports on Law’s death at the clinic at the time because police did not reveal the identity of the patient, as the case remains under investigation. A postmortem report on Law’s death was expected to be delivered next month, the report said.
Chi further told the SCMP he was seeking damages against the hospital that include the loss of a third of his father-in-law’s estate owing to his wife’s death. The family said the clinic had performed no preliminary testing on Law to verify whether she had allergies to the anesthetics used in the surgery, and that the clinic had forged her signature on a consent form that said the hospital takes no responsibility for the consequences from the surgery.
Kim sent a message of apology to Law’s father through a messaging app, according to Chi. The family is set to file a separate lawsuit against the hospital in a Korean court.
SUNGYESA
