Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 23, 2025

Liposuction doctor guilty of manslaughter over death of dance instructor

Liposuction doctor guilty of manslaughter over death of dance instructor

Vanessa Kwan convicted of one count of gross negligence manslaughter at High Court. Josephine Lee died in 2014 after procedure at Regrowth Hair Transplant Centre.

A doctor has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over a fatal liposuction treatment at a Hong Kong beauty centre seven years ago.

Dr Vanessa Kwan Hau-chi, 38, was convicted by a High Court jury of four men and three women on Monday over the death of Josephine Lee Kar-ying, 32, on June 26, 2014.

The unanimous verdict was reached after eight hours of deliberations following directions from Madam Justice Susana D’Almada Remedios.

The judge will hear mitigation and sentence the doctor on September 3.

“This is an extremely serious offence and I can see no other sentence than one of immediate imprisonment,” she said in revoking Kwan’s bail.

Manslaughter is punishable by life imprisonment.

Pro-establishment lawmaker Alice Mak Mei-kuen, who had been providing assistance to Lee’s family, said they welcomed the verdict and thanked the investigators’ efforts over the past seven years.

Mak also appealed to the government to follow up on the case and enhance regulation and law enforcement to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

A High Court jury reached its unanimous verdict in eight hours.


The court previously heard Lee was a dance instructor who weighed 113.5kg (250lbs) before receiving treatment from her schoolmate, Kwan, at the Regrowth Hair Transplant Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lee received her first liposuction, targeting her abdomen, on April 20 of the same year, and returned on June 26 for a second session to remove back fat.

Her cause of death cannot be ascertained, but experts have ruled out overdose of anaesthetics, trauma, haemorrhage and infection.

Prosecutor Juliana Chow Hoi-ling said Kwan, as the only registered medical doctor present in the operating room during the three-hour liposuction procedure, owed a duty of care to Lee.

Kwan was accused of having failed to take reasonable care of the woman’s safety, and that breach amounted to gross negligence that was a substantial cause of death.

In particular, Kwan was said to have failed to ensure a properly qualified person – such as an anaesthetist – was present to administer and monitor the sedation, and to follow the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine’s guidelines on procedural sedation.

Kwan was further accused of failing to ensure sufficient oxygen supply during Lee’s liposuction, as well as providing her with proper and sufficient monitoring, plus adequate timely resuscitation after the procedure.

The prosecutor said Kwan left the operating room before Lee had regained consciousness from her deep sedation, leaving her to the care of four untrained assistants who appeared to have monitored her vitals by her snoring.

When they noticed she was snoring less and turning pale, they alerted Kwan, who returned four minutes later, instructed staff to call emergency services but did not resuscitate Lee, Chow said.

Lee showed no signs of life upon arriving at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan at 4.12pm and was certified dead at 5.06pm.

Dr Chan Yu-kit, a plastic surgeon testifying for the prosecution, said liposuction was a seemingly simple procedure, but could have a fatal outcome when performed by inexperienced parties in beauty centres.

He said the operation management in the present case was “quite dangerous” and questioned Kwan’s experience in performing the procedure, adding the lack of a severe adverse outcome in the past might have been through chance or luck, instead of the doctor’s ability.

Kwan did not testify, nor did she summon any witness to counter the prosecution’s expert evidence.

When the case came to closing submissions, the judge observed: “I still don’t know what your defence is.”

Defence counsel Paul Leung Chiu-lam said Kwan did not intend to put Lee under deep sedation and noted that Lee could still talk during the procedure, as she was recorded saying, “painful, painful, painful”.

Leung also said “one cannot expect a surgeon to stay with the patient all the time” and countered that the assistants were not completely untrained as alleged.

He further pointed out that a police officer attending the scene had witnessed Kwan performing some kind of resuscitation on Lee.

In 2016, Kwan was acquitted by Kwun Tong Court of one count of failing to keep a register or records of pethidine – a regulated dangerous drug – stemming from the same incident.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
×