Cat Tuong Beauty Salon case: Return of files, additional investigation

On the morning of April 14, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first-instance trial of the case of dumping a customer's body at Cat Tuong Beauty Salon with two defendants Nguyen Manh Tuong and Dao Quang Khanh.

Nguyen Manh Tuong (left) and Dao Quang Khanh in court. Photo: VNA

Nguyen Manh Tuong, born in 1973, Director of Cat Tuong Beauty Salon, was prosecuted by the Hanoi People's Procuracy for two crimes of "Violating corpses, graves, and remains" as prescribed in Article 246, Clause 2 - Penal Code, "Violating regulations on medical examination, treatment, drug production, drug dispensing or other medical services" as prescribed in Article 242, Clause 1 - Penal Code.

Dao Quang Khanh, a security guard at Cat Tuong Beauty Salon, was prosecuted for the crime of "Violating corpses, graves, and remains" under Article 246, Clause 2 of the Penal Code and the crime of "Theft of property" under Article 138, Clause 1 of the Penal Code.

The trial panel consisted of three people, chaired by Judge Le Thi Hop. Prosecutor Do Minh Tuan, Department of Investigation and Trial Prosecution of the first instance case on social order and security, Hanoi People's Procuracy, exercised the right to prosecute at court.

According to the indictment announced at the trial, in May 2013, Dr. Nguyen Manh Tuong, working at the Department of Surgery, Bach Mai Hospital, opened Cat Tuong cosmetic facility at 45 Giai Phong Street, Dong Tam Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi. According to the investigation of the professional agency, this is an "underground" facility because it does not have a cosmetic surgery license.

At around 11am on October 19, 2013, Dr. Tuong performed liposuction on the abdomen, then injected the fat into the breasts of Ms. Le Thi Thanh Huyen. At around 4pm the same day, the procedure was completed. Tuong told the staff to take Ms. Huyen to the outer room to rest. About 30 minutes later, seeing Ms. Huyen having convulsions, blinking, and foaming at the mouth, Tuong injected her with a sedative. After the injection, seeing Ms. Huyen was normal, Tuong left the beauty salon.

At 5:45 p.m. the same day, Cat Tuong Beauty Salon staff called to inform Tuong that Ms. Huyen was showing signs of cyanosis, her pulse was difficult to detect, and her blood pressure could not be measured. Tuong ordered staff to inject Ms. Huyen with two 2ml tubes of Adrenalin cardiac stimulant and two 40mg tubes of Dimedro allergy medicine, infuse 9% saline solution, and give her oxygen.

After that, Tuong called Mr. Nguyen Quang Thanh, a surgeon at Bach Mai Hospital, to come to Cat Tuong Cosmetic Hospital to help with Huyen's emergency. Tuong drove to Cat Tuong Cosmetic Hospital and saw Huyen's face was purple and had no heartbeat. Tuong and Mr. Thanh gave Huyen emergency treatment. Tuong intubated her, gave her a balloon and external chest compressions, and injected her with two doses of cardiac stimulants, but they were ineffective and she died.

After that, Tuong directed the staff to clean up and dismantle all the furniture of the beauty salon and hide it. The bed sheets, patient clothes with the logo of Bach Mai Hospital, abdominal gauze... were put into 5 black plastic bags, weighing about 7kg and 1 bed sheet bag... which were transported by taxi by the staff to the foot of Vinh Tuy bridge.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the moment when Ms. Bui Thi Hoa, Ms. Huyen's property manager, went out, the beauty salon's security guard, Dao Quang Khanh, stole an iPhone 5 that was in the bag next to Ms. Huyen's body, worth 12 million VND.

At around 11:30 p.m. the same day, Tuong and some staff members put Ms. Huyen's body in a car and took it to the Post Office Hospital. Khanh took Ms. Huyen's bag and followed Tuong's car on his motorbike.

When he arrived at the gate of the Post Office Hospital, Tuong saw many people and Ms. Huyen's body was stiff, so Tuong was afraid of being exposed, so he did not go into the hospital but stopped on the street.

Seeing that, Khanh told Tuong not to take Huyen's body to the hospital but to throw it into the river. Tuong agreed and drove the car to carry Huyen's body, while Khanh rode Huyen's motorbike, carrying Tuong's wife, Hang, following behind.

Arriving at Co Linh Street, Thach Ban, Long Bien (Hanoi), Khanh drove his motorbike up to Tuong's car and signaled for Tuong to stop. Khanh left his motorbike and Huyen's bag on the sidewalk and got into Tuong's car with Hang (sitting in the front passenger seat).

Hang tried to stop Tuong from dumping Huyen's body, but Tuong did not listen. Tuong continued driving to Highway 5, up Thanh Tri Bridge, past the water about 150m, near lamppost number 44, then stopped.

Seeing that there were no cars or people passing by, Tuong and Khanh carried Huyen's body out of the car, crossed the median, lifted Huyen's body over the bridge and dropped it into the Red River. After that, Tuong, Khanh and Hang got back in the car and continued their journey home. On October 21, 2013, Tuong and Khanh were arrested by the investigation agency.

During the interrogation at the trial, the Trial Panel focused on questioning defendant Nguyen Manh Tuong about professional techniques, drug formulations, cosmetic surgery procedures... leading to the death of Ms. Huyen.

Responding to the judge's question about the procedures before Ms. Huyen's surgery, defendant Tuong said that he had instructed the beauty salon's employee, Ms. Mai, to perform the techniques of examination, blood flow test, blood clotting test, heart and lung scan, ultrasound... The day Ms. Huyen came to the beauty salon was the first meeting between Dr. Tuong and the victim. Defendant Tuong did not check the test results again. According to defendant Tuong, for all those procedures, the doctor must trust the nurse, and cannot directly follow each step.

When the judge asked defendant Tuong about the formula for mixing the medicine used to perform the anesthesia surgery, defendant Tuong stated: "That is the formula I have had since I was studying medicine." Tuong gave the nurses the solution to mix for the injection of Ms. Huyen.

Regarding the surgical process, in response to the prosecutor’s questions, defendant Tuong admitted that he “did not follow” the regulations in surgery and plastic surgery. The defendant said that the cause of Ms. Huyen’s death was because “Ms. Huyen vomited when the fluid refluxed.”

After questioning defendant Tuong, the Trial Panel questioned the staff and nurses working at Cat Tuong Cosmetic Hospital. These staff members all admitted that during the surgery, Ms. Huyen had a seizure and foamed at the mouth. Dr. Tuong told them to buy anti-epileptic drugs but they were unable to. Despite this, Dr. Tuong continued to perform the cosmetic surgery.

The staff and nurses also stated that before Ms. Huyen, Cat Tuong Beauty Salon had performed many cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction and breast augmentation for other customers, but no one had the same symptoms as Ms. Huyen.

Tuong stated that when he learned that Ms. Huyen had died, he decided to take the victim to the Post Office Hospital because he thought it was less crowded than Bach Mai Hospital. When he took Ms. Huyen's body to the car, there were witnesses, Khanh and some others. The original intention was to take the victim's body to the Post Office Hospital, but because the hospital was too crowded, the defendant drove around but there were still people, so he had to park his car on the street and wait. After 5 minutes standing at the hospital, Khanh arrived. Khanh said it was very crowded and suggested that Tuong dispose of the body.

Tuong also stated that when he decided to follow Khanh's suggestion, he was very panicked, could not think, and was very afraid that if people saw him carrying the body, they would shout and make a big deal out of it. Defendant Tuong admitted that what he did was wrong and affirmed that if he were in a different situation, he would never have done that.

According to the staff of Nguyen Hong Thu Beauty Salon, the cosmetic surgery for Ms. Huyen was only performed for about 2 hours, because that day Ms. Huyen had symptoms of eyelid twitching, which contradicts the previous testimony of defendant Tuong.

After consultation, the Trial Panel found it necessary to consider a number of issues related to the medical field surrounding the cosmetic surgery that led to the death of the victim Huyen.

Because these details could not be clarified immediately at the trial, the Trial Panel decided to return the case file to the police agency to investigate, supplement and clarify these details.

According to Vietnam+