A former anesthesiologist was ordered released Monday by a judge after serving two years behind bars in connection with his 2021 guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a fellow doctor who was undergoing an outpatient surgery in Beverly Hills.
Stephen Kyo-Sung Kim, now 59, admitted that he injected himself before the operation with Demerol stolen from the surgical center and then left the operating room to inject himself with additional drugs during the surgery. He has been in continuous custody since December 2021.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke ordered Kim’s release Monday after giving him credit for time served. The judge also ordered him to pay $7,500 in restitution to the family of 71-year-old orthopedic surgeon Mark Greenspan to cover their funeral expenses and to not work in a medical facility, even as a janitor or a volunteer.
Greenspan died on Sept. 26, 2017.
“This is a very sad day for you, but more so for the victim in this matter, and I hope you don’t forget your deeds,” Jacke told Kim.
Kim told the judge he previously surrendered his medical license.
As she left the courtroom, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told Kim, “Good luck, Mr. Kim,” then turned to his family members in the audience and said the same to them.
Kim acknowledged that he had been using narcotics that had been stolen from various surgical centers prior to and during surgeries for two to three years; that he injected himself with 50 milligrams of Demerol stolen from the surgical center after he arrived at the facility; and that he did not recall a discussion that morning that the surgery would be done under a local anesthesia with intravenous sedation rather than general anesthesia, as was done.
Kim also admitted that he left the operating room during the surgery to inject 50 milligrams of Demerol and 60 milligrams of Toradol and that he fell and struck his head when he returned to the operating room but said he was fine and able to continue.
The anesthesiologist also admitted that he unsuccessfully tried to intubate Greenspan numerous times after his heart rate dropped shortly after he administered two medications to the patient about 30 minutes after the surgery; that he incorrectly inserted a breathing tube into the patient and had to be physically pulled away by a paramedic from Greenspan’s IV after re-entering the room with a syringe and beginning to inject the contents that he described as Demerol into the patient’s IV line.
Blood and urine samples collected from Kim indicated that he had a significant amount of Demerol and traces of Fentanyl in his system, he admitted, agreeing that he had used Demerol about 150 times prior to or during other medical procedures.
“The fact that my father was killed while he lay unconscious, unable to defend himself, is a reality I will never escape,” Greenspan’s son, Ivan, said during the hearing.
“The tragic powerlessness of my father being chemically paralyzed by a high ex-anesthesiologist is still hard to accept. This killer strategically set himself up to take advantage of unconscious patients to steal drugs and, in the case of my father, kill him. This heartless killer was getting high while he left my father to die.”
The victim’s son told Kim that he hopes “emotional pain is a constant companion and that guilt, shame and dread remain with you forever.”
Kim was initially charged with murder in December 2017 involving Greenspan’s death and was subsequently indicted in August 2018 on the same charge.
Paramedics and police were summoned to Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery Center in Beverly Hills in connection with a call that Greenspan had stopped breathing during the recovery process. Shortly after the criminal case was filed against Kim, Beverly Hills police said the investigation suggested that Kim administered a lethal dose of Demerol to Greenspan.
Greenspan went into cardiac arrest and died soon afterward, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The case stemmed from a three-month investigation by Beverly Hills police, with assistance from the California Medical Board and the District Attorney’s Office.
Kim was ordered in December 2017 not to practice medicine while the case was pending.
One of Kim’s attorneys, Robert A. Schwartz, said previously that it was a “tragedy across the board for everybody,” including Greenspan and his family and Kim and his family.