Appeal by DR Medical group's beauty doctor rejected by the court

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday rejected the appeal by a female doctor from DR Medical group, who was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 42 months in jail for the death of a customer during a therapy administered by her.

Mak Wan-ling, 40, was convicted at the High Court in December 2020, of manslaughter over the death of 46-year-old Chan Yuen-lam, who received experimental immunity-boosting therapy developed by DR Group from Mak in October 2012.

Court of Appeal vice-president Andrew Macrae, along with justices Kevin Zervos and Anthea Pang Po-kam yesterday unanimously dismissed Mak’s appeal, saying none of her grounds for appeal were reasonable.

In the judgment, the Court of Appeal said the trial judge Justice Judianna Barnes Wai-ling had summarized the statements from both the prosecution and the defense and made clear instructions in guiding the jury.

The court also found no ground to suggest the trial judge had caused any unfairness to Mak by allowing prosecutors to amend the indictment and introduce new allegations in the retrial, as there is no significance evidence between the cases presented by the prosecution in the first instance and the retrial.

The court added that there were originally three defendants during the trial, yet Mak’s retrial was handled separately from her two co-defendants, thus the prosecution had to amend the case to focus on Mak.

In December 2020, Mak was found guilty by a jury of four men and five women of unlawfully killing Chan by gross negligence.

Her two co-defendants DR Group founder Stephen Chow Heung-wing, 65 and technician Chan Kwun-chung, 34, were convicted of manslaughter in 2017 and were sentenced to serve 12 and 10 years behind bars respectively.

But both Chow and Chan had their sentences each reduced by two years after their appeal in November, 2021.

The 46-year-old Chan Yuen-lam, a cha chaan teng owner, died of septic shock and multiple organ failure after receiving the CIK therapy on October 10, 2012, as her blood was contaminated by the bacteria mycobacterium abscessus.

The bacteria was later found on the centrifugal machine and the pipette guns in the Asia Pacific Stem Cell Science laboratory, where Chan's blood was handled.

The blood of another two women who received the same treatment in 2012 was also contaminated by the bacteria and both suffered permanent damage.

The CIK therapy is an experimental immunity-boosting therapy that involves "the extraction, manipulation and reintroduction" of a client's blood. Doctors draw blood from a customer and culture it in the laboratory before injecting it back into the client.