MOH investigates death allegedly caused by Botox injection in licensed clinic at Marina Bay
Lau was said to miss the 'golden moment' for rescue by the time she arrived at the hospital.
Lau Liting, 32, was reported to suffer from a cardiac arrest after a Botox injection in a licensed aesthetic clinic at Marina Bay.
The Singaporean property agent was put on life support for five days at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) before she passed away on March 13, 8pm.
Missed ‘golden time’ for rescue
Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao reported on March 17 that it was believed that Lau might have missed the ‘golden moment’ for emergency rescue.
Lau’s younger brother shared that the incident allegedly occurred when Lau was receiving her treatment at around 12:05pm.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that they were alerted at 12:20pm to attend to Lau’s case.
Lau’s father shared with the newspaper that the aesthetic doctor accompanied Lau to SGH.
The doctor tried to resuscitate her while the clinic was contacting SCDF.
The aesthetic doctor left the emergency department before the Lau family arrived at the hospital but returned in the evening to visit Lau and apologise to the family.
Lau’s father also revealed that the SGH doctor at the emergency department told her that Lau might have lost the ‘golden time’ of 20 to 30 minutes for rescue.
This could have led to a loss of oxygen to the brain and heart failure, affecting her chances of survival.
MOH investigates
According to Chinese evening newspaper Lianhe Wanbao, Lau’s father called the clinic the day after his daughter was hospitalised to inquire more about what had happened.
However, the aesthetic doctor’s explanation was not satisfactory and did not clear his doubts.
Hence, Lau’s family made a police report on March 10, hoping to find out the truth.
The family also informed the Ministry of Health (MOH) of this incident.
Lianhe Wanbao also shared that their reporter visited the clinic at around 11 am on March 18 and saw three MOH officers at the clinic.
The counter staff of the clinic was seen passing the MOH officers a few bottled products with yellow packaging as well as a bag containing more than ten small bottles of drugs.
The three MOH officers left with the items after 15 minutes.
Botox manufacturer Allergan highlighted that Botox injection, done by certified doctors with the right procedure, has not resulted in any deaths.
Business as usual
According to the report, the clinic is still open for people to make appointments or to purchase products.
The reporter also noticed that there were still visitors at the clinic.
There was no doctor(s) at the clinic when the MOH officers visited this morning. However, the report noted that the doctor(s) will return to the clinic the next day.
The counter staff did not comment further on the incident, and only revealed about the ongoing investigations by the police.
In response to Mothership.sg‘s queries on March 18, the Singapore Police Force acknowledged that the case is still undergoing investigation and said that no further details can be shared yet.
Separately, an aesthetic clinic also wrote on Facebook to clarify that they are not the clinic that Lau visited.
