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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Professional Misconduct |
Sentence: |
"S$100,000 fine" |
Years Imprisoned: |
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Year Crime: |
2014 |
Year Convicted: |
2019 |
Year Cleared: |
2019 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Singapore |
County or Region of Crime: |
Singapore |
City of Crime: |
Singapore |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated |
Summary of Case: |
"Dr Lim Lian Arn was wrongly convicted in January 2019 of professional medical misconduct in Singapore. Dr. Lim Arn is a registered specialist in orthopaedic surgery at Alpha Joints and Orthopaedics at Gleneagles Medical Centre. Arn's prosecution was based on his failure to obtain informed consent from a patient before giving her a steroid injection on October 27, 2014. After pleading guilty Arn was fined the maximum of S$100,000 (about US$73,000) by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) disciplinary tribunal. Arn appealed the sentence. More than 4,000 physicians in Singapore signed a petition asking the health minister to examine SMC’s decision and clarify its stance on the need for doctors to obtain informed consent for minor procedures such as routine injections. In February 2019 the Ministry of Health responded by saying Arn's case could lead to “defensive medicine” and asked the SMC to apply to court to have its decision reviewed. On July 24, 2019 Singapore's High Court set-aside Arn's conviction. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said in delivering the Court's decision: “Having heard the parties, we are satisfied that there has been a miscarriage of justice and that Dr Lim’s conviction must be set aside. Simply put, the undisputed facts do not support the charge.” CJ Menon stated the Court found “serious inadequacies” in the expert report, and that it merely presented conclusions without setting out the reasons for such conclusions. On the issue of informed consent, a counsel for SMC told the court that Dr Lim should have disclosed the “entire list of risks and possible complications”. But Menon said “a doctor is not under a duty to convey to his patient every conceivable risk”. “The only difference between the two treatment options lay in whether the (steroid) injection would be administered. Just on those facts, we very much doubt that the patient would have proceeded with the (steroid) injection without any question or discussion at all as to its possible benefits and side effects,” he added, saying the case was a “one-off failing” in the course of a routine procedure with “no material harm to the patient”. The Court's judgment stated the law needed to strike a balance between providing appropriate sanctions for grave failures and a “rich range of options” for counselling, education and the rapid rehabilitation of doctors who “departed from the expected standards but not in a persistent or sufficiently serious way”. “The law has always recognised the need to strike this balance, but it is sometimes overlooked in practice, as it was in this case.” “The result has been an ill-judged prosecution, an unwise decision to plead guilty and an unfounded conviction. In short, there has been a miscarriage of justice, with dire consequences for the medical practitioner concerned." “Doctors are human after all, and, like the rest of us, are susceptible to lapses, errors of judgment, poor record-keeping and failures of memory.” “It would pose an intolerable burden for each medical practitioner, and, indeed, for society, which invests in and depends on the establishment of a vibrant medical profession, if each and every one of these failures were visited with sanctions." (Quotes from: ‘Miscarriage of justice’: High Court sets aside SMC conviction, S$100,000 fine against surgeon, By Michael Wong, channelnewsasia.com, July 24, 2019)" |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On July 24, 2019 Singapore's High Court set-aside Arn's conviction. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said in delivering the Court's decision: “Having heard the parties, we are satisfied that there has been a miscarriage of justice and that Dr Lim’s conviction must be set aside. Simply put, the undisputed facts do not support the charge.”" |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
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Age When Released: |
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Sex: |
Male |
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Information Source 1: |
"‘Miscarriage of justice’: High Court sets aside SMC conviction, S$100,000 fine against surgeon, By Michael Wong, channelnewsasia.com, July 24, 2019" |
Information Location 1: |
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/court-doctor-conviction-fine-lam-lian-arn-informed-consent-smc-11749282 |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org