Susan Lim

Susan Lim
Alma mater	Monash University University of Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Surgeon Scientist Entrepreneur
Website	Susan Lim Surgery

Susan Lim is a Singaporean surgeon who performed the first successful liver transplant in Asia.

She was born in Singapore, where she was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and the Raffles Institution. In 1974, she was awarded a scholarship under the Colombo Plan to study medicine at Monash University in Australia.

In 2003, she started a biotechnology company, Stem Cell Technologies.

In 2004, she became a Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the youngest fellow and first Singaporean to be conferred this honour.

She established together with her husband, Deepak Sharma, and friend, Satpal Khattar, the Indiapore Trust with the aim of providing assistance to underprivileged children from countries in the region. The first Singapore charity to be supported by the Indiapore Trust, through a donation of $50,000, was the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund, which assists struggling parents to meet their children's school expenses. To date, the Trust has donated a science laboratory to the Raffles Junior College, and provided scholarships to underprivileged children in Singapore and India.

Wax figures of her hands are part of the display at Madame Tussaud's Exhibition in Singapore.

She sits on the Global Advisory Council of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2011.

Susan Lim was a speaker at the TED Conference in Lavasa in December 2010 along with James Cameron and Deepak Chopra.

Investigation by SMC

In February 2011, Dr Susan Lim took the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) to the High Court and filed a Judicial Review alleging unlawful and biased activities by the SMC and even a more serious offence of targetting new legislation at her ( ). () This new legislation was to deny her Natural Justice, a grave offence to be committed by any Public Body against its citizens.

This Judicial Review was in respect of Disciplinary Proceedings against Dr Lim for allegedly overcharging a Royal Brunei patient for a treatment lasting 6 months which was delivered both in Singapore and Brunei, and involved the full infrastructure of Dr Lim's practices and third party doctors in 2007 . The bill for 6 months of breast cancer treatment for Pangiran Anak Hajah Damit, the cousin of the Brunei Sultan and sister of the Queen, came up to $USD 8 million (SGD$12.1 million) out of which USD $5.8 million was for Dr Lim's practices, and the remaining for third party doctors. Dr Lim's Counsel strongly refuted the mischievous and misleading claims of mark ups and misrepresentation as alleged by SMC () .

At the core of the allegations against Dr.Lim is the principle of breach of trust in the relationship between the patient and Dr.Lim due to 'overcharging'. However as defensive testimony proves, there was in fact nothing but praise for Dr.Lim's services to the patient, and neither 'abuse of trust' or 'dishonesty' is alleged in any of the 94 charges laid against Dr.Lim. Said allegations were introduced in open court and later released to the public more likely as a means to slant the public perception of the case, and thus the perception of Dr.Lim ().

At the Hearing on 28th March, 2011, SMC's Counsel waved a letter purportedly written by Dr Lim to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Singapore) giving them a heads up about the sensitive information in this case, including medical information relating to the Brunei Royal Family which may come to public domain (). The SMC counsel failed to mention in Court, that this letter was in fact redacted by the Court to black out highly senstive information contained in the letter. No reasonable or fair minded person can draw any conclusion from reading a redacted letter.

Media Sensationalism of the Investigation

The case has drawn significant attention to not only Dr.Lim's practice, but also the growth of Singapore's Medical Tourism sector. It is important to note that all media articles before March 28th, 2011 only showed information released by the prosecution in the case, made up almost entirely of accusations of alleged up-marking, since the court had not yet heard defensive testimony. The Singapore public, even though provided only with the allegations of the case and no proof of guilt, were quick to ascribe guilt to Dr.Lim and condemn her in many online communities and forums even though there was no judgement against her. On March 28th, 2001, Dr.Lim's defense Attorney posted their defensive testimony in court, justifying and explaining with evidence that there were NO cases of up-marking, and in fact the SMC intervened without any prompting on a private business transaction between two parties who already had a long standing relationship and demonstrated knowledge and acceptance of agreed upon fees before engaging the services of Dr.Lim.

The case is still ongoing and no judgements have been made against Dr.Lim.