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Dental malpractice leads to 15 illnesses and 1 death

Patients who visited one dentist for oral surgery during 2014 and 2015 are at an increased rate of developing a serious heart infection known as endocarditis. The dentist, who doesn’t practice in Ohio, has been linked to 15 cases of the bacterial form of this illness. All of the patients who have been affected had intravenous sedation prior to the procedure.

Of the 15 patients who were affected, 12 had to have heart surgery. One of the patients died due to complications. It is possible that more patients will come forward.

One woman has been suffering from symptoms similar to those reported by other victims, but she hasn’t received an official diagnosis as of yet. That woman says she feels better now, but that she almost died in April when she collapsed at work. She was in cardiac arrest. She was placed into an induced coma. When she woke up, she didn’t have any signs of brain damage, which is something doctors said had only a 1 percent chance of happening.

In that woman’s case, the doctors stated they didn’t know what happened. What they did note was that she had bacteria usually associated with the mouth and teeth in her blood. She had visited the dentist at the heart of all of these cases to have wisdom teeth removed. She says he removed all four in about 15 minutes, but that she thought the procedure would take an hour. She says that four or five days after the procedure, she noticed that her pain increased.

When she collapsed at work, she broke four teeth. She went back to that same dentist and told him about what happened. At that point, the dentist-infection connection hadn’t been made. She says the dentist “looked like a deer in the headlights” when she told him. Now that she knows the connection and the reason for the reaction, she is seeking another dentist for the work on her teeth.

Dental malpractice can be a very serious issue, as you can tell from this story. If you have suffered from dental malpractice, you might opt to seek compensation for your illness or injury.

Source: NJ.com, “Daughter treated by dentist at center of outbreak nearly died, mom says,” Ben Horowitz, Aug. 19, 2016