Trip to dentist leaves Edmonton girl, 4, brain damaged, in pain

[roopi]

Read this earlier today and left me speechless. I thought I'd share in the hopes of increasing the support for the family. There is a gofundme link in the article if anyone is interested.

Trip to dentist leaves Edmonton girl, 4, brain damaged, in pain - Edmonton - CBC News

GoFundMe page:

https://www.gofundme.com/2s42puk

[Presto]

Tragic

Amber Athwal loved to dance. But she'll never dance again.

Now she lies in bed semi-conscious, curled up in pain.

The four-year-old was beyond excited, looking forward to the first day of kindergarten on Sept. 7.

Instead, she went to the dentist that day and has been in hospital ever since.

The little girl was was left brain damaged after she stopped breathing in the downtown Edmonton dentist's office for an undetermined amount of time.

Amber's uncle, Amanpreet Singh, shot a video of the little girl dancing at a housewarming party in early September.

"I often look at that video and it brings tears to my eyes," he said. "It's really sad. The family is devastated. Life will never be the same."

It all began with a routine trip to the dentist on Sept. 2.

"She had front teeth decay and some molar cavities," Singh said. "So the doctor recommended her to a specialist because, according to him, this needed to be done under sedation."

The dentist referred the family to Dr. William Mather and told them he is "one of the best in town," Singh said.

On Sept. 6, Mather's office called to say they had a last-minute cancellation for the next day and suggested bringing Amber in for an examination.

Around 8:15 a.m. on that Wednesday Amber ate a piece of bread with butter and a half cup of milk, according to her mother, Arsh Athwal. Then the girl's father drove her to Mather's office for the 9:30 a.m. appointment.

Singh said Mather told them he could do the surgery later that morning.

Amber's mother wrote in an online post: "He asked if my daughter Amber had anything to eat today and my husband told the specialist that she had breakfast. However, he said it's OK and carried on. He used general anesthetic for this procedure."

Singh said Amber's father held her hand while Mather put a mask over the little girl's face.

"She did resist a bit," Singh said. "While he was there, no intubation or heart monitoring or [blood pressure] rate check was done. We don't know what happened after that."

Once Amber was asleep, Mather sent her father to the reception area to wait before performing the surgery, Singh said.

'She stopped breathing'

About an hour later, the dentist approached Amber's father and asked him to come into the office lunchroom.

"He told him she stopped breathing after the procedure," Singh said.

The dentist appeared to downplay the severity of the situation.

"He told him he already called the paramedics, nothing to worry about, she'll be OK. They might need to take her to the hospital for a checkup.

"By the time my brother saw Amber," Singh said, "she wasn't breathing and paramedics were still doing CPR on her."

12 days in ICU

Singh said his niece was on a ventilator for a week and a half before she was able to breathe on her own. After 12 days, Amber was moved to a regular ward at the Stollery Children's Hospital.

A CBC News reporter visited the girl's hospital room and saw her lying in semi-fetal position on the hospital bed with her clenched, bandaged hand pressed up to the side of her face. She occasionally whimpered in pain. Sometimes her eyes opened but didn't appear to focus.

"They say she's going to be disabled for life," Singh said. "She's still tube-fed, and even though doctors say this might improve, she will still need a tube for the rest of her life because she might not be able to swallow that amount of food on her own. She'll be in diapers. She'll be wheelchair-bound."

Amber's parents have quit their jobs so they can stay with her around the clock while still taking care of Amber's two-and-a-half-year-old sister, who Singh said is upset and confused about what's happened to her big sister.

"She often asks why she's not waking up," Singh said. "She often cries when we take her to see Amber."

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.

'What went wrong?'

Mather reported the incident to the Alberta Dental Association and College. It remains under investigation. Amber's family is frustrated with what they perceive as a lack of progress.

"We are not getting any answers," Singh said. "They don't give us a timeframe when we can get any answers. At least we want to know what happened. What went wrong? Looking at Amber, we need those answers now."

The registrar and CEO of the dental association refused to provide a timeframe to CBC News for presenting findings of its investigation.

In an email, Dr. Randall Croutze said: "The Alberta Dental Association and College must balance a number factors when a reportable incident occurs — the safety of the public through appropriate standards and practices, requirement to protect patient privacy and conducting a thorough review in accordance with the Health Professions Act.

"While there may be information on this incident being shared by other parties, the ADA&C cannot provide further details on the incident as our extensive review is still underway."

Croutze had earlier confirmed the ADA&C has suspended Mather's licence to sedate patients pending the outcome of its investigation. Amber's family said they were told by the college that Mather is also temporarily not allowed to treat patients eight years and younger. The college and Mather refused to confirm that information.

The allegations made by Amber's family were put to Mather by email. A staff member in his office told CBC News Mather had read the email but added: "It's under investigation so he can't respond to it."

General anesthetic standards

The registrar and CEO of the College of Dental Surgeons of B.C. said incidents like what happened to Amber don't occur often.

"A tragic story like this is thankfully very rare, but always disturbing for the public, for dental professionals and for us as regulators," said Jerome Marburg.

Marburg said that in British Columbia, "all dental procedures" that involve general anesthesia require five qualified professionals: the anesthetist, the operating dentist, the operative assistant, the recovery supervisor and the office assistant.

In Alberta, a dentist is allowed to administer anesthetic at the same time as performing a surgical procedure.

Amber's family said they were not aware of anyone else in the room when Mather administered the general anesthetic. They're not sure who assisted the dentist during the surgery.

Ontario pediatric dentist Dr. Keith Morley is the past president of the Canadian and American Academies of Pediatric Dentistry. He told CBC News the standard rule is no eating or drinking after midnight for a patient who is going to receive a general anesthetic.

Morley also said it's standard operating procedure for a patient to be hooked up to a heart monitor and fitted with a blood-pressure cuff before the anesthetic is administered.

Said Marburg: "We do not know the circumstances or what went wrong, but want to assure the public that general anesthetic procedures in dentistry are very safe."

Amber's uncle doesn't want this to happen to anyone else.

"Select your doctor carefully," Singh said. "I don't know whose fault it is. Still, please be aware of what procedure you're going through. Just do a little bit of investigation beforehand."

[iwantaskyline]

yep..this isn't going to help me book my wisdom teeth removal lol

[murd0c]

Originally Posted by iwantaskyline

yep..this isn't going to help me book my wisdom teeth removal lol

Just get them done with out being sedated if you are worried.

[Jmac]

Originally Posted by murd0c

Just get them done with out being sedated if you are worried.

That's what I did ... I wouldn't recommend it ...

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by Jmac

That's what I did ... I wouldn't recommend it ...

I had laughing gas.
That was a trip and a half.

[Presto]

One of the takeaways from this story is the importance of proper, early dental hygiene. Tooth decay and cavities seems quite insane for a 4 year old.

[MarkyMark]

Originally Posted by Jmac

That's what I did ... I wouldn't recommend it ...

I had all of mine out without being sedated. There was one that was a real bitch for them to get out and it's a little freaky when the guys cranking on it with some real force, but there was no pain at least.

[6o4__boi]

Originally Posted by Jmac

That's what I did ... I wouldn't recommend it ...

i had to drive myself home after it too
didn't hurt til quite a ways later...but i got bored as fuck sitting there for almost 4 hours non-stop (2 of the 4 wisdom teeth were growing sideways and had to be drilled to pieces and extracted in fragments)



damn...that's messed up what happened to the little girl though. I don't know squat about anesthesia but I gotta wonder what went wrong.

[Verdasco]

4 years old and i wasnt even brushing my teeth and turned out okay...and this girl had cavities and tooth decay?

poor girl though, looked wonderful and cute in that pic fuarkkkkk

[FerrariEnzo]

poor girl...

[meme405]

That's actually devastating. Condolences to the family.

A solemn reminder that even with all our medical advances there is still risk involved with any procedure, regardless of how routine it may be.

[Hondaracer]

imo it's not even just "poor girl"

the whole families lives are pretty much ruined..

[unit]

i did my wisdom teeth in 3 separate sessions.
wasn't really my decision, just how they decided to do it based on how much i was bleeding i think.

never did it sedated, was wide awake while she was reefing on my mouth with all her body weight. painful experiences, do not recommend without sedation. by far much worse than any other dental procedure i've had.

[flagella]

Story like this is so devastating, especially now that I'm a father of a daughter whose age is not too far apart. I could really feel my heart aching as I read this news.

[meme405]

Originally Posted by unit

i did my wisdom teeth in 3 separate sessions.
wasn't really my decision, just how they decided to do it based on how much i was bleeding i think.

never did it sedated, was wide awake while she was reefing on my mouth with all her body weight. painful experiences, do not recommend without sedation. by far much worse than any other dental procedure i've had.

I was awake during mine as well. Mine we did two separate sessions, one for left side, and one for right side. This left me able to eat still chewing with one side of my mouth.

It depends on the person, the dentist, and the situation.

Some people can't tolerate the pain, and ask to be sedated. Some dentist even flaunt the fact that they sedate for all procedures. I remember there used to be ads on the radio for one dentist practice who said they sedate for fillings and stuff as well. They called themselves Pain free dentistry or whatever. All of a sudden that business model really seems like a bad idea...

[Ferra]

Originally Posted by Jmac

That's what I did ... I wouldn't recommend it ...

I think he meant local anesthesia instead of put you to sleep anesthesia...not zero anesthetic

I took the former route for my wisdom teeth removal and root canal. The root canal was really really fucking painful (pretty sure the dentist use way too little anesthetic)..but it was only 1 hour, I rather bear the pain for 1 hour then getting knocked out with general anesthetic..

My families who went thru sedation for other surgery all said it affects (numb) their brain long afterward...

Plus local anesthesia is much cheaper

[Nlkko]

She stopped breathing and fucker said "there is nothing to worry about". Really..............

[punkwax]

Gross.

I don't have the highest opinion of dentists these days. My kids had a bad dentist that said teeth were fine when they were not. He ended up having a class action suit against him by others for this reason and is now out of business.

Our new dentist's receptionists are basically high pressure sales people. Seems to me many dentists are more about making money than providing Healthcare. Pretty shitty if you ask me.

[Inaii]

Had all my wisdom teeth out at once, no sedation only freezing. Was perfectly fine other than pain when the freezing wore off. They did have to freeze me a ton because it wouldn't take.

However, when I had my septoplasty done a couple years ago, I apparently stopped breathing twice while under. So I think it's very much a YMMV thing. I know people who've had the same operation as me who were perfectly fine on the GA. Every body is different.

[frozen]

There's no question there are tons of scumbag dentists that only care about how they can squeeze additional $ out of you. This industry needs seriously fucking scrutiny and people should be more vigilant in terms of what services they are getting. Stop getting fucked in the ass and do your own research to see what exactly you need.

I have probably gone through at least 5 dentists in my life as a result of moving to different locations. I would say 4 of those were fucking scam artists who were simply after your money. Luckily for me I have always given them the first impression that I'm not the type of person who give in to whatever the fucking services they recommend. Unfortunately for my wife who's rather soft, she's had bad experiences, some of which include having certain things done to her teeth which she was completely unaware of.

Look, I get it, you need your teeth to be healthy and healthy teeth lead to overall good health. But this shit is so fucking overblown. At the end of the day, I remain firm in my position that most of these fuck heads were too stupid to get into med school to do something more meaningful. Rather, they are paying more in education to stare are people's teeth for rest of their fucking life. And what drives them to do such miserable shit? Money baby.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by frozen

Money baby.

When they know you have dental insurance. Their eyes see $$$$$$
Wife's old dentist use to do x-rays on every visit.
That and they would grossly over book.

[DragonChi]

Hmm, I dont remember having an anesthesiologist in the room when I went under.

This story is tragic, one of the fewest cases where any amount of money can't fix good health. I'd much rather have this kids health instead of any settlement they'll get. I hope the family gets justice.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by frozen

I remain firm in my position that most of these fuck heads were too stupid to get into med school to do something more meaningful. Rather, they are paying more in education to stare are people's teeth for rest of their fucking life. And what drives them to do such miserable shit? Money baby.

raff out roud

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Presto

Tooth decay and cavities seems quite insane for a 4 year old.

early childhood decay is actually a lot more rampant than you may think. All the public health organizations in BC have dedicated programs targeting parents of newborns.

many of the decay-causing bacteria are actually coming from parents so the parents should also have their hygiene up to snuff.