Parents Sue After Teen Dies During Wisdom Tooth Surgery

[LAGC]

The parents of a Maryland teen who died earlier this year during wisdom tooth surgery have sued the oral surgeon and the anesthetist for medical malpractice.

Jenny Olenick, a 17-year-old junior at Marriotts Ridge High School in Woodstock, Md., died in April from complications during the outpatient procedure performed on 5 million Americans each year.

"It's so hard," Cathy Garger, Olenick's mother, told ABCNews.com. "She was the only one we had."

The civil suit, filed in Howard Country Circuit Court, claims the oral surgeon, Dr. Domenick Coletti, and the anesthiologist, Dr. Krista Michelle Isaacs, were negligent and failed to resuscitate Olenick after her heart rate and blood oxygen level dropped.

Garger and Olenick's father, John, declined to comment on the pending case, but a spokeswoman for the family said they hope to highlight the surgery's risks and the need for better emergency training among dentists and oral surgeons.
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http://news.yahoo.com/parents-sue-teen-dies-during-wisdom-tooth-surgery-143224302.html

Wow, this is fucked up. I never realized how dangerous wisdom tooth removal surgery was. I got mine pulled when I was 17 as well, and I remember how much pain I was in (even with the Codeine prescription they gave me to kill the pain) and I even remember getting dizzy while standing up and passing out once after tasting blood in my mouth the next day.

If its really true that there's only a 12 percent chance of a wisdom tooth impaction leading to infections or damage to adjacent teeth (same low chance as getting appendicitis) I would have never volunteered for prophylactic removal in the first place!

Sure is a cash cow for dentists though. $3 billion dollar industry. No wonder they highly recommend it!

[Partisan1983]

All surgeries are dangerous!!!!



There is no such thing as a 100% safe surgery (or any medical procedure).


When it comes to medical practices, we are still dealing with medievalism (I thought everyone knew that).

[El Laton Caliente]

There is a tiny fraction of 1% of the population that responds badly to anesthesia. If the person also has other health problems, i.e. heart murmur or asthma, they can be in real trouble. However the risk is very small to the average person. I'd guess she had other pre-existing problems.

Impacted teeth can move infection to the bone marrow of the jaw and that is very serious. So you are talking a 12% incident rate of a life threatening condition. That isn't good odds.

[Schuetzenman]

Unfortunate all around.

[Mark Ducati]

WOW, what a coincidence... we had somebody die the county below me recently from having wisdom teeth out. From what I've been able to gather, it occurred in Ellijay, GA and I think the kid OD'd on his pain meds. He was probably given percocet and took too many.

[Hobe Sound AK]

I had to have my 2 Lower Wisdom Teeth removed in the Army back in 1978. The were growing in at a Slanted Angle, pushing agaisnt the back of the rest of my Teeth. He must have gave me 7 Shot's to get those 2 Teeth out. Good thing I did it when I was 22, I didnot know what to expect. Mine where done in the Dr. Office as Out Patient Procedure, and I went back to my Barrack's on Quarters for 2 Day's, while at Ft. Carson, Colo.

[Kadmos]

I remember I had two pulled back in my early 20's, the scariest thing was the release form which warned me of a possibly broken jaw, infections and death. Doc actually put his knee on my chest at one point to get the damn things out.

I passed on the general anesthesia, and went with novocaine and laughing gas, the gas didn't do much, but really the pain wasn't bad. Like with the dentist I took the prescription slip, but never bothered to fill it.

The sad facts are that often the surgery isn't even necessary, it's "just in case" and for most kids its the first time the kid is under general anesthesia, and of course it's usually done at a office building, not a hospital.

[NAPOTS]

I was under the impression that general anestesia is always risky and any time you are put under there is the (remote) risk of death.

[Krupski]

All surgeries are dangerous!!!!



There is no such thing as a 100% safe surgery (or any medical procedure).


When it comes to medical practices, we are still dealing with medievalism (I thought everyone knew that).

Your statement makes me think of Star Trek (Dr. McCoy) in "City on the edge of forever" where McCoy laments the archaic surgery techniques of his past (our present) where people in surgery are "cut up with knives and sewn together like rag dolls".

[Krupski]

WOW, what a coincidence... we had somebody die the county below me recently from having wisdom teeth out. From what I've been able to gather, it occurred in Ellijay, GA and I think the kid OD'd on his pain meds. He was probably given percocet and took too many.

... or Lortabs and blew out his liver...?

[TomO]

I had to have my 2 Lower Wisdom Teeth removed in the Army back in 1978. The were growing in at a Slanted Angle, pushing agaisnt the back of the rest of my Teeth. He must have gave me 7 Shot's to get those 2 Teeth out. Good thing I did it when I was 22, I didnot know what to expect. Mine where done in the Dr. Office as Out Patient Procedure, and I went back to my Barrack's on Quarters for 2 Day's, while at Ft. Carson, Colo.

In 1987 I was told the exact same thing by the Air Force Dentist...they told me that I was going to be in a tremendous amount of pain very soon but I didn't like the idea of what they were telling me about what they planned to do (all sorts of horrible surgery things) so I refused. They made all sorts of threats about how much trouble I gould get into for not agreeing to the procedure...nothing ever came of it.

About 12 years later (10 years after being discharged :) ) I finally had them pulled when the Dentist told me they were pretty bad with cavities. They came right out...no issues...just like they came in.

The worst Dentists are Military Dentists. :(

[Mark Ducati]

http://news.yahoo.com/parents-sue-teen-dies-during-wisdom-tooth-surgery-143224302.html?fb_action_ids=2482709104843&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&code=AQADpt2pu0JH1i_AVjXu0LFefCD4_UPd-DtH5O9Q7k5NYwUccXATjV-l9EAj0pW0AVw0GV-9SYGJbKkN9xOLcM8_ChlZNTYm0MgUH9S2TaHyM-S3oepPMDqPzYeTqueN4PwZ7OKBLEef_g8danmPGd41Gy1iLAYQ Ha1oKQ-TdLG0tgZrdy3pY7k6ebR3Gh3sVx0SSr4dypv4EYGG_i5Eslh1# _=_

Okay, so now it sounds like the girl in Maryland, they're suing the Oral Surgeon and the Anesthetist because they claim they didn't catch her oxygen deprivation soon enough to resuscitate her and because of their inaction, she died in the surgery chair.

As for the boy in Ellijay, Georgia (Gilmer County)... he was 14 and his name was Ben Ellis. He died the day AFTER he had surgery, long after the surgery, and was found dead in his bed. This is too long for any kind of allergic reaction. The scuttle butt amongst the local dental community is that the kid had a seizure and did not OD on pain meds. I even asked the local pharmacist about this and asked if taking even 4 percocets at once would have OD'd the boy and she said no. I don't know if a seizure could be related to the anesthesia/surgery after the procedure or not... who knows, maybe the kid was doped up on Percocet, sitting at home playing XBOX and the video game induced a seizure? The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is handling this case and we won't know what happened for sure until after the autopsy. From past experience as the deputy coroner for our county, this could take 5-6 months.

[imanaknut]

While it is really sad that the girl died, and it is possible that it could have been prevented, one death out of 5 million wisdom teeth extractions means that doctors still aren't God and bad stuff can happen.

My heart goes out to her family, but at what point do people realize that doctors aren't God, and that yes more training might have prevented this, but then the doctors would be charging more to cover the added cost of the training, and our government would then complain that the medical industry was too expensive, and would mandate laws which would...... you get the picture.

Yes, in this case even without training, the doctor and knock-out person should have known something was wrong. Hind sight is perfect, isn't it.

[Zygomatic]

I'm 47 and I still have mine. Guess I'll keep them as long as I can.

[Helen Keller]

on the other side of it.
nobody put a gun to her head to go to the dentist.

[FunkyPertwee]

They removed my two upper ones.

I was told they would have to saw off my lower jaw to pull the bottom ones, then they'd have to wire it shut while the jaw healed. I said no thanks.

[NAPOTS]

I had mine removed very young, at 14 if I remember right. It was no big deal at all. I only took 1 of the pain pills they gave me. But they did put me out.