Thursday, March 02, 2017 09:26AM
AUSTIN, TX (KTRK) --
The family of the 14-month-old girl who died after a visit to the dentist has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Austin Children's Dentistry.
The toddler died while under anesthesia for multiple baby root canals and crowns on four of her teeth.
Her parents believe it was part of a Medicaid scam and are suing the dentist and the anesthesiologist who worked on her.
The cause of death of Daisy Lynn Torres, who died on March 29, 2016, was determined to be the result of anesthesia administered for the treatment of tooth decay, according to the Medical Examiner's Office.
"We haven't heard much, so we are kind of just taking action here, getting some answers so we can get some justice going on," said Elizandro Torres, Daisy Lynn's father. "We want this to be heard so that it doesn't happen again." …
…The lawsuit claims the girl's death was part of a corporate scheme to bill Medicaid for unnecessary dental procedures. Her parents are now suing for $1 million. Their attorney, Sean Breen, told us Tuesday night they hope this lawsuit will protect other children from the dangers of pediatric predators and their money-making schemes.
"A big component of people that use Medicaid happens to be people who are low income and sometimes not as formally educated as others and they make for very good targets because they are trusting," said Breen, with Howry Breen & Herman.
Breen says other families have come forward saying their children were also underwent unnecessary dental work at Austin Children's Dentistry…
Read the entire ABC 13 story here.
More on Dr. Michael Melanson
Dr. Melanson was the fake owner dentist for non-dentist Brian Lynne Walker who owns North End Healthcare, LLC. North End owns and operates 3 ambulatory surgery centers (ASC): Houston Children’s Dental Center, San Antonio Children’s Surgical, and DFW Children’s Surgery Center. All designed exclusively for sedation dental procedures. In fact the website of these clinics list their “privileged” providers and they are only dentists, oral surgeons and endodontists. April 29, 2016, exactly 30 days of the death of Daisy Torres, North End Healthcare began to change its name to Blue Cloud Pediatric Surgery Centers and scrub Dr. Michael Melanson’s name from their website;, replacing Melanson with Dr. Ketan Sukkawala as “owner”.
Being Melanson works for a group that owns surgery centers one must wonder why he didn’t use one of those facilities. Or at the very least understand the need to sedate babies somewhere other than his office!
