Showing posts with label Dr. Bethaniel Jefferson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Bethaniel Jefferson. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 05, 2022
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Bethaniel Jefferson indicted on a felony charge of causing serious bodily injury to a child by omission
Photo: Craig Hartley Craig Hartley, Freelance
Excerpts from Houston Chronicle Story:
A former Houston dentist was formally charged Monday (July 24, 2017) with failing to properly treat a sedated 4-year-old patient who was left with permanent brain damage in what should have been a routine procedure.
The child's mother, Courissa Clark, said she was "overjoyed" when she heard the news.
"We're really grateful that justice has been served and the person that did this to our baby is finally being brought to justice," Hall told the Chronicle.
"When little Nevaeh was taken to the dentist that day, (her parents) turned her over to the dentist trusting that the dentist would protect and look after their little girl," said attorney James Moriarty. "But she overdosed her on sedatives."
The girl was sedated at the Diamond Dental office about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 7, 2016, prosecutors said in a statement. Three hours later she suffered a seizure, and her oxygen level and temperature fell dramatically. Prosecutors say it took more than four hours before anyone called for medical assistance.
Jefferson was reprimanded by the Texas Board of Dental Examiners in 2005 and 2012, prosecutors said. The board revoked her license in November after a state administrative judge ruled that she "fell below the minimum standard of care, failed to uphold the duty of fair dealing and committed dishonorable conduct when providing dental care."
Medicaid dental claims in Texas quintupled between 2005 and 2015 to $1 billion a year after the state doubled reimbursement rates in 2007.
Jefferson now faces trial on a first-degree felony charge.
"This indictment should send a message to the medical community that they will be held accountable for abandoning their patients in times of crisis," prosecutor Stan Clark of the Texas attorney general's Medicare fraud unit said in the statement.
"While accidents in the health care industry occur more than everyone would prefer, practitioners must react appropriately and contact higher level medical care providers when they realize their patient is distressed beyond their capabilities," he said.
Tuesday, August 09, 2016
When Dental Surgery Lands A Patient in a World of Everlasting Regret
“…Before Hoover went to work on Noah’s mouth, the receptionist told Deel it would cost $300.”
“…A few minutes later, Hoover asks Deel to come take a look inside Noah’s mouth. As Deel stands by, Hoover opens Noah’s mouth and begins poking around with her fingers and silver instruments. The cavity is too deep, she tells Deel. They might have to put a crown on it. Hoover gestures to the teeth on either side. These teeth are weak too, she says, so they need crowns as well.”
“…Deel agrees the teeth need to be fixed and goes back to the front, where McGonagle, who also happens to be Hoover’s husband, offers Deel another margarita. A dental hygienist appears in the waiting room and informs Deel his son now needs five crowns. It will cost $6,000 out-of-pocket, she says.”
“…McGonagle doesn’t miss a beat. He can see Deel is a nice guy and he wants Noah to get what the boy needs, McGonagle says. Deel might qualify for a “special loan” from a lender that pays the office “right then and there,” says McGonagle. “I’ve had good luck with these guys,” McGonagle tells Deel. Hoover’s office also bills the Deels’ insurance for $6,000. Before Deel has even thought about it, he has applied for a “care card,” a health-care credit card with an extremely low initial interest rate that soars if the card isn’t paid off within the first six months.”
“…According to state district court records filed in Galveston County, Columbo stated that “every one of the crowns done just months ago have short margins or recurrent decay under them.” The documents also allege that “Columbo [told] Lisa and Noah that the crowns need to be replaced in the next few months and furthermore that there [wasn’t] any indication that Noah needed five to six crowns. Columbo also [gave] Lisa contact information for the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners and [encouraged] her to file a complaint.”
“…The Deels contacted Jim Moriarty, a Houston lawyer with years of experience in dental cases, and decided to sue. The case was filed on August 2 in Galveston County District Court.”
“…Moriarty has been representing people and their claims against dentists and dental corporations for about a half-dozen years. “It’s mainly about trust. We’re taught to trust these people in white coats and to believe what they tell us, so it gets very hard for people to ask if they’re trustworthy,” Moriarty says. “
“…Insurance companies have also helped shape dentistry because insurance adjusters have kept the annual coverage rate cap between $1,000 and $1,500 since the 1970s, without adjusting for inflation, according to the American Dental Association. “There are so many financial pressures on dentists today. It’s getting much harder to make a profit than it used to be,” James Quiggle, spokesman for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, says.”
“…Another Houston-area case — one that has become infamous — involved four-year-old Nevaeh Hall’s trip to the dentist. When Nevaeh went to Dr. Bethaniel Jefferson’s dental office in January 2016, she was giddy with excitement, her mother says. On a previous visit, she’d taken home a backpack full of dental care supplies, and she loved brushing her teeth with her SpongeBob SquarePants toothbrush. On this second visit, as her dental records show, the plan was to extract her damaged baby front teeth — she’d fallen down face first shortly after the teeth came in — and put crowns on the teeth on the right side of her mouth. “
“…according to a report from the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners. She was given “large doses of anesthetic and sedatives,” and there were “warning sounds and visual indications which showed that for a period of five hours Nevaeh’s brain suffered from a severe lack of oxygen.”
“…When Amanda Lightfoot got the bill for her dental work, she burst into tears right there in Hoover’s waiting room. It was fall 2014 and Lightfoot had come in just to get two crowns replaced….She went home with a hole in her mouth where the tooth had been, and says Hoover told her it would cost about $20,000 to finish the work. Lightfoot cried all night. “
“…This is how most of these cases go, Moriarty says. Dentists are regulated primarily by the state dental boards, the entities that have the power to investigate and discipline a dentist who has done wrong. Unless a board decides to reprimand a dentist publicly, the odds are good the public will never know there has even potentially been an issue, he says.”
“…“People assume dental boards are out there to protect the public and to make sure the dentist that comes out of school can treat you. People assume these boards will be there to protect you from any unscrupulous behavior in the industry, but that’s just not the case,” says Debbie Hagan, a Kentucky homemaker and grandmother turned dental patient rights activist who writes a blog detailing various issues with dentistry across the country. “
“… In March 2016, 14-month-old Daisy Lynn Torres was at Austin Children’s Dentistry to have two cavities filled. Shortly after Daisy was put under anesthesia, Dr. Michael Melanson told Daisy’s mother, Betty Squier, the child needed six cavities filled. Soon afterward, Squier was told there were problems during the procedure. Daisy was declared dead at a nearby hospital about two hours later…In July, Robert Williams, a forensic dental examiner, stated in a report commissioned by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office and first obtained by KXAN TV that Daisy may not have needed any of the dental work in the first place.”
“…For people like Moriarty and Hagan, the fight against bad dentistry is in many ways a personal battle, one that evokes longstanding memories.
“…As a child, Moriarty had cavities eating away his two front teeth and his family never had the money to fix them. “I often wonder how my life would have been different if I’d been able to get to a dentist,” he says. “I remember going to high school and being so embarrassed. I feel like it might have been a very different life for me.”
“…“I wouldn’t smile in the class pictures, because of all the metal. Standing up in front of the class was torture because I knew they saw me flashing a mouth full of silver every word I spoke,” Hagan says. “I don’t think most people realize how important it is, that you have to have your teeth in working order in order to thrive. You don’t want to be different, especially when you’re young and going to school. It changes kids. It changed me.”
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