This was posted on a dental forum/message board back in April 2011:
A friend of mine is an associate for a dental office. There are two doctors working that day, he and the other doctor ( i will call her Sue). Dr. Sue attempted to perform a surgical extraction #17 on the patient. The patient is 39 yr old male. After spending some time unsuccessfully trying to remove tooth, Dr. Sue decided to stop and refer to OS. Pt. was dismissed from the chair, and walked to front desk to reappoint with OS. Pt. complained of dizziness shortly after. He went to use he restroom. Dr. Sue didn't want to enter the restroom so she asked my doctor riend to check on him. He went and checked blood pressure of patient. Pt. had bp 250/110 and called paramedic. Without going further into detail, Pt. was taken by paramedic. My friend doctor found out later the pt. had hx hypertension and didn't take his bp meds that day. Also, my friend found out only later that night pt also fell while trying to use restroom. Pt. had surgery for something in his head (no specific details given) in ER and went into coma. Apparently he never came out and passed away a month later. My friend said Dr. Sue never checked her pt. med hx prior to procedure. No blood pressure was taken either prior to work and no consent forms were signed for extraction procedure. Dr. Sue did state in her notes that she administered local anesthetic with epinephrine and she stated same to paramedic upon questioning by them. My friend was the one who took the pt. blood pressure and called 911, helped get Oxygen for pt and stayed with patient. Dr. Sue was working on another pt the whole time and didn't come out until paramedic came. It seemed she defer all responsibility to my friend when it was her patient. What type of legal repercussions will this have on Dr. Sue or my friend doctor. I know he was not the treating doctor but since this is involved a pt. death what is going to happen legally here for everyone? The owner of the dental office is neither Dr. Sue or my friend.
