Something that every human should do every year, which is a visit to the dentist turned to be chaotic episode for a poor 4-year-old girl who suffered from brain damage due to a weird and controversial restraint device.
The family of the girl named Nevaeh Hall is now considering to raise a lawsuit against the dentist, the child was taken immediately to the Texas Children’s Hospital, where tests confirmed that the child has suffered from brain damage.
“In essence what happened is this child was chemically and physically suffocated,” says the family attorney Jim Moriarty.
This was Nevaeh’s third visit to the Diamond Dental clinic according to her mother Courissa Clark who mentioned that she expected to have some of her daughter’s teeth be capped or removed due to decay.
During the session, both parents were told to wait in the waiting room while their daughter was being treated, everything was okay until they were allowed to access the procedure room where their daughter was already surrounded by paramedics.
Papoose, the name of the controversial restraint device
Nevaeh was said to have been placed in a dental restraint device called Papoose. This device keeps your arms and legs of a patient immobile so he or she would not interfere or move during the procedures.
Dentists are commonly very careful while using this device, they do their best not to use it but in very specific monitored cases. After such tragic event, Nevaeh’s parents speaks out and is warning everyone about this device.
In a news conference held on Thursday, Nevaeh’s family was accompanied by a dentist from Children First Dental named Craig Jacobs, who said that if parents are being asked to authorize the use of papoose on their child, they likely have to run.
Too many sedatives for such a tiny body
Nevaeh’s attorneys said that the child had seizures due to many sedatives during her visit. In the medical record, it appeared that Nevaeh was sedated for more than seven hours, five sedatives were given to the poor child for what is considered to be a routine dental procedure.
A visit to the dentist turned to be a torture chamber
Medical records also show that Nevaeh was practically tortured during the procedures, her heartbeat was so fast that it reached 196 beats per minute because of her difficulty to breathe. Her oxygen saturation also reached an alarming low of 49 percent. For comparison, oxygen saturation of lower than 86 percent is already categorized as severe loss of oxygen in the cells, which is known to lead to brain damage.
The dentist behind this tragic case is Dr. Bethaniel Jefferson, who has been reprimanded and fined by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners twice before already.
At present, her license has been temporarily suspended following Nevaeh’s case.
Source: Tech Times
Sounds like a terrible device and dentist. I would never let any dentist keep my daughter in the office that long let alone sedated, but how does a 4 year olds teeth become so bad they need removed and crowned? It sounds like neglect on the poor girl by everyone involved.