SASCHA WIL­SON

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

A 42-year-old busi­ness­woman in­tends to take le­gal ac­tion against two den­tists af­ter a tool ac­ci­den­tal­ly slipped down her throat dur­ing a pro­ce­dure, re­sult­ing in her hav­ing to un­der­go surgery.

Through her at­tor­neys, Chris­t­ian Deena and Ramesh Deena, in­struct­ed by Ri­an­na Har­ry of Tri­Law Cham­bers, the woman sent a pre-ac­tion let­ter on Oc­to­ber 3 seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion from the doc­tors for her suf­fer­ing and loss­es. But she claimed there has been no re­sponse. The Den­tal Coun­cil of Trinidad and To­ba­go has reg­is­tered both den­tists, who run their prac­tice in Siparia.

The let­ter stat­ed that dur­ing a pro­ce­dure to re­move her low­er mo­lar tooth on Au­gust 17, a three-cen­time­tre den­tal bur be­came loose from the den­tal hand­piece, went to the back of her tongue, and then slipped down her throat.

A den­tal bur is a small met­al at­tach­ment to a den­tal hand­piece com­mon­ly used by den­tists for den­tal pro­ce­dures. Ac­cord­ing to the let­ter, she was on­ly made aware of what hap­pened when she be­gan com­plain­ing of dis­com­fort and trou­ble swal­low­ing her sali­va. The den­tist rec­om­mend­ed that she im­me­di­ate­ly vis­it the hos­pi­tal and/or a med­ical doc­tor to have the tool re­moved. The woman was rushed to the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal in se­vere pain.

She was in­formed the den­tal bur had now slipped fur­ther down the epi­gas­tric re­gion. The doc­tor told her they need­ed to con­duct ob­ser­va­tions and were un­able to do a re­moval at that time.

On Au­gust 19, she was in­formed that the den­tal bur had gone fur­ther down her di­ges­tive tract. Ac­cord­ing to the let­ter, lat­er that day, an ex­plorato­ry la­paro­to­my pro­ce­dure was con­duct­ed at the hos­pi­tal, where­by a bow­el re­sec­tion was done to re­move the said den­tal bur. She was dis­charged on Au­gust 23, placed on fur­ther med­ica­tions, and re­quired to vis­it the health cen­tre for af­ter­care post-surgery. Her at­tor­neys said she still suf­fers dai­ly from phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al pain. She al­so ex­pe­ri­ences post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, de­pres­sion, and sui­ci­dal ideation, as well as sleep­less nights due to night­mares.

She al­so had dif­fi­cul­ty con­sum­ing cer­tain foods and drinks.

Ac­cord­ing to the let­ter, she is a pa­tient of a cer­ti­fied psy­chi­a­trist.

The at­tor­neys stat­ed the moth­er of two could no longer en­joy fam­i­ly and out­door ac­tiv­i­ties and per­form dai­ly house­hold tasks as she feels crip­pled. The at­tor­neys said the woman was al­so fi­nan­cial­ly af­fect­ed as she could no longer open her mi­ni-mart and sell bar­beque due to her on­go­ing emo­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and phys­i­cal pain.

The at­tor­neys al­so said their client still need­ed to re­move her tooth, so on Oc­to­ber 3, a den­tal sur­geon per­formed the pro­ce­dure with her un­der se­da­tion be­cause of her se­vere anx­i­ety due to the or­deal.

The woman is seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion from the den­tists for med­ical ex­pens­es, per­son­al in­jury, loss, and le­gal ex­pens­es caused by their al­leged neg­li­gence.