September 25, 2006

BY ART GOLAB Staff Reporter




A 5-year-old girl who was sedated during a visit to the dentist Saturday never woke up and remained in a coma late Sunday at Children's Memorial Hospital.

Diamond Brownridge of Chicago, who had just started kindergarten, was on life support and in critical condition, according to hospital officials. Diamond's mother, Ommettress Travis, said she was told by doctors "to prepare for the worst. It doesn't look good."

Before being put on life support, Diamond had no pulse and had not been breathing for at least an hour, her mother said.

Travis said her daughter was given an oral sedative, followed by an intravenous sedative and nitrous oxide gas at a storefront dental clinic in the Little Village neighborhood.

Representatives of the clinic could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Mom Says Head Rolled Back



Diamond had complained of tooth pain and had been diagnosed with two cavities, her mother said. In addition she was going to get caps on her lower front teeth. In all, six teeth were treated.

When the dentist started working on her daughter, Travis said she was told to leave the examination room. She returned a half-hour later, after paying the bill, and found her daughter lying on her side in the chair.

"There was nobody watching her," Travis said. "When I turned my daughter over, her head rolled back and her eyes were in the back of her head. She wasn't breathing."

Travis called for the dentist, who she said began pinching Diamond in the shoulder but got no response.

Desperate, Travis appealed to another dentist in the office for help. He attached a pulse monitor to Diamond's finger, and when it did not register a heartbeat, "They shook the machine like it may have been broken," Travis said.

At that point someone called 911. Paramedics arrived, failed to resuscitate the girl and took her to the hospital, where she was put on life support, Travis said.

In Illinois, the law requires dentists who use intravenous sedation to have a special license, as well as special monitoring and resuscitation equipment on hand. The state Department of Professional Regulation said the dentist who treated Diamond had been licensed since 1997, held the required sedation license and had no record of discipline.

Late Sunday, Travis said Diamond's life "is in God's hands."

"She loved to go to church; she loved life," Travis said. "I'm devastated. She was my baby."




What the???

goodness

omg
i've always hated the dentist... but this, is sick...
five years old...first of all, the parents shouldnt let such a young child's teeth get so bad to the point of needing CAPS?!?!?! WHAT??!!
and how much do you need to sedate a child? really? i just had a tooth filled and i was up for it, just a frozen mouth...


that's so sick...i hope all the best for her really, poor thing

Very sad, i hate the dentist too...hate it hate it hate it.

Scary and sad. I'm staying in the room with my baby


Smooches;)

MsMisha319 said:

i always did too and i STILL wander back there and they are teens

our dentist is a personal friend though and i have known him 20 yrs ... he doesnt care if i wander round his office

i'm a grown woman and even when i had the gas
they kept monitoring me and kept asking me questions to guage my response
and i was not allowed to leave without a family member


this is just... ... ... so, so wrong

so sad. i never left out of the room when they were treated for anything. and no doctor ever told me to do so.

Damn.

I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday.

Well, fuck, why would they give an oral sedative, an intravenous sedative, AND nitrous? Overkill.

I had oral sugery on my wisdom teeth and they didn't give me anything but novocaine and the damn doctor cracked my jaw and I had to go to the emergentcy room because of the pain and swelling. It looks like it was the opposite for this girl

I knew two kids in high school that broke into a dentist office and stole the tank of nitrous to get high, and one of them died because he passed out with the mask on his face.
[Edited 9/25/06 14:47pm]

There's a photo of this child being a coma...


I can't believe it!!!


Why would they show her in that condition???

I used to go to a dentist that had a strict "no parents in the room" policy. After my kids went one time and they absolutely refused to let me back with them, I quit going to them, and told them exactly why. They said that when parents come back, the kids act up.