Receptionist: Diamond's Mom Almost Lost Her Son Days Earlier

POSTED: 5:13 pm CDT October 18, 2006
UPDATED: 7:28 pm CDT October 18, 2006


CHICAGO -- A hearing into whether a Chicago dentist should keep his license continued Wednesday with a disturbing discovery: The mother of the girl who died from being oversedated almost lost her son a week earlier, the very same way.

The revelations came Wednesday as Dr. Hicham Riba began his defense.


Receptionist Carmen Martinez described how Diamond Brownridge's mother cried hysterically when she discovered her child wasn't breathing.

"She was saying, 'God don't take my little girl from me,'" Martinez relayed. "She said, 'I just went through this last week...with her brother..."

Martinez testified that on the Monday morning following Diamond's exam, she got a phone call from another doctor in the practice, Dr. Deanna Groen.

Groen called her attention to a report on Diamond's 12-year-old brother Darnell and the fact that he had a history of problems with anesthesia.

Martinez testified it was the first time she was warned of that medical alert.

When Groen herself took the stand, she testified that she wrote on Darnell's chart, "No IV sedation" based on an incident when Diamond's brother had undergone an MRI that same week.

And it was just two days before Diamond's fatal dentist visit.

whoa. not exactly inspiring confidence in dentists.

although, i'm pretty sure my dentist is murder free

who exactly does this doctor cater to?
where did this doctor get his degree?