Posted on 09/30/2006 12:46:15 PM PDT by kenth
CHICAGO - State regulators have suspended the license of a dentist whose 5-year-old patient fell into a coma in his office and later died.
Dr. Hicham Riba's practices posed an "imminent danger to the public," the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said Friday. It said Riba failed to properly monitor Diamond Brownridge's blood pressure, pulse and respiration during her treatment Sept. 23 at his storefront clinic.
The complaint said Riba recorded that Diamond was "alert and responsive" on discharge, although her mother claims to have found her comatose in the dental chair.
Diamond died Wednesday at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She had been on life support for four days after her visit to Little Angel Dental to have some teeth filled and others capped.
Riba's attorneys confirmed the suspension late Friday pending an Oct. 13 hearing.
"Diamond's loss is tragic," Riba said in a statement. "As we have stated before, we have fully cooperated with the investigation and will continue to do so."
Riba, 40, faces up to $10,000 in fines for each of four violations, which include making false or fraudulent representations, professional incompetence and gross malpractice.
State regulators said Diamond received two injections of diazepam or Valium within five minutes, followed by oral Valium, lidocaine, several other medications, and nitrous oxide. The regulators did not say whether the combination or the dosages were appropriate for the 35-pound girl.
It's probably not the "vanity" type of cap that comes to mind. Some children have teeth that are so bad, this needs to be done in order to allow the child to eat. This type is not very attractive, but at least the child can eat solid food.
Let's hope so.
If you go look at the three other threads already up about this story, you'll see that it is not uncommon to cap children's teeth. This little girl had terrible grinding troubles. God rest her soul.
FOUND her? You mean the mother wasn't even in there with this poor little 5 year old girl?
Our girls are 12, and they still don't go into a medical or dental examination room without me with them.
That right there will hang him. I think what a general Dentist is and isn't allowed to do in the way of procedures may vary from state to state but you do not put a patient under like that and leave the room. Either the dentist or a nurse {not a dental assistant either} should have been present at all times in the room up till discharge. Reading between the lines it sounds like some charting wasn't done as well to document that such as BP, respiration, pulse, etc.
The other articles say the mother was asked to leave by the dentist and assistants when they began.
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