A Houston family is about to sue an area dentist, alleging that she pumped their four-year-old daughter with so many drugs that she may have permanent brain damage.
Back in January, four-year-old Nevaeh Hall went to see her dentist, Bethaniel “Beth” Jefferson, at Diamond Dental in Houston. Some of her teeth were so decayed that they were going to have to be capped or even removed. However, nothing prepared her parents, Derrick Hall and Courissa Clark, for what happened next.
About two hours after Nevaeh was taken back, Clark heard Nevaeh crying. When she came in to check on her, she saw Jefferson holding Nevaeh’s flailing arms. Clark sensed something was wrong, and asked if they needed to call an ambulance. However, Jefferson dismissed it as “just shaking.” She assured Clark that everything was going to be fine, and told her to stay in the waiting room. Four hours later, Clark and Hall were called inside to find paramedics getting ready to take Nevaeh to Texas Children’s Hospital.
Nevaeh has been there ever since. She has been diagnosed with dystonia, or involuntary muscle contractions. While she is conscious, she is unable to see, speak or walk, and no longer responds when her name is called. She also has to be fed with a feeding tube.
According to a review by third-party dentist Craig Jacobs, this didn’t have to happen. Nevaeh was slated to undergo a procedure that, according to Jacobs, should have had her home “by mid-morning” at the latest. Instead, she was sedated for over seven hours–four of which were spent in a papoose board, a device intended to restrain kids during treatment. Nevaeh had been put in the papoose before, and knew Jefferson would put Nevaeh in a papoose for this visit. But to be restrained like that for four hours? I can’t even. She was also pumped with five sedatives–far too many for a 30-pound girl.
Even more horrifying, Jacobs found that Jefferson missed several signs that Nevaeh’s vital signs were “off the charts.” She stopped breathing for a time, and her heart rate ramped up to 196 beats per minute in an apparent effort to keep oxygen flowing to her brain. Her oxygen saturation dropped to 49 percent. Whenever your oxygen saturation drops below 86 percent, it can result in severe hypoxia–which can lead to brain damage if left untreated. Her blood pressure also dropped to dangerously low levels.
When Jim Moriarty, the family’s attorney, got his hands on Jacobs’ report, his assessment was blunt. Moriarty said that Nevaeh had been “essentially tortured” due to being “chemically and physically tortured” for seven hours. As a result, she is “profoundly brain-damaged,” and will likely never be as vibrant as she once was. Just a day earlier, she was just like any typical four-year-old–running around at Chuck E. Cheese’s and helping her mom with chores, among other things. The report was all Moriarty needed to give notice that he intends to sue Jefferson.
The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners suspended Jefferson’s license two weeks after the incident. According to the suspension order, when Nevaeh started flailing and “shaking,” she was actually suffering a seizure. Rather than call 911, Jefferson gave Nevaeh oral medication. She’s been in trouble for this before. In 2005, the board disciplined her for not monitoring a a patient’s blood pressure and pulse. She was dinged again in 2012 for not properly sedating a young patient. Now executive director Kelly Parker has had enough; she wants Jefferson’s license permanently revoked.
At a press conference last week, Jacob suggested that if a dentist tells parents that their child may need to be papoosed, “they probably ought to run.” However, if a papoose board is necessary, Jacobs wants parents to known “you cannot allow your child to be held in a restraint device without you personally being present.” Had Clark and Hall been allowed to be present, it’s a near-certainty that Nevaeh wouldn’t be in a hospital today.
Nevaeh’s family has started a GoFundMe campaign to help pay her mounting medical bills. Click here to donate.
