28-year-old Elizabeth Smart visited a South Carolina dentistry in 2006 to have three teeth removed. However, instead of just having the three teeth removed, the dentist also removed the remaining 13 teeth in her upper jaw as well.
Smart took the dentist to court, where a jury found the dentist guilty of wrongly removing her other 13 teeth, and awarded her $2 million in damages. Sexton Dental Clinic, where the incident occurred, is appealing the jury´s decision.
According to Smart´s lawyer Robert Ranson, employees at the clinic tried covering up the mistake with paperwork. He also explained that reconstructive surgery to replace the missing teeth will cost close to $75,000.
*************** ´get back to being what she was´ before this all happened."
Umm she was a store assistant before this happened. While I do believe she deserves some money for what happened above and beyond any work missed and the cost to get upper partials.
I have to say that it is insane that a jury decided that she was owed 2 Million dollars. Crazy award amounts like this is what caused states like mine to put in Tort laws in the first place, which allowed Dr´s and lawmakers to put a punishment for reproductive issues only if it affected the ability to get pregnant and not otherwise.
Since the article didn´t explain anything I have to wonder why she thinks she should have the dental implants put in instead of the Upper partial that she was well on her way to needing. I am sure that she was unable to carry Dental insurance on her own and any of the dental plans that would be available at that level wouldn´t cover much until a certain amount was paid prior to the insurance to kick in. For most people who are working at the woker bee level they would have to say the $100-$200 per extraction depending on the severity of the teeth that she needed pulled and what the Dr usually charges. Hell even the state doesn´t pay for dentist´s to remove teeth or provide any dental care after a child is the age of majority.
I also wonder how in the heck she didn´t know how many teeth they were pulling at the time. When I have had to get a tooth extracted the Dentist explained each step he was doing and even with Laughing Gas" I could understand what he was saying and nod my head. If she was totally knocked out for the procedure she had to have known what it was done after she was brought out of it and had to have someone give her a ride home who would be responsible for her that should know if her front teeth along with the rest missing. Not only to mention that many Dentists wouldn´t risk taking that many out at once and I have never once met a Dr that would remove a healthy tooth.
I have several questions that the artucle didn´t mention and will have to watch for the follow up of what should be a reasonable award consist of.
I´d have to imagine she was under general anesthesia.
I had two wisdom teeth pulled once, and even though I explained that I would´ve preferred only local novacaine the dentist (or maybe oral surgeon?) was really pushing general anesthesia and I ended up doing it.
Agree 2 million is crazy award for this but the lady does deserve the best type of replacement teeth that money can by + any costs associated with them being maintained for the next 25 or so years. She should get at least 100k for emotional distress. In the US and Canada (and possibly everywhere in the world) people put a lot of judgement on how someones teeth look and I know I wouldn´t go outside if I was missing my entire top row of teeth.
The fact that the dentist tried to get employees to hide it makes me feel like he/she should have there license revoked but that would be extreme. Its not like they killed someone but they did try and weasel out of it.
I find your comments both arrogant and ignorant. First your assertion that loosing 3 teeth means she´s "well on her way" to a partial is absurd. I had 4 upper teeth removed when I was 16 and was fine well in to my late 20´s (I´ll explain why later). Second your assertion as to her occupation determines the quality of dental care she has is again just bitter or arrogant I can´t tell which. I have a 6 figure income as an upper level manager and guess what, my company doesn´t offer dental insurance, so your assessment is way off. As to the claim of not explaining it to her or how she couldn´t understand what was being done. Typically when you have extended procedures they explain everything to you in one sitting and then you return for a second visit to have the procedure done. In the case of general anaesthetic, which she would have to be under to not notice that many teeth pulled. It is rather simple to imagine her coming into the office checking in, the Dental assistant grabbing the file, taking her to a room and slipping the wrong chart in the tray, she’s still getting a GA like the other patient and gets knocked out to wake up and find all her upper teeth missing. As for the award, I think it was too small, it should be double that. The pain she is going to have to go through to get those implants put back in is excruciating. First she has to wait 6 months for everything to heal and get a full denture in the mean time. Which means large amounts of food she can’t eat, she has to completely relearn how to speak, how to chew, and everything taste totally different forever. Something as simple as a piece of gum is no longer possible for her. The list of foods you can’t eat is huge and everything taste extremely bland. My validation, I was in a car accident and had part of my jaw fractured and had to have all my upper teeth removed, I was 27. I know everything the woman is enduring and will endure. In 10-15 years . she’s going to have to get a synthetic bone implant or bone graft for her upper jaw, another extremely painful procedure that takes months to recover from. This is akin to losing a limb and just as traumatic, you still get the phantom pains just like an amputated limb.
also think it was at the very least a just ruling. None of us know the emotional stress this is causing and it could be very huge. The amount of time lost alone is significant as previous poster pointed out. While i agree many of these types of suits are ridiculous and its just so hard to put a price on intangible things, but if someone erroneously took out my whole upper jaw, fingers, whatever, id sure as hell want double, triple, 10x the compensation for making me have to deal with it.
This is one of those things doctors cant afford to err on (literally cant afford). Should be several redundant checks/crosschecks on extensive procedures like this.. but even then yes a mistake can happen, sucks, but they will have to pay for their mistake.
1/3 of that, or more, goes to her attorney for fees and costs. After the appeal, 1/2 or more could go to the attorneys for fees and costs. And before you start railing against the greedy attorneys, look into what their overhead is. In addition, if they lose the case, they will get NOTHING because this was probably a contigent fee case. So some of this money will go into a fund to carry them over in case they lose the next case. When was the last time that you worked hard with no guarantee of payment?
