A girl starved to death after her teeth were removed

[Bertha Venation]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021000893.html

LONDON -- When 8-year-old Sophie Waller cracked a baby tooth eating candy, it set off a chain of events that led to her death.

Sophie had such a fear of dentists that she refused to open her mouth for examination, so doctors at her local hospital took out the tooth in an operation. One of the medical team told a coroner's inquest that they removed all seven of her other baby teeth at the same time to avoid the need for future procedures.

After the surgery Sophie refused to eat or even open her mouth for her parents, the couple told the inquest. But she was sent home anyway, and starved to death three weeks after the operation.

~snip~

Hearle (pediatric dentist) said the parents signed a consent form for the procedure. The Wallers said they thought they were consenting to one tooth being removed. Janet Waller told the inquest that Sophie was "devastated" when she found out the eight teeth had been removed.

~~~~~

What the fuck?!

[redqueen]

1. Oh God...

:cry:

[Lost in CT]

2. Stories about British Dentistry never end well. nt

[MrCoffee]

3. WHAT?

If my daughter hadn't eaten for three weeks after surgery, there is no way in hell I would put up with the telephone run-around like these people did.

I'd be kicking some doors in at the damn hospital and breaking some ass.

That poor girl...if only she had some parents there to speak for her.

[Bertha Venation]

4. My thoughts exactly. n/t

[redqueen]

15. She was eating.

Just not enough... they were calling every day... alarmed and hoping someone would agree to see her.

Unfortunately, no one did. :cry:

[MrCoffee]

21. Oh, well, if they were calling every day, they clearly did all they could.

Like I said, if a hospital/doctor was giving me that kind of crap on the phone, I'd be kicking down the door to the ER.

[redqueen]

22. She was eating, and the professionals were telling them everything was fine.

What kind of crap? That she would be okay?

I can't believe that she didn't eat anything at all for weeks... I think people are assuming that from the headline and it's silly.

I think she was eating but very little... and the parents were worried but since she was eating, they thought that the professionals they were trusting knew what they were talking about... and that they didn't realize just how bad it was.

Maybe not. Mabye all the people here who know everything have it all figured out.


It's not worth getting into a flamefest over.

Enjoy the outrage du jour. I'm out.

[MrCoffee]

24. Wait, before you go, I have one last question...

Did you light a candle for Luiz Felipe Scolari yet?

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. Hey - on some days, they called TWICE!

What do you want them to do, get their asses off the couch?

Be reasonable.

They made a few phone calls. Their parental responsibility stops there.

You know, in England, they have to pay for phone calls - you want them to go bankrupt? Turn off the cable?

You're a monster.

:cry:

[Haole Girl]

5. The f-ing Dentist and the parents should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

Good God. That is why they sedate some people to do dental work. After all, we are not in the 14th century any longer. :grr:

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. I'm not feeling it for the parents...

Who the hell lets their kid go for 3 weeks without eating? There's more to this.

[LostinVA]

28. Seriously -- they should have taken her to "Casualty" (ER) at the very least

I read the article. Very strange all around.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. My God - how could a parent allow their child to starve to death?

Psychos.

[crim son]

8. Jesus Christ. I have a nine-year-old and am trying to imagine...

I can't. Something is terribly wrong with the parents of that girl. So sad, so sad.

[Left Is Write]

9. I am confused as to why seven other teeth needed to be removed "to avoid future procedures."

What criteria were they using to determine there may be a need for "future procedures"?

My son had four teeth removed at age 3. He had snapped off a front tooth, which became infected and spread to the front teeth around it. He was sedated and those four teeth removed. The dentist didn't remove the rest of his teeth "just in case"!

If my child were starving herself to the point of losing a third of her body weight, I'd like to think I'd have her in the emergency room demanding an IV if necessary.

[Crazy Dave]

10. We got butt whuppin's...

...and told about all those starving kids overseas when we didn't want to eat.

[Left Is Write]

11. Trying to force a kid to eat isn't necessarily going to do any good -

especially if she has emotional problems stopping her from eating. However, when a kid's life is in danger, you do what you have to do to save that kid's life, even if it means sticking a needle in her arm and "force feeding" her that way.

It sounds like both the parents and the child could have done with the help of a counselor to get at the root of her refusal to eat.

[Shell Beau]

12. I don't understand.

3 weeks of not eating? This is just a failure all the way around. The parents should have taken her in if she didn't look so well. If they were so concerned, they should have done more than phone in. And I really can't understand why they took out all of her teeth.

[SidneyCarton]

13. Tragic, and bizarre.

:cry:

[davsand]

14. My kid is missing three teeth right now and THAT is giving her fits.

Three baby teeth came out in the space of ten days (two were removed by her dentist because they were messing with the alignment of the permanent tooth underneath) and she is having a tough time eating anything that requires "grinding." For instance, her vitamin is giving her fits every time because each missing tooth is in a different part of her mouth!

I just can't imagine taking out that many teeth at once--for any reason. It sounds like that child had some very real dental phobias, and I understand the reluctance to use general anesthetic any more times than you need to--but how did they think that poor little kid was gonna chew her food? I'm not sure who I think is the biggest failure here--the parents for letting it happen or the docs who did it. Either way, I feel for that poor little kid who needed help and never got it.

I have to wonder if there is more to this story than we are hearing...



Laura

[redqueen]

16. Did anyone read the fucking article?

Jesus.

[Shell Beau]

17. I read it all.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Yep - read the whole thing. Parents were even more negligent than I initially thought.

Probably a couple of chavs.

"But... but... we did everything we could - we phoned the clinic during a lot of the commercial breaks on the tellie!"

[Shell Beau]

19. What the hell is phoning going to do? As a parent, you know

when something isn't right. And this ain't rocket science. She wasn't eating. Take her to the doc. So sad for that little girl.

[Bombero1956]

20. I'm really sorry about the death of this girl but

If my daughter went more than 2 days without eating I'd be paying a visit to the doctor's office.

[Bucky]

25. I'm sure we're not getting all the facts here.

You read stories like this, you just assume everything is normal with this family except for the oddball facts that happen to land in the half-researched newspaper article as revealed by the two-thirds-covering-up principals in the case. What other problems did this child have? How does a child have the psychological wherewithal or will power to refuse to eat until she starves? How does a hospital determine they're just gonna remove so many of a child's teeth? What condition were those teeth in? What the hell kind of parents were these?

[RoyGBiv]

26. Agreed ...

Something smells with this.

[Kat45]

27. There are liquid nutritional products if chewing is not possible.

And there is feeding by IV done to people in the hospital. I can't believe the parents didn't make certain that the girl got food in. If the little girl gets "traumatized" by being forced to get food. that's a heck of a lot better tan her getting dead from starvation.