4-Year-Old Girl Suffered Severe Brain Injury Following a Dental Procedure; Dentist Office Facing Charges

Parents of a four-year-old girl are suing a Houston dental clinic after their daughter suffered from severe brain injuries after undergoing a dental procedure. The four-year-old now has impaired speech and movement, and is undergoing a series of extensive therapies in the hopes of bringing her back the way she once was.

Navaeh Hall is a repeat patient at the Diamond Dentistry, ran by Dr. Bethaniel Jefferson. That fateful day, her parents brought her to the clinic to have her decaying teeth treated and to have some caps put on.

According to a Yahoo report, the parents were told to stay in the waiting room while their daughter is undergoing the procedure. Jefferson sedated four-year-old Hall, who after sedation, began to experience seizures, as per the Texas Board of Dental Examiners stated in its suspension order.

What made Hall's condition worse was that instead of seeking emergency help to address the seizures, Jefferson administered oral medication, which delayed emergency medical attendance. According to Fox News, the heart rate of the child increased to 195 beats per minutes, and she had a very high blood pressure at 168/77. Added to this, her oxygen also dropped to 86 percent.

Jim Moriarty, Hall's attorney said that, "In essence what happened is this child was chemically and physically suffocated." He also added that, "This child suffered massive brain damage during that time period, and that didn't have to happen."

It was revealed in a review of the records by a third-party dentist, the little girl was sedated in the office for more than seven hours. She was also given five sedatives for a procedure which was supposed to have been over by mid-morning.

It was also discovered that Jefferson has been previously fined and reprimanded by the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners. The doctor was not just reprimanded once but twice.  

According to the mom, Hall cannot talk or walk, or do things that she used to do. She added, "She even had to get surgery just to get a feeding tube into her stomach." She also said that the four-year-old girl can only "follow voices sometimes but she can't look directly at a person anymore."