• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

8 year old girl starves to death after dentist pulls all her teeth

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
LONDON – Eight-year-old Sophie Waller cracked a baby tooth eating candy, and set off the chain of events that led to her death.

Sophie refused to open her mouth for a dentist so doctors at her local hospital took out the tooth in an operation, one of the doctors told a coroner's inquest. They removed all seven of her other baby teeth at the same time to avoid the need for future operations, the doctor said.

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.

The parents said the hospital mishandled Sophie's follow-up care, referring them to a child psychologist who told them not to worry about Sophie's plummeting weight. Sophie's mother, Janet Waller, said she also was told to consult her family doctor, who prescribed nutrition drinks over the phone but did not see the girl in person.

Pediatric pathologist Dr. Marie-Ann Brundler said Sophie died at home Dec. 2, 2005 from kidney failure caused by starvation and dehydration. The inquest was told Sophie weighed 72 pounds when she went into hospital and lost a third of that weight before she died.

An official at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, 400 kilometres southwest of London, said there had been failures in Sophie's care, and it had changed its procedures.

"The impact of Sophie's death has been a wide-ranging impact across all of the disciplines that were involved," John Ellis, a pediatrician at the hospital, told the inquest. "There have been changes."

The hospital said it would not comment further until the end of the inquest, which was continuing Tuesday to establish the facts behind the girl's death.

Janet Waller told the inquest in Truro that Sophie had developed a fear of dentists after her tongue was nipped during a checkup, and had refused to let a dentist look at her loose tooth.

"Because Sophie would not open her mouth for examination, I wanted to eliminate any further dental problems," Tamsin Hearle, a specialist in pediatric dentistry, was quoted as saying by the Times newspaper.

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

She said that doctors did not adequately take care of Sophie after the girl was sent home from hospital Nov. 17, 2005, eight days after the operation.

"No one saw her after she was discharged from hospital," Waller, 34, told the inquest Monday. "I told (a child psychologist) she was sucking on a watermelon, she told me that was enough for her to survive on."

Janet Waller said she and her husband phoned the hospital to express concern about Sophie's weight loss and refusal to eat, and were told not to bring her in, but to talk to the community child psychologist assigned to the case.

Sophie's father, Richard Waller, said he phoned the psychologist ``every day, sometimes twice a day, to say how unwell she looked."

"I kept asking her to come round but she said she would next week and there was nothing to worry about," he said.

Ellis, the pediatrician, said Sophie had stopped eating when she had loose teeth in the past, and "it was clear there were psychological issues" around her refusal to eat.

A coroner's inquest is required in Britain to establish the facts when someone dies unexpectedly, violently or of unknown causes, but has no power to punish anyone. The coroner is expected to rule next week.

The Wallers have criticized the time it has taken to hold the inquest. The coroner's office said it was a complex case and it took time to gather reports and inquiries from the different agencies involved.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/585175
Click to expand...

Wow. How does this happen? It looks like the parents tried to inquire about the issue, but how do you let it go so far that the kid starves to death. And the idiotic advice they were receiving, or refusal to acknowledge a problem. Wow.
 
H

Houston3000

Member
Eight years old? WTF

Sounds like she had psychological issues. They shouldn't of pulled so many teeth though, it was probably too painful and I bet she was extremely embarrassed going to school with so many of her teeth gone.
 
O

Oreoleo

Member
Costanza said:
The parents are idiots, holy shit.
Click to expand...

If there is anyone to blame, it sure as fuck isn't the parent's. Did you even read the OP? They were in contact with people EVERY DAY trying to fix the situation and help their daughter. The doctor who performed the operation should have his license revoked.
 
D

Dali

Member
What a waste. The father should be castrated and the mother should have her uterus salted.

Orellio said:
If there is anyone to blame, it sure as fuck isn't the parent's. Did you even read the OP? They were in contact with people EVERY DAY trying to fix the situation and help their daughter. The doctor who performed the operation should have his license revoked.
Click to expand...

At some point in time they should have come to the realization that people cannot survive through photosynthesis and made sure that their child got some sort of sustenance that day be it through force feeding or IV. If your doctors are jerking you around go to a hospital and say "hey my daughter hasn't eaten in X amount of days, I think this isn't right".
 
M

MrFingers

Member
What a total clusterfuck on the part of the hospital.

I don't know if you can blame the parents .Most people won't question what a medical professional tells them.They're the experts so you place a certain level of trust in what they say.
 
O

Ogni-XR21

Member
The whole time I was reading I covered my mouth in shock and shook my head in disbelief...

..

I honestly don't know what to say...
 
RubxQub

RubxQub

φίλω ἐξεχέγλουτον καί ψευδολόγον οὖκ εἰπόν
Sounds like both people are at fault here, the doctors and the parents.

The parents fail for not having any common sense ("Daughter's losing a ton of weight and hasn't eaten in 3 weeks...but the doctor said it's cool"), and the doctors fail for not understanding how serious the issue was ("You say your doctor hasn't eaten in 2 weeks? Well don't bring her here, go to a child psychologist...that kid is fucking weird.")
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Houston3000 said:
They shouldn't of pulled so many teeth though, it was probably too painful and I bet she was extremely embarrassed going to school with so many of her teeth gone.
Click to expand...

I had 6 teeth pulled when I was in kindergarten or the year before. It shouldn't have been particularly painful if the dentist knew what he was doing.
 
P

perryfarrell

Member
Orellio said:
If there is anyone to blame, it sure as fuck isn't the parent's. Did you even read the OP? They were in contact with people EVERY DAY trying to fix the situation and help their daughter. The doctor who performed the operation should have his license revoked.
Click to expand...

If your 8-year-old doesn't eat for days, you get her psychological help. Apparently the Mom was even a nursery teacher. It sounds like the child reacted very unusually to her visits to the dentist; the parents could have prevented this death. Guardian article.
 
L

LuCkymoON

Banned
Houston3000 said:
Eight years old? WTF

Sounds like she had psychological issues. They shouldn't of pulled so many teeth though, it was probably too painful and I bet she was extremely embarrassed going to school with so many of her teeth gone.
Click to expand...
yeah thats a lot of teeth to loose at once. maybe the child had periodontitis, in which case the dentist probably had no choice but to remove all infected teeth.
 
C

Costanza

Banned
Dali said:
At some point in time they should have come to the realization that people cannot survive through photosynthesis and made sure that their child got some sort of sustenance that day be it through force feeding or IV. If your doctors are jerking you around go to a hospital and say "hey my daughter hasn't eaten in X amount of days, I think this isn't right".
Click to expand...
Seriously.
 
C

Ceres

Banned
The most important part of that article:
Ellis, the pediatrician, said Sophie had stopped eating when she had loose teeth in the past, and "it was clear there were psychological issues" around her refusal to eat.
Click to expand...

There was a history of it already and there's some massive lacking of common sense on the parent's part.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Zenith said:
Title makes it sound like the dentist's fault when actually the girl had serious psych problems.
Click to expand...

Prreeeeetty sure it was not the best course of action to take, removing all her baby teeth, with her previous issues. Especially if the parents were not aware ALL of them would be removed.. of course.. the truth might be more complicated.

I partly blame the parents, even if they did call every day, because I don't see how any parent could allow it to go on so long before going out of their way to get the real help they need. I more so blame the idiot medical 'professionals' and their horrible advice.
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
What the fuck.

Is anybody guiltless in this?

- The doc pulling all the teeth for convenience and without consent
- The psychologist being completely pants-on-head retarded ("No food in weeks, weight plummeting? Nah, it's totally fine.")
- Parents do nothing while their child eats nothing for three weeks
 
G

GodofWine

Member
You don't NEED teeth to live...this is fucked up...parents can't point the finger at anyone though...christ! she was 8....how do you let an 8 year old starve / dehydrate??
 
S

Steppenwolf

Member
Sounds like a major fuck up on all fronts. But the parents are to blame the most. If my kid doesn't eat and drink for a couple of days i will terrorize the fuck out of the doctors until they pay attention.
 
K

Kusagari

Member
I don't understand why the parents let the dentist pull all her fucking teeth to begin with. For future convenience, wtf?
 
F

funkmastergeneral

Banned
Kusagari said:
I don't understand why the parents let the dentist pull all her fucking teeth to begin with. For future convenience, wtf?
Click to expand...

From what I understand, the parent's weren't asked. And by convience, it seems she must've had something wrong with her teeth and they would have to be pulled eventually, so they decided to get rid of them in one go since they're all baby teeth. Seems reasonable, but not for a girl as fucked up as this one was.
 
D

Darkpen

Banned
T

Timedog

good credit (by proxy)
Somehow I don't think the parents fully disclosed the direness of the situation to medical personnel.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
dankir said:
Isn't this a repost?? I swear to god I read something very very very simliar last year about a girl who was so traumatized after a dentist appointment she refused to open her mouth.

Not even to eat and subsequently died.


bad times.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1002186/Dentist-phobia-girl-wasted-away-refusing-open-mouth-month.html

WTF, it's the same girl from last year??


March 2008?
Click to expand...

I guess this is being brought back into the light again, because the coroner's office is finally getting around to this case. Everyone messed up in this story.
 
C

Ceres

Banned
Steppenwolf said:
Sounds like a major fuck up on all fronts. But the parents are to blame the most. If my kid doesn't eat and drink for a couple of days i will terrorize the fuck out of the doctors until they pay attention.
Click to expand...
They should have asked Gaf. At least 50% of the responses would have been GO TO THE HOSPITAL
 
C

Ceres

Banned
Timedog said:
Somehow I don't think the parents fully disclosed the direness of the situation to medical personnel.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking that it's possibly a combination of the history of this with the child and that the parents have overreacted in the past (chicken little).

Doh. Should have edited my last post.
 
D

Dali

Member
Forgotten_Taco said:
Why the hell would they remove all her teeth in the first place?
Click to expand...
To make it harder to identify the body...






















... or because she was such a difficult patient they figured they'd take the whole lot while they were in there.
next time read
 
P

Panda Bear

Banned
Orellio said:
If there is anyone to blame, it sure as fuck isn't the parent's. Did you even read the OP? They were in contact with people EVERY DAY trying to fix the situation and help their daughter. The doctor who performed the operation should have his license revoked.
Click to expand...
Are you serious? All they did was call. And when they were turned away they just did what they were told. How fucking stupid. If my kid was in this situation I would be in that doctor's office whether he told me to come or not. I would pull a John Q if I had to to make sure my kid was looked at and received treatment. The doctors deserve blame too, no doubt. But the parents are just as much to blame.
 
S

Solideliquid

Member
Socialized medicine.


The hospital told the parents not to bring her in. If you child doesn't eat for more than three days, you bring that child to the ER for hydration and if she doesn't eat in the ER you put her in the hospital for IV nutrition. This was an acute emergency and a child psychologist isn't able to help in an outpatient setting.

That child needed to be admitted to the hospital and while she was there a psychologist could have dropped by to see her. Psychologists have no medical training and they cannot make medical decisions. That hospital killed this child when they told the parents to get medical advice from a psychologist.
 
D

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
funkmastergeneral said:
From what I understand, the parent's weren't asked. And by convience, it seems she must've had something wrong with her teeth and they would have to be pulled eventually, so they decided to get rid of them in one go since they're all baby teeth. Seems reasonable, but not for a girl as fucked up as this one was.
Click to expand...
I am reading they were asked, but the wording made them think they were only consitening to have a single tooth pulled, not 8.
 
K

KHarvey16

Member
I think the dentist deserves the least amount of blame here. The follow-up care was lacking and the psychologist, if really told the child hadn't eaten in 3 weeks, needs to be punished in some way. The parents deserve most of the blame, honestly. If you walked into an emergency room and said how much weight she had lost and that she hadn't eaten in 2 or 3 weeks she would have been fed, no doubt about it.

Edit

The dentist gave the parents a consent form to sign. The fact they apparently misunderstood it does not seem very surprising to be honest.
 
D

Darklord

Banned
Orellio said:
If there is anyone to blame, it sure as fuck isn't the parent's. Did you even read the OP? They were in contact with people EVERY DAY trying to fix the situation and help their daughter. The doctor who performed the operation should have his license revoked.
Click to expand...

If my kid didn't eat for even a few days I'd be taking them to the hospital. Get a dip in her to keep her alive at least!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Locked
Woman hospitalized for 3 days after dog poos on her face while sleeping
2
68
4K
GymWolf replied
My dad’s dog bit off my nose — now I have hair growing on my face
2 3 4 5 6
260
17K
Auto_aim1 replied
Brazilian Singer Hospitalized After Refusing to Fart in Front of Boyfriend
47
4K
darrylgorn replied
These bugs come out at nighttime, and attacking victims, they silently kill or leave them with a lifelong infection
33
3K
Happosai replied
Woman Who Made £37,000 A Week Selling Farts Hospitalized For Trying To Fart Too Much
2 3 4
157
11K
haxan7 replied
Top Bottom