North Texas dentist arrested, accused of treating patient while intoxicated, police say<\/a><\/p>\nA medical examiner and toxicologist later told police the level would have been high or toxic even for an adult, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit. The toxicologist said the concentration suggested Aithana might have received the drug twice, though investigators did not establish that a double dose occurred.<\/p>\n
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Aithana, who weighed 44 pounds, had been taken to the dental office for a frenectomy, a procedure intended to address a possible tongue-tie.<\/p>\n
Her sedation record listed chloral hydrate, hydroxyzine, meperidine and nitrous oxide, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
That affidavit says a Texas State Board of Dental Examiners investigation concluded that the documented doses were individually below their maximum limits but that their combined effects were not adequately considered. The medications can suppress breathing.<\/p>\n
Aithana\u2019s mother told police that Hemphill said the child would be sedated but remain awake.<\/p>\n
Hemphill provided a liquid medication that the mother in turn gave Aithana before the procedure, according to the affidavits. Hemphill also used nitrous oxide, the court documents say.<\/p>\n
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The mother said she was not allowed to remain in the procedure room.<\/p>\n
About an hour later, she was allowed inside and saw Hemphill holding Aithana and trying to wake her with a popsicle. The mother told investigators that her daughter\u2019s leg felt cold and that her head fell backward.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth firefighters later found Aithana unresponsive and took her to Harris Southwest Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
Hemphill told investigators that Aithana remained awake and did well during the procedure but began losing consciousness during recovery, according to the search-warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
A staff member told police that pink liquid began coming from Aithana\u2019s nostrils. Staff then reapplied monitoring equipment and attempted rescue breathing, CPR and use of an automated external defibrillator, the arrest-warrant affidavit says.<\/p>\n
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The affidavit lists Aithana\u2019s oxygen saturation at 63%, her pulse at about 115 beats per minute and her systolic blood pressure at about 64 during the emergency.<\/p>\n
Hemphill can be heard on a 911 recording saying, \u201cMy patient won\u2019t wake up. We sedated her. Trying to give her reversal meds,\u201d according to the search-warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
The arrest-warrant affidavit alleges Hemphill gave Aithana flumazenil, which reverses benzodiazepines. Toxicology testing did not find benzodiazepines in Aithana\u2019s system.<\/p>\n
Meperidine is an opioid and can be reversed with naloxone. The affidavit says naloxone was not given at the dental office but was later administered at the hospital.<\/p>\n
A board-certified anesthesiologist who reviewed the case told police that Aithana was suffering respiratory failure and needed assisted ventilation and naloxone, according to the arrest-warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n
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The expert said the pink fluid was consistent with pulmonary edema caused by respiratory failure, not evidence of a previously undisclosed sinus or breathing condition.<\/p>\n
Hemphill told investigators she believed Aithana died because of an undisclosed breathing condition combined with meperidine.<\/p>\n
Aithana\u2019s mother said the child used nasal spray for snoring but had never been diagnosed with a breathing problem. Her nurse practitioner and an ear, nose and throat specialist also told police she had no known breathing problems.<\/p>\n
Police allege Hemphill failed to account for the combined effects of the medications, properly monitor Aithana during recovery, recognize her respiratory distress and administer the appropriate reversal medication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fort Worth dentist was arrested Wednesday in rellation to her administration of sedatives to a four-year-old who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-374922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}