The four-year-old girl, who has been registered in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Valencia Clinical Hospital since last July, after undergoing treatment at a dental clinic in Alzira (Valencia), developed well and passed the plan, according to information from the Health Board familiar with this journal. The minor underwent dental treatment in the same private clinic, where she was also treated on the same day as another six-year-old girl, who died hours after the intervention.
For the past four years, she went to the Urgencias del Hospital de la Ribera at 15.11 last July after being treated in the dental clinic. She had a bout of fever, vomiting and drowsiness and was transferred to the Hospital Clónico de València, where she remains.
At 16:52 on the same day, another 6-year-old girl entered the emergency department of the same hospital suffering from cardiorespiratory arrest after she had been treated the same morning in the same private dental clinic, and capabilities attempted to revive her to no avail. This minor had symptoms very similar to the previous ones, with difficulty breathing as well. The treatment consists of extracting some milk and making some pastes.
The priests of the deceased minor in the hospital explained that the girl remained for four hours under observation in the dental clinic and did not recover well from the anesthesia that was given to her intravenously. However, he was discharged from the hospital and as soon as he arrived home, after a moment when it seemed that he had recovered, he fell into a very serious condition, which is why his parents transferred him to the La Ribera Hospital in Alzera, where he went into cardiac and respiratory arrest.
The dentist and owner of Miria Dental Clinic, with more than 20 years of experience, told us that the girl left the institution “apparently in good condition” and that the anesthesiologist did not know how to go. It noted that the “amount” of anesthesia was investigated.
The National Police Homicide Squad is investigating the crimes, and the Board of Health has initiated a health investigation that could contribute to clarifying what happened with the prescribed medications, referring them to health or licensing the clinic, and after conducting an interview with the specialist who anesthetized the deceased child.
The council was informed on Saturday that the clinic did not have a health license to carry out anesthesia activity techniques, including Anesthesia with intravenous medications. The Health Board’s Health Services Inspectorate is holding a meeting on Saturday with the anesthetist who attended the pediatric patients.
The College of Dentists and Dentists of Valencia (ICOEV) today issued a statement focusing on dental treatment and the management of intravenous anesthesia performed in a private dental clinic in Alzira “carried out by university specialists”.
The school system regrets “deeply the death of the minor and the introduction of other dental treatments in both cases with anesthesia by a doctor specializing in anesthesia in the town of Al-Zira.” After expressing its condolences to the affected family and its wishes for a positive development for the other admitted minor, the college confirmed that in both cases, “dental treatments were performed by a university specialist trained in pediatric dentistry, and, on the other hand, intravenous sedation was performed by a university doctor specialized in anesthesia.” I believe that even if there was a formal investigation into the case and before the possible referral of the case to court, there would be no further evaluations “either out of respect for the ongoing investigation or out of the institution’s responsibility and caution when it comes to not knowing the concrete circumstances.”
This statement was published one day after the Spanish Society of Anesthesia, Rehabilitation and Therapy for Pain (SEDAR). In this note, I extend my condolences to the family of the deceased girl, remembering the importance of anesthesia, which is performed exclusively by doctors specialized in anesthesia and resuscitation.
In his statement, he called for “wisdom, respect and institutional responsibility” and said that in “these moments the clinical data and precise circumstances” of success are unknown, which is why they cannot express what happened or evaluate the reasons, actions or responsibilities. But he insisted that anesthesia using general anesthesia drugs are “procedures that involve serious risks, including vital risks, and should be performed exclusively by doctors specialized in anesthesia and resuscitation.”