How does an old man experience his teeth passing down his throat whilst under the care of medical professionals? And him dying therefrom? A family in Changzhou of our very own Jiangsu are grappling with this as they mourn, while a hospital dodges the issue.
On the morning of 5 October, the man, surnamed Sun, in excess of 80 years old, passed away. But at that point, he still had one tooth left in his lungs. Prior to his death, Changzhou Jiuzhou Golden Oriental Hospital had extracted five teeth from his body.
How those teeth entered his body has become a question for the family which they are determined to pursue. Sun’s son spoke with media outlet, The Paper, and said that his father had been intubated after being admitted to the Hospital. He suspected that the Hospital had improperly operated and that his father had involuntarily ingested his own teeth during intubation.
Sun had lived in the Golden Oriental Nursing Centre of Wujin District in Changzhou. Official information shows that facility to be equipped with more than 1,600 senior care apartments and is a care centre integrating senior care, medical care, nursing and well being.
In March this year, when Sun visited his father, he found that he was weak and had a poor appetite. That’s when he was sent to Changzhou Jiuzhou Golden Oriental Hospital for treatment.
According to the Hospital’s diagnosis and treatment records, the patient was considered to have gastrointestinal perforation and other diseases after examination. On 22 March, the hospital performed an exploratory laparotomy on the elderly man under general anesthesia.
Sent to the ICU for treatment, on 24 March and after developing difficulty breathing, the hospital performed tracheal intubation and put him on a ventilator.
Sun’s son said, “During this time, the doctor gave us a tooth from my dad, saying it was found during intubation. Fortunately, it was discovered early, otherwise it would be troublesome if it entered the trachea”.
In actual fact, the Hospital had discovered there were a total of six teeth and dentures inside the senior’s body. On 17 April, the facility was successful in extracting five, including the braces, from the lower oesophagus and stomach. The remaining tooth was in the lung, but could not be removed.
After the operation, Sun’s father’s condition did not improve. He became pale, confused and in constant need of resuscitation, leading to the hospital issuing a notice of critical illness.
With the deteriorating of his father’s health, Sun transferred him to another hospital for expert consultation. Although the symptoms of gastric bleeding improved, the teeth in his lungs could not be removed through surgery, which posed hidden multiple dangers.
The family was repeatedly informed that the infection will worsen in the later period and there will be more complications. They needed also be careful as to the possibilities for suffocation.
Back in the Jiuzhou Golden Oriental Hospital where he died, that facility has never given a clear explanation of how the teeth entered the body.
The Chairman of the Golden Oriental Nursing Centre said that the hospital involved and the Nursing Centre were not part of the same group and was therefore unclear as to the matter.
The family now pursuing appraisal by a third-party agency.
