The Cuyahoga County coroner in Ohio has ruled that a 13-year-old girl's death in January -- two weeks after she had two teeth extracted -- was accidental, according to a story in Chronicle-Telegram.
On December 21, Marissa Kingery went to oral surgeon Henry Mazorow, DDS, and was given intravenous sedation in preparation for the surgery, according to the coroner's report. She was given a combination of propofol, ketamine, remifentanil, and Versed.
After she "apparently became ill and collapsed," she was rushed by ambulance to Mercy Regional Medical Center in Lorain and placed on life support, then later flown to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland and placed on a ventilator, the Chronicle-Telegram reported. After failing to respond to treatment, she was officially pronounced dead on January 3.
The death was ruled accidental due to diffuse hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, the coroner's report stated.
The Ohio State Dental Board is investigating Kingery's death. Dr. Mazorow, 81, has been practicing since 1956 and is licensed to administer general anesthesia. The dental board has no record of disciplinary action against Dr. Mazorow and did not take any action against him in the 1997 death of 57-year-old Rosemary Johnson, who died while having six teeth extracted.
Johnson's family settled a wrongful death case against Dr. Mazorow for $550,000 in 1999, according to court records.
