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Apr 22, 2008 9:00 am US/Eastern
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Dental Nightmare: Woman Put Under, Forgotten
Oral Surgery Goes Awry
For most, going in to get a wisdom tooth pulled is already a nightmare scenario. So imagine going in to get a wisdom tooth pulled, and then being locked inside the dental office and forgotten by the staff.
Ramona Mercado says she was hysterical when this scenario happened to her. She said she woke up from general anesthesia all alone at oral surgery center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
"Terrified, I was hyper ventilating," Mercado said. "I threw up a couple of times from over exhaustion of crying."No one in the office, everything was closed all the lights were off."
Mercado said she called the service that referred her to the oral surgery center, and they called 911 to get her out.
"The police officers came, they snipped the locks off," Mercado said. "They were the ones who opened up the door and let me out."
Mercado said she was locked in the Oral Surgery Center for about 40 minutes. She saw her dental file left on the desk and said the recovery room was a walk-in space with no door. She can't understand how the staff didn't see her.
"I never got a chance to sign myself off to be discharged out, so I don't know if they were waiting for me to wake-up or they just forgot," she said. "I assume they really forgot about me."
Mercado is suing for medical malpractice. Her lawyer says even his colleagues find the story amazing.
"They thought it was so outrageous, they wouldn't even believe it, and unless I told them that the police had to come there and break the door down to get them out," John Kouroupas said.
Needless to say, Mercado has soured on the whole surgery idea.
"I will not get anesthesia again," she said. "I don't care what procedure I have to go through, I just have to suffer through the pain."