15 years old Denisa Alexandra Stefanoaia, a native of Watford, lost her life at the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London earlier this year, after a simple dental surgery. Reportedly she wanted to fix her smile for which she was getting braces.
Alexandra, nicknamed Alex suffered from severe complications after four of her teeth were removed. The girl was informed that she will be under general anesthesia and the surgery will last for an hour.
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Alex was extremely obese and also had mild asthma as well as sleep apnea. The medical experts claim that she was at a risk which accounts for 1/100,000″ people. So it was calculated as ‘low; which is why neither Alex nor her family was informed about it.
The surgery lasted for 19 minutes in total and from a surgeon’s point of view, it was rather simple. But later on, the medics found out that the endotracheal tube was cut during the procedure and she wasn’t breathing properly.
Alex was immediately shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) but after spending five days there, her brain was out of oxygen and she was declared dead.
Dr. Atheer Ujam from the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) provided evidence regarding the surgery. He has shared that she was hopeful that the girl is going to have her smile fixed soon. This procedure was not complicated however, after some time he realized that there is a problem. According to Ujam, he was there to make sure the patient’s stability.
But after he finished the notes about the patients, he found Alex turning blue. He informed a colleague about a problem with the patient’s lungs but before they did something about it Alex, started to bleed from her mouth.
The doctors looked for her pulse but there was none. Even after trying CPR, there was no pulse and within some time people started to gather around the theatre.
Dr. Ujam says that he didn’t do anything other than the routine procedure which he performs on any similar patient. But Dr. Akane Iguchi, who is a consultant anesthetist from the same hospital shares that she was concerned that Alex’s lungs weren’t stable after the dental surgery.
She says that all doctors were trying to save her life but Alex was turning blue as she har ET (endotracheal) tube was bitten. Considering the obesity level of Alex, there are chances that her body was short on oxygen levels only for a few seconds and in less than a minute, she was without a pulse.
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Because of obesity, Alex’s body needed more oxygen than normal people, and combining all of these factors, she was a very high risk.
Alex’s mother, Angelica Stefanoaia shares that losing her daughter is a big loss, she has lost her best friend. She says that she cries every day by thinking that she will never have her back.
Obesity is a rapidly growing problem that has affected nearly half of the US population. The more worrisome part is that even children are not free from obesity which is mainly due to unhealthy dietary choices and a sedentary lifestyle. The medical experts warn parents to be careful of their children’s health and get complete risk assessment before undergoing any surgery.
