Monday, March 18, 2024
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Dailey Bailey: A Dentist in Chicago Dropped a Drill Down a Patient’s Throat

It’s been a rough week for dentists. First we found out they’ve been lying to us about flossing. Turns out there’s no proof we should be doing it. And now this . . .

A guy in Chicago named Janusz Pawlowicz went in for a root canal about two years ago. (His name is pronounced Yanus Pavlovitch. We’re not sure how old he is, but he looks about 60.)

And while his dentist was working on him, she dropped a tiny drill bit called a “barbed breach” that’s about an inch long. She couldn’t find it on the floor, but she figured they’d find it later . . . so she sent the guy home.

But three days later, he ended up in the hospital with severe stomach pains. And when they did an X-ray, it turned out the drill bit had fallen in his MOUTH, and he’d SWALLOWED it.

His doctors had to do emergency surgery to get it out, and he says he’s had lingering issues ever since.

So he filed a lawsuit that claimed his dentist should have been using a dental dam to make sure it didn’t happen. And they recently settled for $675,000.

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