Gerry White, from Stockport, received the large settlement after he says a root canal treatment resulted in six weeks of hospitalisation.

Retired Paramedic Gerry was admitted to hospital for six weeks in the November of 2017, after an ongoing abscess issue resulting from dental treatment way back in 2012 resulted in infective endocarditis, which is a potentially fatal inflammation occurring within the lining of the heart valves.

The infection which caused the hospitalisation later resulted in him requiring replacement heart valve treatment in 2018, after which he was told that his lifespan may have been shortened by up to five years as a result.

The subsequent legal investigation traced the problem back to poorly-undertaken root canal treatment, which caused not only the infection but also required a tooth extraction due to its effects, which now means the Gerry is required to wear a denture.

Gerry is keen to encourage others to speak up if they notice an issue with their treatment. He said:

“It’s unbelievable that it all started with a little lump above my tooth. I wish something had been done sooner and it’s knowing that it was avoidable in the first place.”

“I didn’t realise there was anything wrong with my heart at the time, so had I not gone to the doctors, it could have been far more serious.”

At the other side of the legal proceedings and his award of £50,000 compensation, he added:

“It was amazing, and we’ve been left with a nice amount of money that we’ve put away for the time being. We bought one or two things that we’d been promising ourselves, like a new TV, but this means we don’t have to worry about money too much.”

The practice stated that it was unable to respond regarding actions or clinical decisions made by a elf-employed dentist. 

Gerry had never had any other issues with his teeth in the past, besides an overcrowding of teeth in his jaw when he was younger. He initially went for a dental checkup because he noticed a small lump on his gum, after which he was put in for a root canal procedure which he claims was not properly explained to him.

Following the treatment is when he started experiencing recurring issues with an abscess in his mouth, around the site of the root canal. He said:

“I would experience swelling sometimes and occasionally the abscess would pop which left a foul taste in my mouth.

“It was a bit of an annoyance, but I didn’t think much of it at the time, as dentists had never seemed too concerned and had told me to keep an eye on it.”

In 2017, he began experiencing flu-like symptoms, an elevated temperature, breathlessness and pain in his joints, which is when he was referred to hospital after doctors finding that his haemoglobin levels were extremely low.

In the resulting period, it was determined that he had a blood infection. He was in hospital for four weeks and eventually had the root canal tooth extracted, at which point the infection began to ease. The infection resulted in requiring heart valve replacement surgery.

Gerry now takes blood pressure medication, as well as aspirin and regulation medication to stabilise his heartbeat, but otherwise he feels healthy again. 

The dental practice did not confirm whether or not the dentist responsible still worked for the dental surgery.

My two-penneth

A shocking case of substandard care where unfortunately, there was either a lack of diligence post surgery, or the dentist simply failed to pick up on any issue beyond what was superficially going on with the recurring abscess this patient had.

Worse for me though, is that once again we have a case where scrutiny seems to have been brushed over at the final hurdle, where it could be implied that the dentist is still at large and potentially negligently treating other patients. Appalling.