The brother of the 5-year-old girl who died after receiving anesthesia at a Chicago dental clinic last month had reacted badly to sedation only a week earlier, a clinic employee testified Wednesday in the license revocation hearing of Dr. Hicham K. Riba, who treated the girl.
Testifying on his behalf, Dr. Deanna Groen, a colleague at Little Angel Dental on the West Side, said that she had put a note in the boy’s file two days before his sister was treated, but she never mentioned it to Riba.
The children’s mother had told her, she said, that the boy had “barely made it out” of sedation during an MRI at another facility a week earlier.
Riba’s lawyers have said it is possible that the girl, Diamond Brownridge, had a similar medical condition that caused her to stop breathing. The kindergartner died four days after falling into a coma at the clinic because of a lack of oxygen caused by anesthesia, according to an autopsy.
Lawyers for the state licensing authority have alleged that Riba oversedated the girl and failed to monitor her vital signs.
The lawyers have argued that the girl received three times the Valium a 35-pound child should, which put her into a deep sedation. Riba was not licensed to put patients under deep sedation.
If Riba had properly monitored her vital signs, he would have noticed there was a problem, state lawyers said.
Riba has admitted in testimony at the hearing that he did not adequately monitor the child.
Groen testified on Wednesday that she put a warning in the brother’s file in large block letters, saying that he should not receive intravenous sedation. She made the note after the children’s mother, Ommettress Travis, mentioned during an examination on Sept. 21 that her son had “a difficult time with anesthesia.” That was two days before she brought Diamond to the clinic for a six-tooth operation to fill cavities and place caps.
Groen said it was her first day working in the office, and she did not know the boy had other family members who were patients at Little Angel Dental.
In the days after Diamond’s treatment went awry, Groen testified, she put “two and two together” and realized “that there was a possibility there might be something genetic.”
Carmen Martinez, the receptionist at the clinic, testified as a witness for the defense Wednesday, describing how Diamond’s mother grew “hysterical” when her daughter did not wake up after the operation.
As she prayed for God not to take her daughter, she said she had been through a similar experience the week before with her son, said Martinez.
Martinez testified she found a medical alert in the boy’s file two days after Diamond’s operation. The notation said he had an allergy to anesthesia, she said.
Defense lawyers have depicted Riba as a hard-working dentist who ran an inner-city practice and often treated low-income patients, many with behavioral problems. Riba testified Friday that he typically worked more than eight hours a day, six days a week and received referrals from more than 30 practices.
Groen testified that she referred “difficult cases” to Riba when she worked at another practice before coming to Little Angel Dental.
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efitzsimmons@tribune.com
