Three-year-old dies after dental visit
A mother in the US has been left broken-hearted and in desperate need of answers after a simple dental procedure for her three-year-old son resulted in his passing.
Nancy Valenzuela, a mother of three from Scott City, Kansas, said she took her son, Abiel Valenzuela Zapata, into Tiny Teeth Pediatrics Dentistry for a check up.
A simple procedure was necessary – a teeth extraction after a nasty gum infection.
“We didn’t expect to come out of there without a child,” Valenzuela explained.
Abiel died on Tuesday after being transported to a Wichita hospital.
Valenzuela revealed she and her son had visited two dental offices in southwest Kansas, but was told both times that her son needed to have teeth pulled.
She sadly went on to say her boy was fine before he went into surgery, and only asked for comfort while getting a shot.
“I told him, ‘Papi, everything’s going to be okay. You know you’re fine,’” said Valenzuela.
Wichita police officers later reported that the anesthesiologist claimed Abiel was doing fine for about 30 minutes under sedation.
However, disaster slowly ensued for the family.
While the specific details surrounding Abiel’s procedure, the doctor reported he’d never seen “anything like that”, especially in someone so small without any known allergies.
Valenzuela said she didn’t know there was a medical emergency at the office for her son until he was brought out to the ambulance.
“As a mother, you feel like you failed him because you didn’t do anything to protect him,” she said.
“I really thought that I made the right choice.”
Valenzuela sadly never saw her son alive again, but that didn’t stop her from making one final promise to him.
“‘I couldn’t do anything for you, but I will investigate.’ It’s what I told him. It’s the only thing I can do and bring awareness,” she said.
The mother said it’s been difficult on her other children, including Abiel’s older brother.
“I asked him later on in the night, ‘Where is Abiel,’ and he pointed up, and he said he is with God,” she said.
She said the family would have to take it one day at a time.
“He’s in a better place, he was just so young, and we loved him a lot,” said Valenzuela.
Police officer Trevor Macy said in a statement that there is no criminal investigation underway “at this time.”
The Tiny Teeth Pediatric Dentistry has released a statement on the three-year-old’s death.
“Tiny Teeth Pediatric Dentistry is devastated by the death of Abiel Valenzuela Zapata,” the statement reads.
“Like Abiel’s family, we, too, want to understand how this tragic event may have occurred.
“Our practice has never experienced an incident like this, and we had no reason to expect this procedure would be anything other than routine.
“We would like to thank the EMS first responders who arrived only a few minutes after we called 911.
“They continued the CPR efforts we had begun and worked feverishly to save Abiel.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for funeral costs.