The dental clinic in Alzira that treated the girl who died was not authorized to administer anesthesia.
The owner of the establishment explained that the minor was sedated during a routine intervention to make her "more relaxed".
BarcelonaThe private dental clinic in Alzira, Valencia, that treated a six-year-old girl who died after a dental procedure lacked authorization to administer anesthesia. As confirmed this Saturday by the Valencian Health Department, the clinic does not have the necessary health authorization to perform anesthesia techniques such as those applied to the child. The six-year-old girl died on Thursday, hours after being treated at the private dentist, where she was sedated to help her relax while having some baby teeth extracted and fillings placed. A second girl, four years old, is also in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Hospital Clínic in Valencia, after being treated the same day at the same dental clinic.
The Ministry of Health has specified that the authorization for this dental clinic is "as a dental clinic with dentistry and stomatology activity" and that it can administer local anesthetics, but it cannot perform sedations with intravenous drugs, which is what they did to the girl who is going to cause cardiorespiratory arrest.
Precautionary suspension
After it was learned that the child had died, the owner of the private dental clinic explained that while they were extracting some baby teeth, they inserted an IV to sedate her and make her "more relaxed." She also stated that afterwards, "she left perfectly fine" and that she didn't know "what could have happened." On Friday, the inspection service of the Catalan Ministry of Health opened an inquiry to clarify the circumstances of the events and ordered the precautionary suspension of the dental clinic's activities. Now, the head of the Court of Instruction Number 5 of Alzira has opened preliminary proceedings to investigate the girl's death.