An Ohio oral surgeon is facing a wrongful death lawsuit and possible disciplinary action from the state dental board for the 2023 death of a 48-year-old man who went into cardiac arrest during a tooth extraction procedure and died a few days later, according to news stories.
Brandy Miller, the wife of Matthew Miller, is suing Dr. Faisal Quereshy and the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine for wrongful death. In October, the Ohio State Dental Board will hold a hearing to review the case and determine if any disciplinary action should be taken against Quereshy, who is a professor at the university.
In August 2023, Miller went to Visage Surgical Institute in Medina, OH, to have three teeth pulled under general anesthesia. His wife claims in the lawsuit that Quereshy "pushed" to have Miller’s extraction performed under general anesthesia, according to the stories.
The dental board alleges that Miller was morbidly obese, placing him at high risk of respiratory arrest during the extractions. Also, the board claims that his condition required a full physician evaluation prior to the procedure, which Quereshy didn’t obtain, according to the stories.
Furthermore, the dental board claims that Quereshy administered anesthesia and gave Miller medications “one after the other without any pause between administration to assess effectiveness and then, within minutes, placing a throat pack and starting surgery.” Miller then lost a pulse and went into cardiac arrest, according to the stories.
Also, the dental board claims that Quereshy didn’t give Miller reversal agents to counter the narcotics and benzodiazepines he was given. Miller was taken to a local hospital and died four days later, according to the stories.
It was determined that Miller’s cause of death was acute hypoxic respiratory failure due to procedural sedation.
Moreover, the dental board claims that Quereshy changed or allowed someone to change Miller’s preoperative anesthesia records the day after the procedure. Furthermore, the board alleges the oral surgeon allowed a research fellow who was not licensed to practice dentistry in Ohio to work as the dental assistant during the procedure, according to the stories.
This research fellow attended Case Western. The university has said in court records that Miller wasn’t under its care and, therefore, wasn’t at fault, according to the stories.
Quereshy has denied these allegations.
