An investigation is underway after a 64-year-old man bled to his death at a hospital in Sing Buri after getting 12 of his teeth pulled out, says the Thai Dental Council.
After learning of the case from media reports, the council decided to seek information from experts at the Royal College of Dental Surgeons, as well as the hospital. The probe should establish the actual cause of death, the council said. It also urged the public to respect the privacy of the man’s relatives.
The man, identified only as Somsak, was admitted to the hospital with sepsis, or blood poisoning, which doctors believe was caused by the patient’s severe periodontal disease.
As a result, they decided to extract the infected teeth, hoping to eliminate the infection at its source.
The man’s daughter, Chanthana Khumkrong, a resident of Bang Rachan district, said her father was admitted on May 12 for cirrhosis treatment, but on May 15, they were told her father was suffering from sepsis and needed to be put on a course of medication until May 28.
On May 23, she was told that her father had 12 decayed teeth that needed to be removed. The first seven teeth were removed that day and the other five on the following day, when her father began bleeding profusely and died.
His body was moved from the hospital on May 25 to Wat Sadao temple in Bang Rachan district for funeral rites.