DENTIST AND PATIENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13602, 22 November 1907, Page 5

DENTIST AND PATIENT.

ACTION FOR DAMAGES.

AN IMPORTANT CASE,

[«T TELEGRAPH.—-PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

Dtrxrcmx, Thursday.. At the Supreme Court to-day, an unusual case was commenced before Mr. Justice Williams and a special jury of 12, Win. Harrison Hatter proceeding against Philip Hubert Moses and Walter Douglas Brever Pittar, carrying on busiuess as the London Dental Company, for £2000 damages, alleged to havo been sustained by plaintiff, "owing to negligence and unskilful extraction of his teeth by the defendant Moses, by -which plaintiff's throat and lung were permanently injured, and by which lie has incurred, and will incur, further expenses for surgical- and medical attendance and for medicine. Mr. Solomon, K.C., and Mr. Payne, appeared for plaintiff, and Mr. Adams and Mr. Hanlon lor defendants.

Mr. Payne, in opening the case for plaintiff, said the latter was 46 years of age. With • the exception of one slight illness, he had been in perfect health up, to October 27, 1906, when he went to the. London Dental Company to have his teeth extracted, and to be provided with a full set of false teeth; The operation was car-'. ried out so unskilfully as to cause plaintiff to sustain severe personal injury. It was alleged ihat during the operation Moses allowed a tooth, or part of a tooth, or other foreign substance to go down plaintiff's throat, that defendant did not take sufficient precautions to prevent such accident, and that the anaesthetic had been unskilfully administered. Counsel stated that Moses, when interrogated regarding the matter, said he *vas sure no tooth had slipped. He had got them all out, but he had missed a sponge. If a sponge could disappear -without Moses' noticing it, surely a tooth could do likewise. Skilled dentists would say that Moses had no right to attempt the extraction of 30 teeth in a man's head at one Bitting, under gas.

Plaintiff gave evidence in support of counsel's statements, and said that at an interview defendant said he would give him a chance to go away anywhere he liked at defendant's expense. Witness went to a doctor to get operated on by the X-rays. When he received the bill he showed it to Moses, who said he would pay it.

Dr. Win. "Marshall MaeDonald said lie had come to the conclusion that plaintiff's larynx had been injured. After November 14, 1906, plaintiff improved rapidly, and then stopped, and had been at a standstill for nearly a year. Witness thought there was a foreign body in the air passage. Ha considered it absolutely necessary to have a medical man to attend to the anaesthetics, while teeth extraction was going on, thus allowing the dcntißt to give his whole attention to his work,; otherwise there was danger of a tooth being lost.

The statement of defence showed that defendants denied absolutely the charges of negligence and fulness and "injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff. They denied that any foreign substance had gone down plaintiff's throat and stated that Moses had exercised proper care in conducting the operation. ~