Miscellaneous

Dentist Botches Breast Reduction Surgery. Go Figure.

Who goes to the dentist to get breast reduction surgery, anyway? I'd say you get what you paid for, but in this case, it was a 15-year-old who received the surgery for ... medical reasons. From a dentist.

A dentist and oral surgeon with a controversial past, including a raft of malpractice suits and a reprimand in a patient's death, has been sued again, this time by a Kirkland woman who said he botched a breast reduction on her three years ago when she was 15.

At the time, Thomas Laney was practicing in Seattle, where he was able to remain licensed and in business despite unorthodox training, the death of a patient and 10 lawsuits against him. The Seattle P-I found that Laney epitomized flaws in the state's disciplinary system of oral doctors.

In the most recent complaint, the woman, now 18, had seen Laney for a breast reduction in August 2005. The woman had been a high school athlete with disproportionately large breasts that hampered her ability to play sports, even when she wore three sports bras, said the woman's lawyer, Patricia Greenstreet. Her breasts also caused neck and back pain. "It was not a cosmetic procedure, but a medically necessary procedure," Greenstreet said. "She was hurting."

But instead of feeling better, the woman felt worse. According to a plastic surgeon who supported the woman's complaint in court records, Laney lacked the training and education needed for the surgery. The surgeon wrote that Laney violated "the standard of care" by allegedly mismarking the woman's breasts post-op and by placing her nipples "cross-eyed." The surgeon also wrote that Laney gave the woman deformed breasts and "railroad" scars, by allegedly leaving her sutures in too long.

Wait a second? This guy is not only a dentist who does boob jobs, but he's also killed a person during surgery? What the hell kind of dentist is he?

Full post as published by Quiz Law on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).