A Chinese woman jumped off a hospital roof and died after a doctor messed up a routine tooth extraction process, a report in South China Morning Post has claimed. The woman surnamed Wu, 34, hailed from Anhui province in eastern China and had undergone a wisdom tooth extraction at the Anqing Municipal Hospital, known for its dental department, earlier this month.
During the procedure, the doctor mistakenly removed a healthy tooth and then forcibly stuffed the incorrectly extracted tooth back in place.
“For an hour and a half of the surgery, they did not use anaesthesia, and my sister endured it,” Ms Wu’s brother said, adding that the doctor used wire to tie the wrong tooth along with several others.
The botched operation damaged Ms Wu’s teeth and she was left with severe pain and a swollen face. She was unable to eat and survived by only drinking water for the next few days as the pain kept her up at night.
Chronicling her experience on social media, Ms Wu shared a video, where she recounted the horrifying experience. “No one really addressed this incident. The hospital lied to me from start to finish, causing me immense suffering. Who will save me? Because of the harm this hospital caused, I will die here,” she said.
One of Ms Wu’s relatives said she had warned that she would be using her ‘death’ to prove her innocence after no action was taken against the hospital staffers.
“Wu had repeatedly reported the issue to the hospital and authorities, but nothing was done. This broke her psychological defences, and she said she would use death to prove her innocence,” the relative said.
After her death, the hospital announced that the doctor involved had been suspended and that both the health commission and police were investigating the matter. Meanwhile, Ms Wu’s family has rejected the hospital’s offer of Rs 11.7 lakh (100,000 yuan) in compensation and demanded to see surveillance footage of the rooftop plunge.
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Dental safety in China
This is not the first instance when concerns about dental procedure safety have been raised in China. In August last year, a man surnamed Huang, underwent an extensive dental procedure in which doctors extracted 23 teeth and inserted 12 implants in a single day.
Two weeks later, the man suffered a sudden heart attack and died. The case was brought to light through an online post by his daughter, Shu.