The private dental clinic in Alzira (Valencia), where the six-year-old girl who died last Thursday was treated, does not have health authorization to perform anesthetic techniques, which include sedation with intravenous drugs.
As confirmed on Saturday by sources from the Ministry of Health, the private center is authorized as a dental clinic with dental-stomatological activity, which means that it can administer local anesthetics without further authorization.
The minor was admitted to hospital at 4.52pm. Thursday in the emergency room of the Hospital de la Ribera, in Alzira, in cardiopulmonary arrest. Doctors attempted to resuscitate him unsuccessfully and declared him dead.
The Department’s Inspection Service has started an information file to clarify the circumstances of the incident and has ordered the precautionary suspension of the clinic’s activity. For its part, the Alzira court opened a preliminary investigation into the death.
The National Police Station of Alzira has transferred the investigation documents to the Homicide Group, pending the autopsy of the deceased minor, police sources informed Europa Press on Saturday.
It so happens that at 3.11pm on the same day, another four-year-old girl, also treated that morning at the same dental clinic, went to the emergency room of the Hospital de la Ribera.
The little girl had an episode of fever, vomiting and drowsiness. After her stabilization and related evaluation, the doctors decided to transfer her from SAMU to the pediatric intensive care unit of the Clínico de València Hospital, where she is hospitalized and remains stable, according to Conselleria sources.
After these events, the owner of the clinic declared, in statements to À Punt reported by Europa Press, that the deceased girl left the dental center “apparently well” and “the anesthetist does not know what could have happened”. According to what she explained, the minor was not subjected to an operation under general anesthesia, but rather to sedation administered through an IV to extract some milk teeth and give her fillings. “They are investigating the anesthesia issue,” he concluded.
