A woman has spent been left brain dead in a coma after a cosmetic dentistry operation in Poland went tragically wrong. A criminal investigation is now under way into what happened to 57-year-old Beata Filipek.
Her family in Leeds claim she was given fentanyl during the procedure and had a reaction to the opiate, leading to permanent brain damage. The family say Beata, a beautician, who ran and exercised every day, had begun suffering bone loss in her lower jaw, and wanted implants to maintain her appearance.
She booked a £18,569 procedure under anaesthetic in a private dental clinic in Lublin on April 13 and arranged for an aunt to pick her up. At 3.24pm that day, she texted the aunt that she had signed all the consents, and the treatment was starting.
It was supposed to last 90 minutes and she had to wait two hours until she recovered from anaesthetic. Ms Beaty's aunt called her at 7pm, but, after getting no reply, went around to the clinic.
She was horrified to find her niece lying unconscious on the bed with a plastic mask on her face. She was told by the doctors that the hospital had already been notified and that an ambulance was on its way.
At 8:30 pm, Beata was rushed to intensive care at the hospital at Staszica Street in Lublin. Just days later, Beata's sister, Dagmara, flew from the United States, where she lives, to Poland, to find out what really happened to her sister.
She said: "I entered the doctor's office under the pretext that I was a client. They took me upstairs. He closed the door, and only then did I admit that I was Beata Filipek's sister.
"He got very scared and said 'I really don't know what happened, but her blood pressure started to drop. It was very hard to pull out teeth. I even stopped doing the procedure because I felt something was wrong. I ordered a quick recovery from anaesthesia. But what happened, you have to talk to the anaesthesiologist."
Dagmara called the anaesthesiologist who told her: "I don't know what happened, but she got some convulsions." Beata only had three of her teeth removed. The doctor did not have time to insert the implants.
The clinic was due to return the money for the unfinished procedure. The family say an MRI scan has revealed irreversible changes in Beata’s brain, plus damage to the cerebral cortex.
Speaking from her home, Ellie Mae Fitzgerald, 26, mother of Beata’s three grandkids, said "I cannot believe what has happened to my mother-in-law. I am completely devastated. I have told my three children that their grandmother will never recover from her injuries.
“We are all due to fly out to Poland next week to say our goodbyes. She has now been transferred from hospital to a rehabilitation centre but I've been told by doctors she is brain dead and will never recover.
“A couple of weeks ago she opened her eyes which gave us some hope but doctors have confirmed that there is nothing more they can do. She was so fit and healthy before this surgery. We need answers as to what has gone so badly wrong. Apparently she was given fentanyl and she has reacted to it.”
Dagmara, who has complained to the prosecutor's office, is keeping a bedside vigil in Poland. She said: “I am praying for her to just open her eyes and walk out of this nightmare. She walked into the dentist’s office healthy and vibrant and now has hypoxic brain injury. I want to scream.”
She said her sister was making strange body movements while under the anaesthetic and had low blood pressure. "They still did not call an ambulance. She was kept for another two hours in the office,” she said.
“My sister is lying in an ICU bed in her perfect make-up, beautiful skin, perfect nails, and beautiful body that she always cared for so much. I am crying -I am crying a lot. It is so stupid to lose your life for a tooth.”
Agnieszka Kępka, spokesman of the District Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, has told the Polish media the proceedings have been commenced under Article 156 of the country's Criminal Code of causing serious damage to health.
