A Miami woman, Maria Lugo Querales, has been left with severe brain damage and requiring 24-hour care after allegedly receiving a massive dose of fentanyl during what has been described as an unnecessary dental surgery in Marble Falls, Texas.
The lawsuit, filed by Lugo’s husband, Luis Espana, points fingers at Dr. Jerry Teague, an anesthesiologist at the Texas clinic, and other dentists involved in the procedure.
Anesthesia Nightmare
The May 10, 2022, dental procedure took a dire turn, leaving Lugo in critical condition. The lawsuit accuses Dr. Teague of administering excessive amounts of anesthesia drugs without intubating her first, raising serious concerns about the protocols followed during the surgery.
Lugo’s visit to the dental practice originated in Florida, where she sought a procedure for “alleged ‘cavitations’ and the extraction of an asymptomatic root canal-treated tooth.” The lawsuit contends that Lugo was treated with fentanyl, midazolam, and lidocaine during the dental procedure in Marble Falls.
Dr. Teague, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer and was reportedly given less than a year to live, administered the drugs a day after he went missing. Surprisingly, he returned to work the next day, and Lugo became his sole patient for the day.
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Florida Overdose Allegations
The lawsuit asserts that neither Teague nor the other dentists obtained informed consent for the anesthesia, and Teague failed to intubate Lugo properly, leading to an overdose on the anesthesia drugs.
The scheduled dental surgery was abruptly canceled as paramedics rushed Lugo to St. David’s Medical Center in Austin. Sadly, Dr. Teague passed away two weeks later from cancer at the age of 70.
It was revealed that he had been suspended in 2016 and barred from practicing medicine for three years by the State Board of Dental Examiners due to a positive hair follicle test for fentanyl and midazolam. Despite his troubled history, Teague was hired by the Marble Falls clinic in 2019.
Lugo’s current state is a grim reality – she resides in a Florida neurological rehabilitation facility, reliant on a tracheotomy for breathing and a feeding tube for sustenance. Her life has been forever altered, and the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the dental clinic.
The lawsuit suggests that Lugo sought treatment at the Texas clinic after watching a YouTube video featuring Dr. Ludwig Johnson, an Instagram influencer with 1.9 million followers, showcasing the Austin-area practice.
The video allegedly claimed that ‘cavitations’ in the mouth, resulting from tooth extractions, could lead to toxicity comparable to that of gangrenous wounds.
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