How Far Are We Willing To Go: The Dangers of Sedation

Sept. 25, 2006 — -- A 5-year-old girl is in critical condition in the pediatric intensive care unit at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, on life support after being sedated for a routine dental procedure on Saturday.

The girl's fate and the circumstances surrounding her hospitalization have brought to light the potential dangers of a practice known in the medical community as procedural sedation -- sedating patients for routine medical or dental procedures to ease anxiety and help alleviate pain.

Ommettress Travis told ABC affiliate WLS-TV in Chicago that her daughter, Diamond Brownbridge, went in to a Chicago dental clinic for a procedure to fix two cavities and cap four of her lower teeth. Travis said her daughter received an oral sedative, an IV sedative and nitrous oxide gas.

According to WLS, the mother was asked to leave the room during the treatment, and when she returned 30 minutes later, she found her daughter lying on her side in the chair -- not breathing. Brownbridge is scheduled to undergo testing to evaluate her brain function, but doctors at the hospital told Travis the outlook is not good -- her chances for a full recovery are very unlikely.

It's a tragic example of what can go wrong with procedural sedation. As Brownbridge's situation shows, it can have dire consequences. So just how far are we willing to go to be less anxious and more comfortable during procedures at dentists' or doctors' offices and emergency rooms?

Patients receiving procedural sedation are given medication that puts them into an unconscious state. But unlike more serious procedures that require general anesthesia, patients continue breathing on their own, so there is no need for equipment that provides breathing assistance.

Doctors say procedural sedation has a very important role in modern medicine, but they say it must be monitored closely.

"Procedural sedation can make an ER or dental experience much better," said Dr. Roger Humphries, Chairman of Emergency Medicine at the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington.