Medical malpractice alleged in lawsuit against Kool Smiles

It’s been about one year since the death of a two-year-old Yuma boy following a dental procedure at a Kool Smiles office.

A nearly 80-page civil lawsuit News 11 obtained from ABC 15 in Phoenix revealed new information leading up to the death of two-year-old Zion Gastelum. The two-year-old died after a Kool Smiles visit on December 16, 2017.

The Gastelum family is prepared to go to court over alleged medical malpractice that claimed the life of their little boy.

In the lawsuit, it said Zion was evaluated only two prior times before Kool Smiles told Zion’s parents he needed pulpotomies (baby root canals) and crowns on his baby teeth.

The lawsuit claimed Kool Smiles made the determination for the procedure without “truly informed consent from the parents.”

“It was overseen by an employee who was not qualified to provide the necessary advice for the procedure. The document was not witnessed nor did any dentist sign off on the document on October 20, 2017,” the lawsuit said.

News 11 spoke to Zion’s aunt last year about the death of her nephew.

“I’m sorry is never going to fill their hearts. Never. Never… I’m appalled at how much I see my family hurt, I see my husband hurt, his brother hurt, my sister-in-law, the mother, and father of Zion – I see everybody hurt,” Melinda Gastelum said.

New details from the lawsuit alleged a Kool Smiles staff member silenced the alarm on a pulse oximeter hooked up to Zion. The oximeter is used to monitor a patient’s pulse and oxygen saturation.

It also claimed Zion was left alone in the recovery room without a properly working oxygen tank. Zion’s family claimed he was left alone while dentists began procedures on other young patients within as little as two minutes.

The Gastelum family claimed Kool Smiles’ business model was partly to blame.

“A key part of the Kool Smiles business model is to maximize the productivity of each clinic by scheduling the child-patients back-to-back, resulting in an insufficient amount of time between each child-patient for cleaning of the stations, monitoring of the children who are recovering from various forms of anesthesia,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also named anesthesiologist Aaron Roberts as a defendant. Roberts was contracted by Kool Smiles and was in charge of Zion’s general anesthesia. Roberts also left Zion alone in the recovery room.

In the summer of 2018, the Arizona Dental Board of Examiners met to discuss the alleged actions of Roberts.

In the suit, a board member placed 100 percent of the blame on Roberts for not properly recovering his patient.

As a result, Roberts and the board entered a “consent agreement,” where Roberts will continue his education while his anesthesia permit is placed on probation.

The family is also listing Kool Smiles as a defendant in the lawsuit. The company reached a settlement with the Department of Justice in 2018 over accusations the dental company submitted false claims for unnecessary procedures – like baby root canals – the same procedure requested for Zion.

Recently, amid the accusations, Kool Smiles underwent a transformation. They are now called “Manzana Dental.”

In October 2018, News 11 reached out to Manzana Dental to see if the rebranding was because of the accusations stemming from the lawsuit.

They offered News 11 this statement:

“Kool Smiles was primarily known for providing quality dental care to children. Adults in our community also need affordable, quality dental care so we are expanding our services to better serve the entire family. Manzana Dental is our new name to go with our new kind of practice.”

With no mention of Zion.

The lawsuit is currently going through the court process.

In the suit, Zion’s family said they want to prevent this senseless tragedy from ever happening to another family.

Read the full lawsuit below: