An Ector County man has filed a lawsuit against a local orthodontist’s office alleging his son suffered a brain injury when an orthodontic wire migrated from his son’s mouth into his brain last year.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Ector County District Court, Alberto Garcia Sr. is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Reznik Orthodontics and Megan Reznik, doctor of dental surgery.
A message left seeking comment at the dental clinic was not returned.
Garcia’s attorney, B. Kent Buckingham of Midland, alleges the man’s son went to Reznik Orthodontics on May 24, 2022, and a dental technician performed work on the minor’s braces.
The boy told Reznik he was sore and felt as though his cheek was being poked, but Reznik informed his parents everything was fine, the lawsuit stated. The boy later developed a swollen cheek, headaches and nausea.
On July 22, 2022, the boy awoke in the morning “speaking gibberish in Spanish and vomited” and the staff at an urgent care sent him to Medical Center Hospital, according to the lawsuit.
CT scans revealed a long segment wire was extending from the boy’s oral cavity into the middle cranial fossa, where the temporal lopes and pituitary gland are located, the lawsuit stated.
“A.G. was diagnosed with a penetrating head injury, intraparenchymal hemorrhage of the brain and seizure after head injury,” the lawsuit stated.
The boy was intubated and flown to University Medical Center In Lubbock where he underwent surgery to have the wire removed, according to the lawsuit.
As a result of the facility’s negligence, the lawsuit alleges the boy continues to suffer from seizures, behavioral changes, the side effects of seizure medications and is now at risk of life-long temporal lobe epilepsy.
