Dental assistant charged in case involving 2-year-old at Kailua office
COURTESY PHOTO
Nicole “Momi” Dudoit.
A 29-year-old dental assistant was arrested and charged with assault and drug violations in a case involving a 2-year-old patient at a Kailua dental office in 2013 , the Attorney General announced Wednesday.
The incident occurred at Island Dentistry for Children, where another child, Finley Boyle, 3, suffered brain damage during a Dec. 3, 2013, dental visit from oral sedation and died the following month.
Nicole “Momi” Dudoit turned herself in to authorities on Wednesday. She faces charges for allegedly giving the 2-year-old patient Meperidine and Chloral-Hydrate, which left the child unconscious for 12 hours.
The patient underwent a procedure that lasted about an hour, but the excessive duration of the girl’s unconsciousness placed her life at risk and caused a protracted loss of function of her central nervous system, according to a news release from the Department of the Attorney General.
Dudoit is charged with second-degree assault and two counts of prohibited acts related to controlled substances. The charges are Class C felonies punishable by up to five years in jail.
26 responses to “Dental assistant charged in case involving 2-year-old at Kailua office”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
So where was the dentist?
Surfing the Internet.
The dental assistant can’t prescribe drugs since she isn’t a doctor, only the dentist can prescribe and administer the drug to a patient……
Yes the dentist is ultimately responsible as with the Finley case. But this bozo tech, assistant or whatever was obviously the source of error. It is unfortunate that the dentist lost her practice because of this bozo and ya, she needed to have eyes in the back of her head but, that’s just not reality when people are expected to do their jobs correctly. So sad, too bad and I have nothing but EMPATHY for the involved parties.
The dentist, Lily Geyer, and another on the Big Island who sent two patients to the hospital (one in a vegetative state), had trouble getting licensed in 2008 and convinced Roz Baker to change the law. Roz disregarded the safety concerns of the Hawaii Dental Association and the state dental board. She said the opposition was just older doctors not wanting competition, and not about patient safety. She went ahead and just did what she wanted and other senators went along.
Both these dentists received their licenses a month after Baker’s bill became law. Tragically, in time, the dental board’s worst fears were realized.
Baker also was sued for retaliating against the state’s top dental officer who had accused a Maui dentist of fraud – one of Baker’s political supporters. She cut funding for the state’s dental program, killing it. She just did what she wanted and other senators went along.
What was the outcome? Two years later the DOH is trying to resurrect the dental program after declaring poor dental heath is one of the state’s top 3 public health problems.
As far as the whistleblwer lawsuit, Baker’s attorney told the court that even though Baker retaliated, it didn’t matter because she has absolute immunity. The Hawaii supreme Court is hearing Baker’s appeal to see if she really can do whatever she wants.
Then, last year, the state was forced to shut down the ill-fated Hawaii Heath Connector that Baker had championed in 2013. Roz had rudely responded to concerns about her vision for the Connector’s leadership model and composition. Most worrisome was that Baker ignored basic facts about projected enrollment – choosing to disregard Hawaii’s low uninsured rate. Baker’s bullying of critics during the hearings lead to formal complaints, but she did what she wanted and other senators went along.
Almost immediately, Baker’s Health Connector was a fiasco of mismanagement, fingerpointing and failed enrollment targets. It cost taxpayer’s $200 million. She introduced a bill this session to formally repeal the Hawaii Health Connector law. In the preamble she praises the effort and says it’s no one’s fault it failed.
Rather than hold Roz to account for her poor judgement and repeated policy failures as chair of the senatevs consumer protection committee, she retained leadership and was rewarded with the senate health committee chair!
The state house and senate, and the press, held hearings, grilled witnesses and demanded accountability when the UH “Wonder-blunder” lost $200 thousand, but wasting $200 million… meh, move along, nothing to see here.
The Senate’s lone physician and veteran lawmaker, Josh Green, was kicked off the health committee when Baker took over.
Since then, Baker has held hearings and pressured state officials on Cannabis while completely ignoring the state’s illegally inadequate health plan provider networks. By law, plans must attest to gaving suffucient numbers of participating doctors so that patients can get needed care in a timely manner, and plans must maintain this.
Baker has admitted that Hawaii plans do not have adequate provider networks, and that this had caused numerous deaths, but she has refused to do anything. She has even refused to hear a bill to improve access to care at no cost to the state (SB2287). Roz continues to do what she wants and other senators just go along.
Roz Baker appears to lack the judgement and temperament to wield so much power over health and consumer protection policy. Money has been wasted and lives have been lost. This is all very tragic and disheartening.
For better or worse, Baker’s leadership clearly matters. Will the other senators keep going along submitting to her, or will they start showing the strength to think for themselves? What else needs to go wrong before Kouchi relieves Roz of her heavy leadership burden?
Book ’em Danno
She is an insider democrat. Nothing will happen to her.
SA should do an expose on all the the incumbent/challenger politicians and of the bills they have endorsed/supported or tried to push instead of endorsing the same clowns every elections.
sounds pretty convincing. Danno should be writing for the SA.
Thanks. Actually, SA hss done a good job covering most of these issues over the years, just hesitant to connect the dots and draw conclusions about a powerful politician. This is understandable.
What is less clear is why this paper has so far avoided asking questions about inadequate oversight of our health plan networks. This is s problem for rural areas across the country, and other states and the feds are making it a top priority.
Ignoring this issue not only contributes to poor access to care on neighbor islands, but also to unemployment, homelessness, use of emergency responders, and strain on families and state and local budgets – topics the SA editors have covered extensively. This is baffling.
Why do you say “assistant or whatever was obviously the source of error”? Why would she give any drug to a patient if the dentist didn’t tell her to? Another child died from treatment at that same office and this assistant was not involved. The common denominator is improper procedures which is determined by the dentists.
How do you know that she wasn’t involved with the previous case? And if the dentist told her to go jump off a bridge, would she?
The dentist is responsible for proper supervision of her staff and for overall care. There is shared responsibility that goes up the chain of leadership, in this case all the way to the top. Baker is a powerful legislator who controls our state’s health policy, laws and practices, including how decisions about licensure and scope of practice. With this authority there should be accountability at the top, not just blaming those on the front-lines.
Maui Democrats: Show the state you can do better! Hold Baker accountable….too long already!
I don’t believe there was any bad intent on her part. The charges sound pretty serious but if you don’t send Alfred Hee to jail I don’t see how you can send anyone…
What kind of penalty , 5 years jail time ? No penalty can repay life lost. My sincere condolences.
Depends on how the judge views the defendant. If the defendant is rowdy and uncooperative then the judge may throw the book, and sentence for the full five years. If the defendant remorses and pleads “no contest”, the judge may give five years probation. That’s why it is imperative for the defendant to put up her best face during the hearings and/or trial. Or she could go all the way and request a jury trial and try for not guilty, if she truly feels she had not done anything wrong.
What the heck is a two year in this dentist office for major work? Very suspicious.
Lock all these clowns up for ….. a week. Because that’s all we know how here in backwards nei.
If it’s “judge” Kim, you’ll have to settle for 2 days with time served.
and if it is “judge” Ahn, she would like to keep the final details behind closed doors.
One more reason to hate going to a dental office….
This office has been a scam from the git-go. The toddler that died in 2013 was 3 and everyone agreed there was no medical necessity to do significant dental work on a child who didn’t even have all his baby teeth yet. Now, only a bit more than two years later, we have the same nonsense going on — this time with a 2-year-old/i>, no less!
Anyone who imagines this is the only other toddler who’s had major work done there in the last two years would probably think the sun’s only risen once in the same two years. What will it take to wake the regulators up and get a full-scale investigation underway? This is ridiculous.
We are on a steady march to becoming a third world country. How could a parent be talked into sending an infant to the dentist for major work. Poorly educated parents and unscrupulous professionals. How could this happen again in such a short time and in the same small town?
Long before modern dentistry emerged very little or no oral sedation was used. Back then there were little or no deaths ever recorded from visiting a dentist office. In fact, dental visits were few and far between since families could not afford them. Remember being in 1st grade where there was a toothbrush rack and each student brought his own personal toothbrush to use before formal lessons began. The question begs why is there a need to treat baby teeth? Wait until they are replaced by permanent teeth. Avoid candies and sweets and most of the problems with cavities are diminished. Prefer the old ways of treating our teeth
Is she the scapegoat?