Fla. dentist who dropped tool down patient's throat quits

A Florida dentist whose patient died after he and his staff dropped a screwdriver and a wrench down the patient's throat turned in his license May 20, according to a news story in the Orlando Sentinel.

Wesley Meyers, DMD, of Winter Park, FL, voluntarily handed over his license after the Florida Board of Dentistry moved to revoke his license at a hearing Friday, the Sentinel reported.

The patient, Charles Gaal Jr., first went to Dr. Meyers in September 2006 complaining that he was having some trouble with a set of lower dentures. Dr. Meyers proposed a treatment plan to replace them with an implant-supported set of dentures.

Treatment began in October 2006. During a visit, Dr. Meyers and his staff dropped an implant screwdriver into the patient's throat. Gaal swallowed the object, which later had to be retrieved from his large intestine via a colonoscopy.

Despite the incident, Gaal continued treatment with Dr. Meyers.

But during another visit in May 2007, Dr. Meyers dropped a miniwrench into the patient's throat. This time he unsuccessfully tried the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the tool. An x-ray done later revealed that the patient had aspirated the miniwrench into his left lung, according to state documents.

Two emergency bronchoscopies were performed to remove the tool, but both were unsuccessful. More procedures followed and, although the miniwrench was eventually removed, Gaal never regained his strength and died on June 19, 2007.

At the time, the state fined Dr. Meyers $17,000 and restricted him from performing implant procedures until he completed further training.

And in 2010, Gaal's children sued Dr. Meyers in civil court. In that lawsuit, a dental assistant testified that Dr. Meyers had delegated to her the job of putting "healing caps" on Gaal's new implants. In fact, according to the dental board's records, the assistant testified that in 2006 that she -- not Dr. Meyers -- dropped the screwdriver into Gaal's throat, the Sentinel reported.

Based on this testimony, the board recommended that Meyers' license be revoked for delegating work that should only be performed by a dentist, the story concluded.