A Winnipeg man is in a medically-induced coma after he had a wisdom tooth extraction last month and later developed an infection.
Mason Woods, 23, had a wisdom tooth extracted on Feb. 27. He developed some swelling and head pain, so he went back to the dentist on March 4.
According to his mother, Angela Steele, her son said that the dentist asked him if he had been taking his antibiotics, but Woods wasn't given a prescription for antibiotics, only for pain medication.
Steele said her son was put on antibiotics and a "clean-up" procedure was scheduled.
She said her son's face started to swell to the point where it looked like he had swallowed "half a football."
Woods was admitted to Seven Oaks General Hospital, where a CT scan was ordered. He was later moved to Health Sciences Centre when his condition worsened.
“Everyone kept asking him the same questions. ‘Do you know what day of the week it is? What time is it? Who are you?’ You know, and Mason’s answers just kept getting worse and worse,” Steele said.
Steele said her son has had one oral surgery and two brain surgeries to treat the infection. Part of his skull was removed to reduce the swelling, she said.
Woods is now in a medically induced coma, two-and-a-half weeks after his initial extraction. His family is baffled as to what happened.
"I'm not aware of exactly what went wrong, but something went wrong that a kid had one tooth out two weeks ago, and today is on life support, fighting for his life, and a third of his skull has been removed," Steele said, adding that doctors have told her he will require more surgeries.
"It's been a real roller coaster ride, a bad nightmare that I can't get out of. I don't know if my son is going to make it through any of this."
For now, Steele and her family are focused on Woods' health. But she wants others to learn from this ordeal.
"If something doesn't feel 100 per cent right, they need to jump up and down and make sure that they're being heard and seen," she said.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority released the following statement in response to questions about Woods' case:
"We are devastated to hear about the experience of this patient and his family. All surgeries, including dental surgeries, do carry a small risk of infection and it seems that in this case, the infection had progressed to become quite severe. We are doing everything we can to provide this patient with the care he needs in hospital right now.
We will not discuss the details of his case publicly but we have reached out to his family and would like to continue to work with them and offer whatever support we can to them at this time.
We urge all families and patients who are concerned about the care they receive or persistent symptoms to address those with their care team at any time.
The office of the chief medical officer for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority will be reviewing the timeline of this patients’ care and will follow up with family to discuss what they’ve learned."
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Michelle Gerwing
