A jury in Morris County awarded $1.33 million to Kathleen Seergy and her husband Michael Seergy in a dental malpractice case involving claims that a periodontist drilled through the bone underneath a molar, injuring the nerve and caused destruction of the bone in the lower jaw. The normally 1 hour procedure took over 4 hours, with the extraction finally being halted with root fragments left in the area of the extraction. Ms. Seergy immediately suffered from pain and numbness. She suffers from permanent sensory injury including pain, numbness, tingling, loss of hot and cold sensation, and waves of electric shock from her center chin to her right cheek. She also broke her jaw bone, which cannot be repaired sufficient to hold an implant due to the bone injury. The jury unanimously found that periodontist Dr. Frank Ricker was negligent and awarded the plaintiff $1.1 million, with another $233,000 to her spouse Michael Seergy. Bruce H. Nagel of Nagel Rice stated, “ We are pleased with the jury award. It is a shame that this periodontist had to injure Kate the way he did.” The case was tried by Bruce Nagel and Susan Connors.
Contact our office today if you’ve been harmed due to a dental practitioner’s negligence.