WATERLOO (Jul 11, 2007)
Leejay Levene went to a Waterloo dental surgeon to have three wisdom teeth pulled.
While his mother settled into the waiting room, the Waterloo teen sat back in the dentist's chair and slipped under a general anesthetic.
Then something went so wrong that he was left struggling for breath. Soon, a call was going out to 911, and the anesthesiologist present for the procedure was trying to resuscitate him.
Paramedics, then doctors at Grand River Hospital tried everything, but by the next evening, the 18-year-old was dead.
Now, the Waterloo Region coroner, assisted by regional police, is trying to determine what happened to the healthy young man, who was undergoing a dental procedure routinely performed on patients his age.
"This is such an anomaly," Irwin Fefergrad, the registrar for the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario, said of Levene's death last Thursday.
"It's so unusual and rare. We are all in a state of shock and sadness. This is a safe procedure.''
Dr. Timothy Wallace, the oral surgeon performing the extraction, said the tragedy that occurred in his office is "once in a lifetime."
Wallace, who has practised for 32 years, would not discuss what went wrong, saying only that the surgery hadn't started when Levene got into trouble.
The emergency call from Wallace's office came in as someone "short of breath and unresponsive,'' said John Prno, the regional ambulance manager.
Within seven minutes, an ambulance arrived. Five minutes later a second ambulance with more advanced equipment was on scene.
But when paramedics arrived, Levene's heart had stopped beating. They frantically tried to resuscitate the teen but couldn't.
According to Fefergrad, the registrar, someone then noticed a kink in the tube that was to supply oxygen to Levene. The tube was blocked.
At Grand River Hospital, doctors put Levene on life support. With help, his heart started beating again but his organs weren't functioning.
"We made the decision to disconnect," said Levene's father, Ron.
"I watched his heart fade away. Our life will never be the same. It's too short a life. He didn't do anything wrong.''
Dr. David Evans, the regional coroner, said that after his investigation, he can either make recommendations to those involved or call for an inquest.
"We are not allowed to point fingers."
Wallace said he has treated 12,000 patients who have had their wisdom teeth removed under general anesthesia.
Some oral surgeons, trained in anesthesiology, put their own patients to sleep, Wallace said, but he prefers to use an anesthesiologist, who comes to his Bridgeport office about twice a week to assist with surgery.
"I chose to utilize their services because it allows me to concentrate on the surgery,'' he said.
The anesthesiologist in Levene's case could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Leejay's surgery was set for 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday. His teeth were embedded in the bone, and in such cases, patients often prefer a general anesthetic, Wallace said.
Levene's mother, Shirley, said her son was nervous before the procedure, since he always breathed through his mouth and was concerned he would lose control of his breathing.
Shirley brought an apple, a granola bar and a book to the dental office, expecting to wait two hours before her middle boy was ready to go home.
But at 12:45 p.m., she heard the 911 call about a medical emergency.
"I started shaking. I knew,'' Shirley said in an interview.
Levene called Ron at work and the couple followed the ambulance to Grand River.
"We were afraid to go asleep Wednesday," Ron said. "He was lying there lifeless."
Aunts, uncles, cousins and Leejay's two brothers, Casey and Elli, who were called home from a camp in Algonquin Park, kept vigil by his bedside.
After many attempted medical procedures to bring life back to the teen's body, doctors in the intensive care unit declared him dead last Thursday at 6:24 p.m.
A study done 10 years ago, found that one in every 700,000 people died when given general anesthetic in a dentist's chair.
'A RARE OCCURRENCE'
Daniel Haas, a professor of dental anesthesia and pharmacology at the faculty of dentistry at the University of Toronto, said that overall, general anesthetic is safe, but it's not perfect.
"It's a rare occurrence that a tragedy happens . . . but it's not an impossible thing,'' he said.
Since Levene's death, the family is in mourning, accepting visitors during Shiva, a period of seven days of mourning in the Jewish faith. All four family members are wearing black ribbons for seven days.
More than 600 people attended Levene's funeral at Temple Shalom on Friday.
Friends from camp, some from Halifax and family members from New York, Connecticut and Montreal arrived on short notice.
In lieu of flowers, the Levene family is requesting donations made to Temple Shalom in Waterloo or the intensive care unit of Grand River Hospital.
For now they don't want to remember Leejay as the victim of a tragic accident but as a peacemaker, honour student, clarinet player and a bass guitar lover.
Leejay Levene graduated from Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School in Waterloo and was headed to the University of Toronto in September.
Once he finished his undergraduate degree, he planned to take a master's degree in architecture at Dalhousie University.
The movie buff was looking forward to a summer job at a local video store.
Shirley was starting to prepare herself for her son's journey to university.
"I used to say, 'what am I going to do when you're in university?"' she said with a smile. "He was sensitive to me being neurotic.
"I depended on him."
"Elli and I are the book ends and Leejay was the book. He was a loving brother,'' said Casey, 20.
The day before surgery, Shirley and Leejay were out doing errands and they drove by the humane society -- the same place Leejay volunteered once a week as a young teen.
Three years ago, Leejay brought home a stray cat from the humane society and the family kept him.
"Let's go in for old times' sakes,'' Leejay said to his mom.
For an hour, he went from cage to cage, petting cats and dogs, Shirley said.
She said she will miss her son's subtle sense of humour and how he always kept her informed on movies and music.
She goes to his bedroom and feels close to him. His school books and favourite music are still on the floor
and his computer is turned on.
"It's comforting to come here,'' she said.
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