A lawsuit claims that a Miami woman received a large dose of fentanyl during a “unnecessary” dental surgery in Texas, leaving her with brain damage and requiring round-the-clock care.
Dr. Jerry Teague administered anesthesia to Maria Lugo Querales, who almost passed away during the May 10, 2022, dental procedure in Marble Falls, Texas. According to the New York Post, Luis Espana, Lugo’s husband, is accusing Teague of giving her too many anesthetic pills without first intubating her.
Other dentists who performed the surgery, Drs. Lane Freeman and Stuart Nunnally, as well as their dental practice, Nunnally, Freeman and Owens, are also named in the civil lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Lugo first went to the Florida dentist office to have a procedure for “alleged ‘cavitations’ and the extraction of an asymptomatic root canal-treated tooth.” The San Antonio Express-News, citing a police report, stated that she was given fentanyl, the sedative midazolam, and the anesthetic lidocaine for treatment.
The medications were given to Lugo by Teague, an anesthesiologist at the Texas clinic, the day after he vanished and did not come back from an evening stroll, according to the Post article. The lawsuit claims that his wife informed him that he had received a cancer diagnosis and had less than a year to live.
The next day, Teague reported for duty.
According to the lawsuit, Teague and the other dentists did not obtain informed consent from Lugo, who was the only patient on that particular day, for the anesthesia. According to the court documents, Teague overdosed on the anesthesia drugs after failing to intubate Lugo.
Allegedly, a Florida art teacher filmed sexual acts with her eighth-grade student in a hotel and a car.
The dentist appointment was postponed as paramedics hurried Lugo to St. David’s Medical Center in Austin. Teague succumbed to cancer two weeks later. He was seventy.
Following a hair follicle test that revealed the presence of midazolam and fentanyl, the State Board of Dental Examiners suspended him in 2016 and prohibited him from practicing medicine for three years. 2019 saw the end of his suspension, and the Marble Falls clinic hired him.
Lugo is presently housed in a neurological rehabilitation center in Florida, where she is fed via a tube and has a tracheotomy for breathing.
After viewing a YouTube video featuring the Austin-area practice, Dr. Ludwig Johnson—an Instagram influencer with 1.9 million followers—she decided to seek treatment at the Texas clinic.
