Complained of toothache and ended up in intensive care. Widow recounted her husband's sudden death
Two months fighting for his life — then death.
In early September, a resident of Slutsk developed a toothache that wouldn't go away for several days. According to his wife, at the local dental clinic, the man had his gum cut, drainage installed, and was prescribed antibiotics. The treatment didn't help, and a few days later, with a high fever and other alarming symptoms, the man was taken to intensive care. What followed were almost two months of fighting for his life. The patient underwent several operations, but he could not be saved, Onliner.by writes.
‘I’ve never heard of someone dying because of a tooth before,’ says Iryna, the widow of the deceased Slutsk resident, in surprise.
Iryna originally shared what her family went through in the last two months on her Threads page. The Belarusian woman admits that she still can't comprehend how complications from an untreated tooth could lead to such severe consequences.
This spring, her husband turned 46; he worked for a construction company. Together, they raised two children: their daughter is already an adult at 21, and their son is only 4 years old.
— My poor son, he already understood what happened. I told him that Daddy is in heaven, watching him from a cloud. He lowered his head and followed me everywhere, and then he said: ‘Mom, I love you very, very much.’ My heart is breaking...
Iryna says that, like many men, Sergei wasn't particularly fond of going to doctors, but there weren't many occasions for it either.
— He never really complained about his health; he was, as they say, in the prime of his life. And there were no issues with his dental care. He always went to the state dental clinic, where everything was normal. If he had a toothache, he might take painkillers for a couple of days but would still go to get it treated. But to have such consequences because of a tooth...
So what happened?
First days at home: 'They said the tooth was fine, prescribed antibiotics'
In early September, Iryna recounts, her husband Sergei began complaining of a toothache.
— His tooth hurt for two days. On the third day, he went after work (according to the report, it was September 2nd) to our local dental clinic in Slutsk. It was around five o'clock. My husband said there was no surgeon and no possibility to take an X-ray; they suggested he come back tomorrow. He went home and took painkillers.
On September 3rd, the man returned to the dental clinic. This time, Iryna recounts, they took an X-ray.
— My husband relayed the doctors' words to me: the tooth was normal (at that moment), but there was pus beneath it. They performed drainage, meaning they cut the gum. His cheek had swollen a bit by then. They told him to take antibiotics and anti-allergy medication.
The next day, September 4th, Sergei went to the dental clinic again — they made two more incisions and installed two more drains. That same day, the Belarusian woman noticed her husband's condition worsening. He developed difficulty swallowing, and his temperature rose. The woman called an ambulance.
— The ambulance arrived and said it was all from the tooth: 'Nothing serious, take antibiotics and antivirals.'
I noticed that his neck was already swollen. We were told that it would pass, and they didn't take him to the hospital. But I'm not a medic: I thought, if they said it would get better, then that's how it should be.
On September 5th, the man was still at home. Iryna says his temperature didn't go down, and her husband still had difficulty swallowing. According to the woman, she suggested Sergei go to the emergency room, but he was sure the antibiotic would help quickly.
Hospitalization in the local hospital and two operations
On September 6th, Iryna called an ambulance again — and Sergei was taken to the hospital. In her letter, the woman explains that in the emergency room of the Slutsk Central District Hospital, the surgeon ordered a CT scan and ultrasound and insisted on the need for urgent hospitalization in intensive care. The first operation was performed on the night of September 7th.
— The surgeon saw that the pus was descending along the throat wall. And, as I understood it, drains were installed on his neck that night [Iryna explains that she is not familiar with medical terminology and may be imprecise]. Then, after the operation, a CT scan was done, and they saw that the pus had begun to descend further.
On September 8th, the man underwent another operation, with the support of a thoracic surgeon from the Minsk Regional Hospital. This specialist treats diseases and injuries of the chest organs.
— He said that the pus had descended into the mediastinum — between the lungs and the heart. The operation lasted almost two hours... By the way, that tooth was still extracted in intensive care.
— What was your husband's condition after the operation?
— He was conscious; they let me see him a couple of times in intensive care, but his condition was very serious. I asked them to take my husband to Minsk, but I was told he couldn't be transferred as his condition was unstable. Later, when everything stabilized, I again began asking for him to be sent to the Minsk Regional Hospital.
Iryna says the issue of transfer took a week to resolve — this time was emotionally very difficult for her. A consultant from the Minsk Regional Hospital came to Slutsk, who, as the woman explains, helped local doctors with the treatment strategy.
— Why did you insist on the transfer?
— It's a specialized hospital there, with a thoracic department that specializes in such cases. But our doctors didn't send him there — I don't know why. Later, we found a way to reach Minsk and finally managed to get him taken there.
Another operation and a month of fighting for life
On September 23rd, the man was transferred to the Minsk Regional Hospital. The next day, Iryna recounts, he underwent a third operation.
— There were still pockets of pus in the mediastinum. Maybe this operation was needed much earlier... Maybe that delay played a role. Maybe today he would be alive, and my 4-year-old son wouldn't be without a father, — Iryna shares her feelings, barely holding back tears.
— How did your husband feel after the third operation?
— He regained consciousness, but there was already severe damage throughout his body: his heart, kidneys, and liver — everything... Severe intoxication, and many different antibiotics were administered. The doctors didn't tell us anything, no prognoses, except that 'the condition is very serious.'
And on the night of October 28th, my husband died.
According to documents, the causes of death were renal failure, neck phlegmon, and mediastinitis. According to Iryna, she has already sent an appeal to the Main Healthcare Department of the Minsk Regional Executive Committee requesting an 'internal audit of compliance with the order of medical care provision and clinical protocols in the Slutsk Central District Hospital,' as well as 'an assessment of the timeliness and justification of the decision to transfer the patient to the regional hospital.' Concurrently, the widow intends to contact the prosecutor's office.
Journalists reached the administration of the Slutsk Central District Hospital, but they refused to comment. 'A higher authority is handling this matter,' emphasized the hospital's chief doctor.
'Minskaya Pravda' writes that the Main Healthcare Department of the Minsk Regional Executive Committee 'has launched an investigation into this incident.'
Doctor: 'Infection can spread to bone or soft tissues'
Can a dental infection really lead to such serious consequences? With this question, journalists turned to a maxillofacial surgeon from Minsk with seven years of experience. According to the specialist, this indeed happens, but fortunately, with modern medical advancements, it's not frequent.
Abscess — usually, this develops first. It is a localized collection of pus in the area of the gum, cheek, palate, tongue, or floor of the mouth, resulting from bacterial inflammation. It has clear boundaries and develops in a confined space.
Phlegmon — this is a diffuse purulent inflammation that 'spreads' through tissues, affecting adjacent cellular spaces. Problems with teeth are often the cause of neck phlegmon.
Mediastinitis — this is a dangerous condition, inflammation of the cellular tissue of the mediastinal space, meaning the space in the chest cavity where vital organs (heart, trachea, esophagus, vascular-nervous bundles) are located.
Regarding diseases of the dentomaxillofacial system, mediastinitis most often becomes a consequence of severe phlegmons that develop due to 'wisdom teeth' diseases (8 out of 10 cases of mediastinitis in the interlocutor's practice were related to diseased 'eights,' less often — to sixth or seventh teeth).
— How often does ignoring toothache lead to serious consequences?
— In principle, ignoring any pain and inflammation leads to complications, whether delayed or not too dangerous. It's worth remembering a simple truth: pain is a natural bodily mechanism designed to indicate a problem. Even a single instance of pain may require a doctor's intervention. And if pain is ignored for several days or a person tries to relieve it, for example, with painkillers, then the process worsens, and the clinical picture becomes more severe, obscured.
In reality, the person's condition worsens, but they don't feel sharp pain, don't receive treatment, and lose valuable time.
It's important to understand that a tooth is not driven into the bone; it is connected to the jaw by a ligament. The nerve and blood vessels inside the tooth cavity are connected to larger 'counterparts' in the jaw. These, in turn, are further connected to other vessels and nerves from soft and hard tissues. If the infection is not localized within the tooth itself, it spreads into the bone or soft tissues, for example, into cellular spaces and lymph nodes.
How fast is this process? It varies for everyone; each person has a different immune response. Processes are faster in the presence of chronic diseases, pregnancy (in the first trimester, all women are required to undergo oral sanitation), adolescence, general somatic diseases, and others.
However, phlegmon doesn't occur with the first manifestations of toothache; initially, inflammatory processes will be noticeable in the upper parts, in the jaw area. And, obviously, this doesn't last just one day.
— And yet, how does this process develop chronologically?
— So, caries appeared. Most often, ignoring pain leads to the death of the tooth's neurovascular bundle, the so-called pulp. A person might observe this as, for example, the tooth darkening, changing color, and after long periods of pain and inability to, for instance, bite down on the tooth, this pain disappears.
Next, we see either just a dead tooth, which may behave quite calmly for some time (but will eventually become inflamed), or a chronic disease (for example, migrating granuloma), or chronic lymphadenitis of the maxillofacial region, or the acute condition described above: periostitis, abscess, and so on. In any case, the problem begins with a tooth not treated in time or treated incorrectly.
At the same time, we don't want to scare anyone: by no means does every toothache end in life-threatening conditions.
Abscesses, phlegmons, and other complications are quite rare. Our body is intelligent enough and knows how to localize inflammatory processes.
Mediastinitis is an extreme case. For a healthy person, the risk of encountering such a situation is low.
Mediastinitis can be different: anterior, posterior, inferior, superior. Posterior superior is the type that most often originates from problems of the dentomaxillofacial system and ENT organs. Survival rate for it is over 90%. This means that even mediastinitis is not a death sentence. In the 21st century, this disease is diagnosed and treated. Naturally, timing is very important: the problem must be dealt with promptly. This is a law of surgery: the earlier treatment begins, the faster the person recovers.
— How to prevent such cases?
— In Minsk and large cities, where access to dental care is quite high, this inflammatory process is detected at earlier stages — before an abscess progresses to a more severe form.
Minsk residents are reminded: if it happened that you couldn't get to a dentist during the day or a toothache started at night and you can't wait until morning, there is an option to contact the 24-hour 3rd Dental Polyclinic at: Kiseleva Street, 5. You can receive emergency care there.
If a complication has begun, it is most often related to a person not addressing a simpler problem in a timely manner. I repeat: if something hurt even once and then stopped (a tooth or anything else), it doesn't mean everything is fine. Rather, it's the opposite — it's a reason to see a doctor.