Dentist Faces Malpractice Charges After Allegedly Botching Breast Reduction Surgery and Killing Another Patient

It is hard to know where to begin with this case. A woman goes to a dentist for a breast reduction and is shocked that he botched the job. The unnamed woman is suing dental surgeon Thomas Laney of Seattle for a surgery done on her when she was 15 years old. Laney has faced a series of 10 malpractice lawsuits, including one alleging a wrongful death.

The woman, now 18, was a high school athlete who needed the reduction so not to hamper her ability to play sports.

The family’s expert has detailed how Laney violated “the standard of care” by allegedly mismarking the woman’s breasts post-op and by placing her nipples “cross-eyed” and left her with deformed breasts.

The obvious question is why oral surgeon’s are doing breast surgery in Washington. Under the common law, they will be held to the standard of a proper cosmetic surgeon in these lawsuits. The board will have to address his license and training problems. I must confess, however, some curiosity as to how a family could decided to take their daughter for major surgery by a dentist. Did they also ask him to re-build their car engine? In most states such surgery outside of your specialty would be a potential criminal act.

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