Police are investigating whether a Leeds graduate who died last year was the victim of a dentist now suspended for allegedly breaching hygiene standards.
Amy Duffield died in August last year the same month she received treatment from Desmond D’Mello at his dental practice in Nottingham.
Around 22,000 former patients of Mr D’Mello have been advised to take blood tests for HIV and hepatitis because the alleged lack of hygiene may put them at risk of infection. It is said to be the biggest NHS patient recall in history.
The General Dental Council is looking into claims by a whistle-blower who secretly recorded apparent medical malpractice. The footage is believed to show Mr D’Mello failing to wash his hands between patients, re-using disposable gloves and failing to sterilise equipment.
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said, ‘We are making further enquiries, on behalf of the Coroner, into the death of a woman in August 2013. The 23-year-old had received treatment at the former Daybrook Dental Surgery earlier that month. Detectives are now working to establish if there are any links between the death and the dental treatment she received’.
Former Leeds student Amy Duffield was admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms and heart palpitations in August 2013. She later died of viral acute myocarditis.
Amy had recently graduated in International Relations from the University.
Police have conducted enquiries into the death of another woman who also died in August last year after visiting Mr D’Mello’s surgery. No evidence was found which related her death to the treatment she received there.
A Care Quality Commission inspection in July, which was prompted by the whistle-blower’s footage, found that Mr D’Mello also stored equipment in a staff toilet.
The report said, ‘This posed a risk of these items coming into contact with body fluids which may be contaminated. This risk had not been identified by staff at the dental surgery and no action had been taken to minimise it’.
Questions are now being asked as to why authorities took four months to act on the inspection’s findings.
In a statement, Amy’s mother Sharon said, ‘I have nothing but admiration for the superb care given to Amy by the NHS in the last days of her life. They did their very best to save her, but it wasn’t to be. We will of course be interested in the findings of the investigation, whatever the outcome, but it won’t bring Amy back’.
Desmond D’Mello has been suspended for 18 months while a full investigation takes places into the allegations.
Charlotte Mason
Image courtesy of: telegraph.co.uk