Lenawee County jury finds dentist negligent in treatment of patient

ADRIAN — A Lenawee County Circuit Court jury recently ordered a dentist who used to have a practice in Adrian to pay almost $400,000 in damages to a patient.

After a five-day trial, a Lenawee County Circuit Court jury on Dec. 1 returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff Trudy Ritchie and ordered Dr. Pierre Tedders of Jackson to pay her $387,995.64 in economic damages, noneconomic damages and interest.

Ritchie claimed Tedders committed dental malpractice in providing substandard care in treating an oroantral communication — a hole from the mouth into the sinus cavity — from March to May 2015 which lead to Ritchie developing a severe sinus infection that triggered diabetic ketoacidosis, Ritchie's lead attorney, Brian Keck of the Courtney Morgan law firm in Dearborn, said in an email.

"Due to the diabetic ketoacidosis, the Plaintiff was hospitalized for 17 days during which she was intubated, and found to have encephalopathy, respiratory distress, and acute kidney injury," Keck wrote.

Diabetic ketoacidosis develops when the body doesn’t have enough insulin to allow blood sugar into the cells for use as energy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, the liver breaks down fat for fuel, a process that produces acids called ketones. When too many ketones are produced too fast, they can build up to dangerous levels in the body.

Ritchie's lawsuit was filed in 2017, according to court records. It was originally assigned to Circuit Judge Margaret M.S. Noe, then was reassigned a week later to Circuit Judge Anna Marie Anzalone, who presided over the trial, which took place the week after Thanksgiving.

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There was a five-month wait from August 2018 to January 2019 while Tedders applied to the Michigan Court of Appeals to appeal Anzalone's ruling to deny his motion for summary disposition to dismiss the lawsuit. The Court of Appeals denied Tedders' application, saying it was not persuaded there was an immediate need for appellate review.

There were also several other motions made and Tedders changed attorneys before the case went to trial, according to court records.

Keck was assisted during the trial by attorney Courtney Morgan Jr.

Tedders was represented during the trial by attorney Timothy Dardas of East Lansing.

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Lenawee County jury finds dentist negligent