Patient loses case over ice-burn op

An elderly Auckland woman has been left in constant pain after a surgical freezing machine malfunctioned in her mouth, causing ice burns.

An Auckland District Court judge has dismissed an Occupational Safety and Health charge against the surgeon who used the machine.

OSH alleged the surgeon failed to take all practicable steps to prevent harm.

Edna Brown, 84, said last night she was amazed at the outcome of the court case against the oral surgeon, whose name is suppressed.

"There's nobody accountable. I'm just the one left with the suffering and, believe me, it is suffering."

In March 2003, she went to the surgeon to have a nerve in her mouth numbed by freezing it to minus 60C with nitrous oxide from a "cryogun".

The nerve had been damaged years earlier by an ill-fitting denture and caused constant irritation.

The surgeon told Judge Nicola Mathers that half-way through the two-minute procedure, the borrowed machine started to hiss and spit. Liquid nitrous oxide started falling from the shaft of the gun.

An ice-ball formed and rapidly grew in Mrs Brown's mouth.

He twice instructed the nurse to turn off the gas cylinder, which she was trying to do.

" ... he heard a loud whoosh and suddenly the ice-ball started to thaw," the judge said in her decision.

The surgeon squirted water on to it to accelerate the thawing.

Mrs Brown woke screaming in pain. She was taken by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital, where she spent almost three weeks.

She suffered the equivalent of frostbite inside her mouth. Flesh was ice-burnt on her right cheek and the veins and nerve were burnt away. She cannot wear a lower denture and has coughing fits.

She said the pain remained constant, two years later. "It's like you have scalded your mouth and you can't ever get rid of it."

The judge said the surgeon tested the equipment before the procedure and it was working properly. Mrs Brown has filed a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner.