Grandad left unable to breathe after gold crown got stuck in his lung during dental appointment

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A grandfather was left unable to breathe after a gold crown became lodged in his right lung during a dental appointment. Paul Thorpe, 58, had booked the emergency appointment to have a filling fixed.

However, he was rushed to hospital after he began coughing and struggling to breathe half way through. An X-ray revealed his gold crown had become lodged in his right lung and the grandad-of-two needed emergency surgery. READ MORE: 'It's absolutely ridiculous...' staff fuming after company tells them to move to Romania or risk losing their job Paul, who is now fully recovered, reported the dentist and took legal action to ensure his terrifying ordeal would not happen to anyone else – and he was awarded £4,500 in compensation. “I never expected anything like that to happen,” said Paul, a retired RAF navigator. “Ending up in hospital for emergency surgery with the doctors telling me there is a chance of death was very frightening.” When a filling had been continuously falling out causing recurring infection, Paul was booked in for an emergency appointment during the national lockdown in March 2021 to have the filling fixed. “I went to the dentist and they put a temporary filling in and it would fall out,” he explained. “That went on for the best part of a year along with numerous infections.

The dentist said we would have to take it out, but obviously with Covid, getting an appointment was really difficult – but I managed to book one in for March.” However, halfway through the appointment, Paul started coughing and struggling to breathe, but the dentist insisted everything was fine, continuing the procedure. “I suddenly pushed him away and jumped up and started coughing,” said Paul, who lives in Doncaster with his wife,