A Dublin dentist has been hailed after she saved the life of a patient who came to her for a routine check-up.
Dr Clodagh McAllister of Fairview Dental was treating a patient who booked an appointment as she was having problems with bleeding gums. Within minutes, Dr McAllister spotted that the bleeding could be a sign of a liver infection and called a GP for the mum-of-two.
The woman was raced to hospital where she was diagnosed with liver failure, with doctors telling her she would have had mere weeks left to live if the dentist hadn't spotted the illness. The woman said: “When I got to my GP, things started happening really quickly. Within half an hour I was in a hospital A&E department and I spent the next 10 days in hospital.”
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The patient was told she had stage four liver failure. There was a build-up of fluid on her brain, her lungs and her heart.
“The doctors told me that had I waited another 72 hours I would have been looking at a maximum of 12 weeks to live,” she said. “It is because of Clodagh that my children have a mother and my husband has a wife.”
Dr McAllister’s life-saving diagnosis gained recognition and she received an award at the Colgate Caring Dentist of the Year 2022. The awards, which are held annually, recognise dentists who have provided treatment and care over and above the call of duty, often with transformative effects.
The winners were announced at a gala awards ceremony that took place at the Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday night. Patients take part in the nomination process by telling their individual stories.
“The awards are actually all about the patient and their outstanding experiences with their dentist,” a Colgate spokesperson said at the event.
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