A cheerful selfie has become a haunting image of a life cut short. The photo shows 40-year-old Derek Swanson smiling in a dentist’s chair. He took the picture on March 3, 2023, just hours before a routine procedure ended in tragedy.
Swanson, an Arizona man and avid gym-goer, was excited for his dental implant. He captioned his photo: “Yesterday, new car. Today, implant! Fun never stops.”
He never woke up from the surgery. Complications with the anesthesia at Scottsdale Facial and Oral Surgery led to a severe brain injury. He was placed on life support and died one week later, on March 10, 2023.
“He was so excited. He had fixed a lot of teeth, and they were looking really nice,” his mother, Brenda Swanson, told ABC15.
Brenda was there the day of the surgery. She waited in the lobby for hours after he went back for the procedure. “He turned around and he gave me a wink and said, ‘love you,’ and he walked back,” she recalled. “I just kept waiting and waiting, and Derek wasn’t coming out.”
Derek’s parents, Brenda and Bill Swanson, filed a wrongful death lawsuit. They sued the dentist, Dr. Derek Lamb, and the Scottsdale surgery clinic. They alleged a critical error during anesthesia deprived their son of oxygen, causing the fatal brain injury.
This week, the family announced they have settled the lawsuit. The settlement amount was not disclosed.
Now, the Swansons are channeling their grief into action. They are pushing to change Arizona state law. Currently, a dentist with a permit can perform surgery and administer anesthesia without a separate anesthetist present. The Swansons want to amend the law to require both a dentist and a certified anesthetist to be in the room during such procedures.
“We would like to not have another family go through what we had to go through and are going through and will be for the rest of our life,” Brenda Swanson said.
Their goal is to increase patient safety. They hope Derek’s story will prevent similar tragedies and spare other families their profound loss.