Mom: NJ Dentist Should Quit After Daughter 'Died,' 15 Got Sick

NEW JERSEY – A New Jersey mother is outraged that a New Jersey dentist will be allowed to work again – even though he nearly killed her daughter, she said, and sickened at least 15 overall.

Maryann Taylor of Hackettstown was upset that John Vecchione was only suspended for sickening 15 patients with a bacterial infection, one of them fatally, the Office of Attorney General announced last month.

"No I don't believe it's enough," Taylor said. "He shouldn't practice again."

Her daughter, Nikki, was among a group of people who went to John Vecchione to get dental work and came back much worse than they were before. Efforts to obtain comment from Vecchione were unsuccessful.

Vecchione, an oral surgeon whose Budd Lake area office was associated with 15 cases of bacterial endocarditis in 2016, has agreed to a five-year license suspension and $293,500 in penalties, according to an OAG release.

Read more: NJ Dentist Suspended For Sickening 15 Patients; One Died, AG Says

He also agreed to pay the costs that resolve the state's allegations that his continued failure to follow infection control protocols exposed his patients to the risk of contracting the serious heart infection.

The active suspension period is retroactive to Aug. 31, 2016, the date on which Vecchione agreed to the temporary suspension of his license.

Then, the state Department of Health associated "breaches of infection prevention practices" at his office with 15 cases of bacterial endocarditis contracted by patients he treated between 2012 and 2014. Twelve of those patients required heart surgery. One died, the release said.

Vecchione will be permitted to begin a one-year probationary period as early as Aug. 31, 2020, provided he complies with the terms of the consent order and first demonstrates his fitness and competency to resume practice, the release said.

"He caused the death of one person and sickened others," Taylor said. "Yet another dentist got his licensed pulled for what I consider serious issues."

But in that case, she said, "no one died."

Taylor said her daughter merely got her wisdom teeth pulled in January 2016. Over the next three months, Nikki didn't have any problems.

Then came April, when she fainted three times, out of nowhere. Then, a few days later, she was about to have a meeting with several people while working at the Sunrise House, a drug rehabilitation center in New Jersey.

She fainted again, this time falling on her face and breaking her two front teeth. Nikki went into cardiac arrest, and needed 30 minutes of CPR to be revived.

"It's a good thing there were a lot of nurses around who could help her," said her mother, who also worked at Sunrise House in Lafayette.

By the time she got to Morristown Medical Center, Nikki was having seizures. They put her on antibiotics. They put her in a medically induced coma for three days. The family and friends even had a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for her medical care.

"She basically died," Taylor said at the time. "She was literally dead for a while."

Her doctors at Morristown Medical Center weren't sure what was going on either, even though the hospital had dealt with similar cases linked to Nikki's dentist.

They even gave her a pacemaker, thinking that, perhaps, she had some sort of undetected heart defect.

Eventually Maryann found out that her daughter's dentist has been linked to 15 cases in a bacteria outbreak.

"They had no reasoning for this happening," Maryann Taylor said then. "They couldn't figure it out."

Taylor came to Patch with her story, just as Andy Castle did. Castle was another patient who just wanted to get his wisdom teeth removed. The New Jersey resident knew he'd wake up in pain. He never imagined he'd wake up in a hospital ICU.

And he never had his wisdom teeth removed.

"I nearly died in his office," the Roxbury resident said in 2016. "I was intubated and put on a respirator, and my wife was preparing for the worst."

Read more: Patient Of NJ Dentist Linked To Bacterial Outbreak: 'I Nearly Died In His Office'

Vecchione had been fighting the allegations in a hearing before an administrative law judge. Shortly before he was scheduled to take the stand in his own defense, Vecchione agreed to settle the case under terms contained in a final consent order approved by the state Board of Dentistry, the Office of Attorney General said in a release.

Among the alleged breaches were a failure to use sterile water or sterile saline during surgical procedures, improper handling and storage of single-dose medication vials, non-sterile preparation of instruments and improper handling and disposal of needles and syringes, the release said.

The allegations stemmed from a series of inspections conducted after the outbreak of endocarditis among Vecchione's patients was discovered.

"Dr. Vecchione spent years denying any responsibility for the infections contracted by patients in his care," said Howard Pine, acting director of the Division of Consumer Affairs. "We are pleased that he has agreed to accept the terms of this Final Consent Order, which not only hold Dr. Vecchione responsible for his repeated violations of infection control regulations, but put in place controls and procedures to protect patients should he ever seek to reinstate his license and resume practicing dentistry in this state."

Patients who believe that they have been treated by a licensed health care professional in an inappropriate manner can file an online complaint with the state Division of Consumer Affairs by visiting its website or by calling 1-800-242-5846 (toll free within New Jersey) or 973-504- 6200.