By Josh Kovner, Hartford Courant
A dangerously negligent dentist who ignored warning after warning en route to his patient’s death, or an experienced practitioner who tried to help his medically fragile patient in a case with a tragic outcome.
Those starkly different portraits of Dr. Rashmi Patel emerged Wednesday in the first of a series of hearings before the State Dental Commission. Patel, with offices in Enfield and Torrington, had his license suspended after a male patient in his 50s nearly choked to death on a throat pack in December 2013, and patient Judith Gan of Ellington died following the extraction of 20 teeth, bone grafts, and implants while under sedation Feb. 17.