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β€œMy dad was in terrible pain”.

Daughter seeks justice after her father committed suicide after botched dental surgery.

In September 2022, Clive Worthington committed suicide after living in pain for 14 years, following botched dental surgery in Hungary.

In 2019, Dr Eszter GΓΆmbΓΆs was ordered to pay Β£117,000 in compensation and damages to Clive. Due to Dr GΓΆmbΓΆs being a member of the Dental Defence Union, payment was discretionary and they refused to pay out.

³ΙΘΛΏμΚΦ Essex’s Ian Wyatt spoke to Clive’s daughter, Gina Tilly.

In a statement, the Dental Defence Union said:

β€œWe are unable to comment on individual cases. We would however point out that the DDU is part of a not-for-profit mutual membership organisation which provides its members with indemnity for clinical negligence claims for treatment provided in the UK and Ireland.

β€œIt is rare that we are unable to offer our members support: over the past five years we have assisted well over 99.5 per cent of members who have approached us for support with claims and other legal matters.”

The General Dental Council have also said they will not comment on individual cases but said: β€œPatients must be able to seek compensation in the rare event that something goes wrong in their dental care.

β€œIt is deeply frustrating that weaknesses in the current legislation caused the system to fail in this instance.

β€œWe encourage the Department of Health and Social Care to accelerate their work to review and update the existing provisions, which we as regulator can then apply.”

³ΙΘΛΏμΚΦ Essex has also approached Dr Eszter GΓΆmbΓΆs for comment.

Release date:

Duration:

10 minutes