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24-Year-Old Californian Dies After Getting His Wisdom Teeth Pulled

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Apr 03, 2013 12:44 PM EDT

A 24-year-old man in California died after undergoing a routine dental procedure to have his wisdom teeth removed.

Marek Lapinski, of San Diego, died March 21 after going into cardiac arrest during his surgery.

The young tech company vice president and former football player had reportedly started coughing during his surgery, according to Fox News.  He was then given Propofol, a powerful anesthetic Michael Jackson took shortly before his death in 2009, and went into cardiac arrest. Lapiniski was rushed to the hospital, where he died. An ambulance report reveals a piece of gauze was also found in his airway.

Lapinski's sister, Natalie, who works as a nurse, said that she had examined his medical records and found that he was given at least six different sedatives by the oral surgeon. She believes at one point her brother may have also been without oxygen for 10 minutes.

"In talking to the nurse at the hospital, from what they told me, he was given way too much anesthesia," she told Fox News.

Lapinski's mother, April, said that her son had no previous health conditions that she was aware of, and a pulmonary doctor at the hospital suggested that Lapinski might have suffered an overdose.

"The pulmonary doctor at the hospital told me it looked like an overdose to him," she said, according to Huffington Post. "He had no health issues we were aware of. This was very strange and unexpected."

What was supposed to be a simple procedure for her son to extract two wisdom teeth turned out to be a tragic nightmare.

"Our lives are ruined," April told NBC in an interview Tuesday. "We don't have him, and he was the center of all of our lives."

Dr. Steven Paul, the oral surgeon who performed Lapinski's procedure, has declined to comment. Instead, Paul's attorney said in a release that the doctor followed "all standard protocols," adding that his client provides "state of the art services and monitoring for his patients," although "no surgical procedure is without risk."

Natalie said that her brother had been feeling anxious before his surgery.

"He was so scared to get this done," she told KSWB-TV. "That morning, he texted me and said, 'I'm going in. I'll call you when I'm out.' I never heard from him again."

Lapiniski's family is now waiting for the results of his autopsy, and plans to take legal action. 

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