The family of a 25-year-old Hilo woman who fell into a coma during a dental procedure more than two years ago has settled a malpractice lawsuit with the former oral surgeon who performed the operation.
Court records indicate a settlement between Joseph Tavares Jr. and Diana Pulgados, parents of Kristen Tavares, and Dr. John Stover and his company, Hilo Oral and Facial Surgery, was entered June 16 before Hilo Circuit Judge Glenn Hara.
Monetary terms of the settlement are confidential.
A search of the state’s Regulated Industries Complaint Office website indicates 41 complaints were filed against Stover, who was licensed as both a physician and dentist, between 2012 and this year. Stover surrendered both his medical and dental licenses to the state last year as part of an agreement to settle those complaints.
The lawsuit claimed Stover botched a surgery to extract Kristen Tavares’ wisdom teeth on March 17, 2013. Tavares, then 23 and an apparently otherwise healthy mother of two young sons, went into cardiac arrest while under sedation or anesthesia and fell into a coma.
A defibrillator was reportedly used when she became unresponsive.
Tavares’ father said Thursday his daughter, who was hospitalized for several weeks at Maui Memorial Medical Center before being returned home, is still in a semi-comatose state. She can breathe on her own but is being fed by tubes.
Joe Tavares declined to speak further about the settlement, he said, on advice from his attorney. He’s represented by Honolulu lawyers Michael Green and George Burke.
At least four other civil suits are pending against Stover, including one filed last year by the family of Curtis Wagasky, a 52-year-old homeless, disabled veteran who died Dec. 21, 2012, three days after having a tooth extracted by Stover in Kona. Wagasky reportedly had a prior history of health problems.
Also pending is a suit filed earlier this year by Herman van Velzer, a Hilo man who claims on May 21, 2012, Stover walked out during outpatient plastic surgery to repair a condition that caused both of his eyelids to droop after learning from a staff member van Velzer’s insurance wouldn’t cover the procedure for both eyes.
According to the complaint, Stover told van Velzer he would only do the surgery on one eye after Stover had cut into both eyelids.
The suit, filed by Green’s firm, also accuses Stover of slander/libel, alleging Stover wrote a false report to the Hilo opthamologist who referred van Velzer to Stover. The complaint states Stover informed Dr. Rick Carpenter the procedure was aborted after van Velzer became “combative, cursing, threatening and dangerous to our office.”
Calls Thursday to Burke and Arthur Roeca, Stover’s Honolulu attorney, weren’t returned by press time.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.