Former Kailua dentist Lilly Geyer never prevented her dental assistants from calling 911 or from otherwise getting help for 3-year-old Finley Boyle, one of the assistants told a state jury Tuesday.
Geyer, 41, is on trial for manslaughter for recklessly causing Boyle’s death or for recklessly failing to get Boyle medical help.
Nicole Martin was assisting Geyer on Dec. 3, 2013, for what was supposed to be a root canal procedure on several of Boyle’s teeth.
Boyle went into cardiac arrest during the procedure and died a month later.
Martin said it was Kathleen Cacal, Geyer’s other dental assistant, who gave Boyle a mixture of three oral sedatives. After the sedatives had taken effect, Martin said Geyer injected a local anesthetic into Boyle’s mouth and turned on tanks of nitrogen and oxygen that were hooked up to a mask over the girl’s nose. Nitrous oxide is a sedative.
She said Geyer had just started drilling when she noticed that Boyle’s oxygen level was dropping. She said Geyer increased the oxygen going into Boyle’s mask and adjusted the suction tube in the girl’s mouth to clear Boyle’s airway. When Boyle’s oxygen level, and then heart rate, continued to drop, Martin said Geyer ordered her
to get another oxygen tank.
Martin said when she returned Geyer had already propped Boyle up, then replaced the nasal mask with the one that was attached to the new oxygen tank, which covered Boyle’s nose and mouth. She said Geyer also rubbed Boyle’s chest and yelled the girl’s name.
As this was going on, Martin said she yelled, “Dr. Lilly!” but Geyer didn’t respond and instead continued working on Boyle. She said Geyer also didn’t respond when Cacal asked her whether she should get help from a pediatrician across the hall. Cacal went anyway.
Martin said Cacal dialed 911 and handed her the telephone.
The pediatrician, Dr. Brit Reis, testified that she and one of her assistants started CPR after seeing that Boyle had a weak pulse and was not breathing. She said she also gave Boyle a shot of a drug that was supposed to counteract the effects of the oral sedatives.
