A Texas dentist has been charged over the death of a beloved four-year-old girl after she gave a lethal dose of sedatives to her during a tongue-tie procedure, police said.
Chrishelle Hemphill, 48, was taken into custody outside her Fort Worth pediatric dental office, Cuddle Kids Dental Care, on Wednesday, according to a police report obtained by the Daily Mail.
Hemphill is facing a felony charge of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury after Aithana Arriaga died on April 1 during a routine surgery at Hemphill’s office, according to investigators.
On that day, Arriaga came into the facility for a regular tongue-tie surgery, a minimally invasive procedure that releases a short or tight band of tissue that connects the underside of the tongue to the floor of the mouth.
Before the procedure, which is also known as a frenectomy, Hemphill gave the girl multiple sedatives, including an oral liquid solution of Meperidine, or Demerol, nitrous oxide, and two additional sedative drugs, investigators said.
Arriaga then went into distress and struggled to breathe, prompting Hemphill to start chest compressions on the child, detectives said.
The girl’s mother, Priscilla Arriaga, said she also saw Hemphill try to wake up her daughter with a popsicle, which she held to her child’s lips as her head ‘fell backwards,’ the report stated.
Priscilla told police she was not allowed to be in the room during her daughter’s procedure, and that the dentist told her that her child would be sedated, but awake, the report stated.
Another dentist, who was on lunch break at the time, also rushed in and took over CPR until paramedics arrived at the office.
She ‘was showing no signs of response to the staff on scene,’ police added.
She was transported to Harris Southwest Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Arriaga’s death was ruled accidental by the Tarrant County medical examiner, who attributed it to meperidine toxicity, as detailed in the warrant.
The girl had 793 nanograms per milliliter of meperidine in her system at the time of her death.
The normal adult range for the medication is 200 to 500 nanograms per milliliter, doctors told police, the report stated.
Priscilla also recalled that her child’s leg felt cold and that her shoes were off and ‘a sock was halfway off her foot’ when she rushed into the room, the affidavit detailed.
Meanwhile, Hemphill told investigators that Arriaga stayed awake during the surgery and only started losing consciousness during her recovery, the affidavit stated.
When she started to go into distress, a staff member recalled seeing a pink liquid dripping from Arriaga’s nostrils before they started life-saving measures on the child, police said.
A board-certified anesthesiologist who reviewed the case told police that the fluid is consistent with pulmonary edema caused by respiratory failure. It is not related to an underlying sinus or breathing condition, per the report.
The warrant also stated that Hemphill was heard on the phone with 911 stating: ‘My patient won’t wake up. We sedated her. Trying to give her reversal meds.’
Hemphill gave Arriaga flumazenil, a medication that reverses benzodiazepines, but she did not have any of the central nervous system depressants in her system, the autopsy showed.
Hemphill has since been released from jail on bond for an undisclosed amount, according to arrest records reviewed by the Daily Mail.
She has been a licensed dentist in Texas since 2017 and appears to have opened Cuddle Kids Dental Care in April 2021, according to a Facebook post.
The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners is investigating Hemphill after she self-reported the fatal incident, the police report said.
A GoFundMe page was launched after Arriaga’s death so her family could raise money to have her body transported to Mexico for her funeral.
‘Aithana Rodríguez-Arriaga was a beautiful 4-year-old girl, filled with life and kindness. Her presence always lit up a room, and she brought so much joy to everyone around her,’ the page read.
Her heartbroken mother has taken to Facebook to share her grief after losing her daughter.
‘My greatest love left my heart empty I’m bout to die from pain,’ she wrote on June 18.
The Daily Mail contacted Hemphill, the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, Cuddle Kids Dental Care, and the Fort Worth Police Department for comment.
