Dentist who gave overdose guilty of manslaughter

By Sue Clough Courts Correspondent

THE family of a woman who died after minor dental treatment wept in court yesterday as her anaesthetist was convicted of manslaughter. Richard Kaul was talking on his mobile phone when he was supposed to be monitoring Isatu Bangura. Kaul, 37, who is now facing a General Medical Council disciplinary inquiry and bankruptcy, was jailed for six months suspended for a year. Passing sentence at the Old Bailey, Judge Neil Denison said: This is not a case for an immediate sentence of imprisonment. Your professional life is in ruins and that in it self is a severe punishment. Your conduct on that day was a terrible lapse from your normal standards of professional care as attested to by your colleagues and a number of former patients. Outside court, Mrs Banguras six children said: We are satisfied with the sentence. We feel justice has been done and the circumstances of our mothers death investigated. Mrs Bangura, 56, went to the dental practice Kaul owned in Dalst on, east London, in March 1999. She insist ed on being anaesthetised because she had a fear of dentists, said William Boyce, prosecuting. Afterwards she had a heart attack. Kaul did not call an ambulance for half an hour and refused to go with his patient to hospital, where she died six days later. Mr Boyce said Kaul, who employed dentists to work at his practice while he acted as anaesthetist, used backdoor methods not approved by the General Dental Council. He administered anaesthetic too quickly or in too great a quantity. Anthony Arlidge, QC, in mitigation said Kaul wanted to express publicly his regret and his apologies to [Mrs Banguras] family.

Richard Kaul: apologies