New bill focuses on seniors' dental health

It won’t bring his mother back, but Glenn Keel said a bill requiring annual dental exams for nursing home patients on Medi-Cal offers a measure of relief for elderly people in her situation.

A year ago this month, Mary Keel, 76, died in a Petaluma senior care facility after an oral abscess developed into blood poisoning.

Doctors said Keel’s teeth went unexamined during her 19-month stay and that her death was entirely preventable.

“My mom died from something people died from in the 1800s,” said Glenn Keel of Cotati. “She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said the case inspired him to introduce legislation that would reinstate dental exams eliminated from Medi-Cal coverage in 2002 as a cost-saving measure.

The bill is designed to protect low-income seniors in long-term care facilities who tend to have more dental disease, more missing teeth and are at greater risk of complications from untreated tooth decay.

Research shows poor oral hygiene can lead to cardio-vascular problems, increased chance of pneumonia and fluctuating blood sugar in diabetics, Huffman said.

If it becomes law, Huffman said the measure will be named in honor of Mary Keel.

“We can’t make this family whole or undo the tragedy but we want to prevent things like that from happening again,” Huffman said.

The bill, endorsed by the California Dental Association and introduced two weeks ago, is awaiting referral to the Assembly Health Committee, Huffman said.

Keel was a resident of Pleasant Care Convalescent of Petaluma, which was fined $100,000 by the state following her death for negligent care.