*Bumped…
The 24-year-old nephew of ’70s funk star Bootsy Collins has died after a tooth infection spread to his brain.
Kyle Willis went to a hospital complaining of a toothache two weeks ago Collins’ wife Patti told The Cincinnati Enquirer. The father of a 6-year-old girl had no health insurance and could not afford the $27 for his antibiotic prescription.
The tooth infection quickly spread to his brain and Willis died at the University Hospital in Cincinnati where he was transported after becoming violently combative and delirious.
The infection was able to spread to his brain through one of the few openings in the blood-brain barrier that normally protects the brain and spinal cord from infection elsewhere in the body.
The blood-brain barrier is a collection of cells wrapped tightly like a net around tiny blood vessels in the brain that acts as a filter to prevent the passage of large objects like bacteria and virus into the brain from the blood stream in your body.
The roots of your teeth sit within inches of the brain and are not behind the blood-brain barrier. Therefore your brain is not protected from dental infections.
Tooth infections can also spread in the opposite direction to your heart and cause sudden death. A toothache by itself may not cause problems. Life-threatening illnesses may occur when there is an infection present in the gum and it gets into the bloodstream when the gum is opened up by a dentist or there is trauma to the tooth.
This is why it’s important to take your child to the dentist when he or she complains of a toothache. It’s also why the dentist prescribes antibiotics prior to some dental procedures as a preventive measure to protect the brain and heart against infection in the tooth.
Very sad to hear, I never knew that was possible. Thank God , I have insurance.
Well I’ll be….
Very sad, yet very common. Unfortunately lots of people do not have health, dental, life, auto, or life insurance. Most people will read this post and zone in on the $27 cost of the prescription or the Bootsy Collins nephew reference and miss this importance of the post.
I know many people who will buy $1300 shoes but will not buy health or dental insurance.
I see cases daily where small things lead to major health complications or being treated in the ER for things that dentist, GYN’s etc should be seen for. Which result in paralyzed people or even death… most people wait until its to late to be seen and then go to the ER which by then its too late.
In my opinion its all about priorities… well I guess for those who can afford insurance because it is expensive. Poor people should have free insurance.
That’s so sad. I hate the dentist and doctors but as soon as something starts hurting I’m there. I know here you can go down to the welfare office and get medical, dental, and all that other stuff. Since I had open heart surgery I can never just go and get something done. I hate to take many medications before they can do anything.
Such sad news. My heart goes out to his family and child.
This brings to mind that there are people who go to the doctor every year or so for routine physicals, and then one day, they are diagnosed with stage 3 cancer or some other terminal illness. I think doctors are also missing a lot too. I know this from personal experience. It’s not always the patient’s fault. The medical profession isn’t what it used to be.
WOW, that’s is sad news. I remember reading a story similar to this about a 12yr old little kid. The mother was calling her son to come downstairs and have dinner. When he didnt respond she went upstairs and found him dead with controller for the PS in his hand. He had previously been complaining of a tooth ache, and that bacteria shot up to his brain as well and killed him……this is just another wake up call…take care of your health people, as we can see tooth aches can be a matter of life and death….WOW….I can’t even begin to imagine.
Wow, may he rest in peace. One of my good friends was complaining of gum pain and I had to beg him to take his tail to the dentist. Turned out he had an infection in his gum and reading this just made it more real for him to get his mouth checked out. I think a lot of people put off going to the dentist because people think that their teeth can’t cause much damage to their health. People in general need to take better care of themselves. We only get one body why not take good care of it?
Medicaid is the health insurance plan for the poor. In most states it doesn’t cover adult dental problems. It will cover dental for children but not adults. So you just can’t go down to the welfare and get it.
Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio, facing a $3.2 billion budget shortfall, has proposed roughly $2 billion in cuts, which would include slashing funding for health care and remove benefits for dental care for those on the state Medicaid plan, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Such sad news, god bless their family !
I said where I live, I didn’t say in all states. I have plenty of friends and family members who DON’T have kids that go to the welfare off and gets medical, dental, and eye insurance.
*office*
This is so sad
I am having a wisdom tooth extraction next month and the doctor went over bacterial infection with me. I thought he was full of shyte when he gave me a prescription for penicillin to take before the procedure saying the risk of infection is very big. I never knew it was that serious, wow!! R.I.P. 
@KrayZKat
I too know from personal experience doctors are just not what they use to be. Been knowing that something is wrong with me now for two year, but all the different doctors and specialist that I have seen, not one of them can tell me what is wrong. All they can say is my blood work is fine and sometimes these things happen for no reason. 
Wow! This is sad but happens all too often. Men tend to be stubborn and will not go to the doctor. Rest in peace!
@lite coffee, my heart truly goes out to you. When you mentioned, “The blood work is fine,” I just shock my head because I’ve heard that so many times I can’t even count. I have more personal encounters with those kinds of doctors than I like to admit. Have you ever watched the show, “Mystery Diagnosis?” We are NOT alone.
Keep pressing until you find that doctor who doesn’t treat the tests or ignore what you are saying, but looks at you with an eye for diagnosing. That is a lost art in this day and age. Unfortunately, we have to take our health care into our own hands.
I wish you the best on finding out what’s going on with you.
Very sad and very preventable. My daughter woke up one day with a tooth infection. The dentist told me if I had waited to bring her in she would have died. She had to get the tooth removed the gums treated and antibiotic for home. Health insurance is life or death. So sorry for his family.
dawn
paying 1300 for shoes or a purse is a bad thing i don’t know why people do that kind of stuff except i guess to make themselves feel better. but to have health insurance it could be 1300 a month or more. so there is a difference in getting your income tax and buying something expensive (again i don’t condone it) and having 1300 a month over and above what it takes just to live (food housing clothing transportation) to buy health insurance. A person could save that 1300 and still never be able to afford health insurance. I live in TX a so called low cost state and to buy insurance on the market for and adult and 2 kids is about 500-1000 a month depending on the deductible. And if something is already wrong with a person it’s higher than that. IF they can get it at all. that 1300 would only buy a single individual health insurance for about 3 months if it’s a halfway decent plan.
I agree with KrayZKat and others who say you have to sometimes diagnose yourself. The medical profession is all about pushing pharmaceuticals and routine testing, nothing is scrutinized like it should be anymore. There are a few old school doctors out there who take out the time to show a bit more care, but it is rather rare. I was telling my husband recently about how important dental care is. Your teeth are apart of your HEAD, your HEAD contains your brain, your sinuses, and other major nerves that lead to your heart. Dental care is IMPORTANT! I am sorry to hear about this young man’s fate, and my
go out to his family during this difficult time.
So sad and scary!!
Things like this make me extremely sad. A father had to leave his child behind after dying of something so preventable. Smh! We need free healthcare! This scares me I didn’t know a tooth infection could spread to the brain
R.I.P. to Kyle and prayers to his family. I come from a family of doctors and nurses, so I am well aware of the seriousness of dental infections. Brush and floss after all meals and report any tooth and gum pain.
@ TerranceAllen:
That sounds more like the sudden death caused by an infection in his heart than in his brain. When I worked at a children’s hospital in the late ’80s I had a 15-year-old patient who had a tooth infection that set up in his heart. We thought he was responding well to the very strong intravenous antibiotics that we were giving him. But one night I walked into his hospital room and he was sitting up in bed facing the TV. His eyes were open, the tv remote was in his hand, but he was dead.
Lord have mercy…that’s just terrible. RIP
My thoughts and prayers are with the family.
This is a sad reminder that healthcare and health insurance need to be a higher priority in this country.
Tainted_Love says:
Things like this make me extremely sad. A father had to leave his child behind after dying of something so preventable. Smh! We need free healthcare! This scares me I didn’t know a tooth infection could spread to the brain
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Me either tainted!!
@Sandra: Now that is scary!! How long were you employed there? I don’t see how doctors and nurses do it because something like that would traumatize me for a long time.
@ JMO:
I was employed there for about 6 months. It was really hard on the nurses because the boy seemed so healthy. He wore street clothes and he was always at the nursing station talking to the nurses. Then one night he was watching tv one second, and the next second his heart stopped.
Sandra Rose says:
@ JMO:
I was employed there for about 6 months. It was really hard on the nurses because the boy seemed so healthy. He wore street clothes and he was always at the nursing station talking to the nurses. Then one night he was watching tv one second, and the next second his heart stopped.
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That is so sad, but that story just creeped me out. I could picture that scene in my head.
i read abt this story, but didnt know who he was (not that it matters bc his life was lost.) my heart goes out to his fam & thx 4 posting this Sandra. someone will read this & avoid this fate..
RIP. Now I’m paranoid…didn’t know that can happen. Gonna schedule my tooth extraction because this hurts every so often then goes away and I keep playing games.
In my post I mentioned that a toothache by itself usually won’t cause a problem. But you should still get it checked out. Use extra caution if, in addition to a toothache, you have tender or painful lumps under your jaw and chin or on your neck. If you have a toothache, feel with your fingertips under your jaw and chin (especially directly under the affected tooth) and on your neck for tender lumps and if you have them — RUN to the nearest dentist! That’s how you know an infection has set in and you might have a dental abscess.
Am I wrong in thinking that most states have a BCBS entity which offers insurance for indiviuals for as low as $150-$300 a month? I am J/A cause I see some hefty numbers in this post…but when I was laid off and did not want the high cost of COBRA…I got a BCBS plan and paid out of my pocket for dental and health insurance $176 a month…
Sandra thank you for this post I would have never known having a toothache could kill you…
I’ve heard of this happening before it’s really devastating news