The Hill News

February 25th will mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year old Prince George’s County child whose untreated tooth abscess led to a fatal brain infection. Deamonte’s passing -- from a condition as simple as a tooth infection -- was tragic, but even more so because it could have been prevented if he had received timely and proper dental care.

For Deamonte’s mother, Alyce Driver, and for many other parents across the nation, bureaucratic red tape and a shortage of willing Medicaid providers blocked access to desperately needed care. America’s health care system failed Deamonte, who lived in a community less than 10 miles from the U.S. Capitol, in one of the wealthiest states in America. 

As members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, the incident brought home to both of us the message that former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued to our nation years ago, when he said that “there is no health without oral he! alth.”

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