An Arizona man’s final selfie, taken hours before a routine dental procedure, has resurfaced as his parents reached a settlement in his wrongful death lawsuit.
Derek Swanson, 40, posted a photo on March 3, 2023, smiling in a dentist’s chair with the caption: “Yesterday, new car. Today, implant! Fun never stops.”
An avid gym-goer, Swanson was excited for a long-awaited dental implant at Scottsdale Facial and Oral Surgery. However, complications during anesthesia left him with a severe brain injury. He was placed on life support and died on March 10, 2023, according to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.
“He was so excited. He had fixed a lot of teeth, and they were looking really nice,” Brenda Swanson, his mother, told ABC15. She recalled waiting in the lobby on the day of the procedure.
“They called Derek back, and he turned around, gave me a wink, and said, ‘love you,’ before walking back,” she said. “I just kept waiting, and Derek wasn’t coming out.”
Swanson’s parents, Brenda and Bill, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Derek Lamb and the Scottsdale clinic. The lawsuit, settled this week for an undisclosed amount, alleged that errors during the anesthesia process deprived Derek of oxygen, causing his fatal brain injury.
The grieving family now hopes to change Arizona law to require both a dentist and an anesthetist to be present during dental surgery. Currently, dentists with the proper state permit may administer anesthesia without an anesthetist on site.
“We would like to prevent another family from going through what we had to endure,” Swanson told ABC15.