Marek Lapinski, a San Diego area entrepreneur, went into cardiac arrest during the surgery, according to medical records obtained by KTLA TV. He got the common procedure done by Dr. Steven Paul, who is based in Temecula, Calif.
“He was so scared to get this done,” Natalie Lapinski, the man’s sister, told KTLA. “That morning he texted me and said ‘I’m going in. I’ll call you when I’m out.’ I never heard from him again.”
“When he coughed they administered Propofol and that’s when he went into cardiac arrest,” family member April Lapinski also told the station.
An attorney for Paul said that the surgeon followed standard protocols during the procedure, according to NBC News.
“The circumstances regarding Mr. Lapinksi’s complications are not completely understood,” he told NBC.
He said that Lapinski’s “complications occurred despite the fact there were no apparent contraindications for his oral surgery, routine anesthetic medications were being used for the procedure, and immediate measures were undertaken to revive the patient as soon as the patient began to decompensate.”
However, the ambulance report said that they found a piece of gauze in Lapinski’s throat.
“I was told by the hospital they weren’t sure if this was all caused from him choking on a piece of gauze,” April Lapinski told KTLA. “Somebody was not paying attention at some point.”
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And Natalie Lapinski, a nurse, told the station that the surgeon gave him at least six different types of sedatives during the operation.
“In talking to the nurse at the hospital, from what they told me, he was given way too much anesthesia,” she said.
According to a website set up in his honor, Marek Lapinski was a founding partner of Tactical 3rd Dimension, which develops software and hardware for night-vision devices.
“Marek’s bright life will be remembered by his family and friends, and his works will continue to influence this world positively for many more decades, saving lives via his legacy,” the website says.
