Nov 13, 2008 6:12 pm US/Eastern
Mobile Office To Bring Dental Services To Kids
LARGO, Md. (WJZ) ―
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Maryland officials are getting a mobile dental office to serve needy children in Prince George's County.
The state has unveiled plans to improve dental services for Maryland children.
Pat Warren explains how one child's tragedy may help avoid others.
He was a 12-year-old with a toothache.
"The nurse just called and told me, 'Your son is not responding, you need to get up here.' And by the time I got there, he was already gone," said Elise Driver in a 2007 interview.
Deamonte Driver died as a result of an infection caused by an untreated tooth. Twenty-one months later, in the gymnasium where Deamonte played as a student at Foundation School in Largo, there were major announcements.
"Elise Driver has decided to go into the dental field. Just yesterday, she graduated from the Dental Assistant program at Prince George's Community College," said Laura Norris, Public Justice Center.
Elise Driver couldn't help her own child, but now she and the state intend to help someone else's. Many someones, as Governor O'Malley announced the Deamonte Driver Dental Project.
"Ms. Driver, I know that your son did not volunteer for this tragedy, and I really want to applaud your courage and your determination, what you've done in the profession and calling you've trained yourself to go into, in his memory. You know, God sends us individuals here on this planet, and each one of us is valuable. And there's a saying in a poem that if you save just one life, it is as if you saved the world. And I certainly know for the Driver family, the loss of this one life is something you carry with you as if you have lost the whole world," said O'Malley.
The project will make oral health services available to Medicaid eligible and uninsured children in Prince George's County. The region and the state has raised reimbursement rates for dentists treating Medicaid children.
Governor O'Malley has included $2 million in the 2009 budget to expand dental care in underserviced areas of the state.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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