Muck And Brass

‘YOU sometimes wonder what doctors and dentists have to do to get themselves struck off.

Gareth failed to spot that we had switched cans

For instance, you would think taking out the wrong teeth would be a pretty serious mistake for a dentist, particularly when the schoolboy victim was a budding euphonium player.

The mistake ended Ben Oliver’s dream of becoming a professional musician because the resultant gaps in his mouth made it difficult for him to play the right notes.

He still plays in a brass band as a hobby, but works professionally as a mechanic (where, ironically, the gaps have helped him produce that whistling sound so beloved of his profession on first examination of a faulty car).

But according to the Telegraph, the dentist responsible for the mistake, Eugen Durr, received only an admonishment from the General Dental Council for his error.

Another musical career wrecked in the same paper, which reports on how auctioneer Andrew Grant was ordered to pay £24,000 compensation after a violinist lost part of his finger when an antique gun he was examining went off in his hand.

Bad things, they say, come in threes. Let’s hope we don’t read tomorrow that Gareth Gates’ singing career has been ruined after he drank a pint of bleach…

‘

Posted: 6th, June 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink