Very little about this story seems like it could be true, and yet it seems to be. In a lawsuit filed last month, Brandy Fanning (a stage name if I've ever heard one) alleges that her dentist injured her by negligently dancing while he was drilling out a tooth he was extracting.
Fanning says she went to the Syracuse Community Health Center in New York in 2004 because of pain in a left upper molar. The tooth had to come out, said Dr. George Trusty, and he set to work. The complaint alleges the radio was on in the clinic and that, while drilling, Trusty began "performing rhythmical steps and movements" -- non-attorneys might refer to this as "dancing" -- "to the song 'Car Wash.'"
Clap. Clap. Clap, clap clap clap clap.
[Repeat several times]
You might not ever get rich
But let me tell ya it's better than diggin' a ditch
"Car Wash," the theme to the Oscar-winning movie of the same name, was a number-one hit in early 1977 for the band Rose Royce. Here's another of the facts that have enriched my life as a result of research for this ridiculous blog: the story is that the first draft of "Car Wash" was written on a bag of fried chicken after inspiration suddenly struck its writer, Norman Whitfield. (I found this on Wikipedia -- hard to confirm, but it appears in several books and other sources.)
Let me tell ya it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if ya
Act the fool
At the -- [Snap!]
Not "snap" as in "fingers," but "snap" as in "whoops, the drill bit just snapped off and is now lodged in your skull."
Hey, get your car wash today
Fill up and you don't have to pay
According to the lawsuit, Dr. Trusty tried to use a metal hook to pull the broken bit out, but somehow managed to push it up and into her sinus near her left eye socket. I didn't know that was possible, but it does sound unpleasant. Fanning alleges that Dr. Trusty first tried to minimize the problem, apparently by telling her she would probably just "sneeze it out." He later changed his mind and told her to get to an emergency room. Doctors there were able to remove the bit via emergency surgery. They reportedly said that if she had tried to sneeze out the drill bit, she might have blinded herself in the left eye. Fanning is demanding $600,000 for medical expenses, pain and suffering.
Previous stories here have included a lawsuit based on negligent dancing, and a dentist who worked on patients while dressed as a belly dancer, but this is the first one to combine those concepts.
Link: Yahoo! News
