Source: MyCentralJersey.com

The dentist of a local firefighter who last year died of cancer at the age of 33 is being sued by the man’s estate, which accuses him of failing to warn his patient quickly enough that an tongue abnormality could have been a troubling sign of a bigger problem.

Steven M. Runyon, who grew up in Manville before moving to Somerville, died of metastatic tongue cancer on Aug. 13, 2010, just eight days after his wife of four years, Colleen, gave birth to the couple’s fourth child. But the lawsuit alleges that Runyon’s dentist, Francis Barbieri Jr., first noticed a “raised area” on his patient’s tongue in December 2008 — nine months before he first was diagnosed with cancer — and failed to advise him to look into it further.

Runyon returned to Barbieri for another appointment in June 2009, when the dentist noted visible changes to Runyon’s tongue, and he went back for follow-up sessions three times that summer, the lawsuit indicates. But it was only during the final visit, in August, that Barbieri finally referred him to Somerset Oral Surgery for an evaluation and biopsy, according to the allegations. Runyon subsequently underwent “extensive” treatment by various physicians in various locations — suffering “severe pain, physical disfigurement, mental anguish and suffering,” the suit states — but died less than a year later.

Barbieri did not return a phone call placed to his office last week. The dentist has an office on East Main Street in Somerville and lives in Montgomery, according to his website, which also notes that he entered private practice in Somerset County in 1981 and once was awarded a coveted fellowship in the Academy of General Dentistry.

Runyon’s widow declined comment through a family member. The family, which includes former borough councilman Sean Decker, Runyon’s brother-in-law, previously held a series of fundraisers to support the ailing firefighter and his immediate family — the final one, held a week before his death, was a sold-out luau with a Hawaiian theme at the Somerville Elks Lodge in Bridgewater.

Runyon was employed as an auto mechanic in Manville for more than a decade and served as a firefighter with the Manville Fire Department and the Bound Brook Fire Department, according to his obituary. He recently had joined the Lincoln Hose Fire Company No. 4 in Somerville.

The Bridgewater-based attorney representing Runyon’s estate, Thomas Lenahan, also declined extensive comment, saying he feels that the lawsuit speaks for itself. Citing the New Jersey Wrongful Death Statute, the suit demands unspecified costs and damages, alleging that Barbieri’s care of Runyon deviated from generally accepted medical standards and otherwise was negligent and careless.

“As a direct and proximate result of the negligence,” the suit reads, “Runyon was caused to die.”

This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.