Source: MyCentralJersey.com<\/p>\n
The dentist of a local firefighter who last year died of cancer at the age of 33 is being sued by the man\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s fourth child. But the lawsuit alleges that Runyon\u2019s dentist, Francis Barbieri Jr., first noticed a \u201craised area\u201d on his patient\u2019s tongue in December 2008 \u2014 nine months before he first was diagnosed with cancer \u2014 and failed to advise him to look into it further.<\/p>\n
Runyon returned to Barbieri for another appointment in June 2009, when the dentist noted visible changes to Runyon\u2019s 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 \u201cextensive\u201d treatment by various physicians in various locations \u2014 suffering \u201csevere pain, physical disfigurement, mental anguish and suffering,\u201d the suit states \u2014 but died less than a year later.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Runyon\u2019s widow declined comment through a family member. The family, which includes former borough councilman Sean Decker, Runyon\u2019s brother-in-law, previously held a series of fundraisers to support the ailing firefighter and his immediate family \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Bridgewater-based attorney representing Runyon\u2019s 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\u2019s care of Runyon deviated from generally accepted medical standards and otherwise was negligent and careless.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a direct and proximate result of the negligence,\u201d the suit reads, \u201cRunyon was caused to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s 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\u2019s fourth child. But the lawsuit alleges that Runyon\u2019s dentist, Francis Barbieri Jr., first noticed a \u201craised area\u201d on his patient\u2019s tongue in December 2008 \u2014 nine months before he first was diagnosed with cancer \u2014 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\u2019s 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 \u201cextensive\u201d treatment by various physicians in various locations \u2014 suffering \u201csevere pain, physical disfigurement, mental anguish and suffering,\u201d the suit states \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3478,1369,1384,3479,268],"class_list":["post-11887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oral_cancer_news","tag-academy-of-general-dentistry","tag-dentist","tag-lawsuit","tag-tongue-abnormality","tag-tongue-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11890,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11887\/revisions\/11890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}