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A Kansas family is mourning the loss of their three-year-old son after he died during a dental procedure. Abiel Zapata-Valenzuela had several cavities and needed to go to the dentist to get some of his teeth extracted.
Like any child, the young boy started to cry when the dentist injected a painkiller into his gums.
"The last thing I told him was cause he cried cause he felt the needle and stuff, so I told him, "Papi, everything is going to be okay. I'm like, you're fine," and as a mother, you just feel like I failed him because you can't do anything to protect him," the boy's mother, Nancy Valenzuela, told KWCH.
Valenzuela then left the room and had no idea that her son was having a medical emergency and didn't realize something was wrong until paramedics arrived.
"His heart just stopped beating. Just out of nowhere, so something must have gone wrong," she said. "We weren't notified about him, about anything."
Abiel was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities believe that the young boy had a reaction to the medication.
"It is believed that the child had an unanticipated reaction to medicine provided during the course of his dental procedures," Wichita Police spokesperson Trevor Macy said.
"Didn't expect to come out of there without a child. I don't think any parent any parent ever expects to come out of a place where you feel like they'd be secure," Valenzuela said. "But we did."
She said her son's sudden death has been hard on her family, but their faith in God is helping them cope with the tragedy.
"I know he's an angel, and he's doing good. That brings comfort to me. It's just hard not having him around," Valenzuela said, "I don't know why it was my son, but I know God had a purpose."