CHICAGO (CBS/AP/STNG) ― Students are mourning the loss of an elementary school principal who died after undergoing a root canal at an East Lakeview neighborhood dental office.
As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, Georgette Watson, of Skokie, was pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center just after 11 a.m. Monday. An autopsy is set for today.
Today was an especially tough day for students and staffers at Brentano, at 2723 N. Fairfield Ave. in the Logan Square neighborhood, where Watson, 46, was the principal at the Brentano Math and Science Academy, a post she had held since 2003.
Staff members said she treated them like family.
"She was a great lady – for the kids, for everybody. She just took care of everybody at the school. Those kids are all going to miss her very much," said school janitor Thomas Fontana. "She took care of me like I was her son. I'm the same age, but she just took care of us very well."
"She was aggressively after education for the kids, that's what she was," said another man affiliated with the school. "She was very persistent."
A well-liked educator who spent 25 years at Brentano as a teacher, then an assistant principal, and ultimately the person in charge, passed away after a visit to the Feldman & Feldman dental practice, at 3423 N. Broadway.
On the school's Web site, she posted a message to parents and pupils reading in part: "At Brentano, we prepare our students to become the leaders of tomorrow. It is my belief that by working together, we can guide our children to become lifelong learners."
Watson stopped breathing about 40 minutes into root canal surgery. Police said personnel in the office tried to revive her before paramedics arrived. She suffered an apparent heart attack, authorities said.
Watson was sedated before the root canal, but it was not clear if she was given a local or general anesthetic, police said.
Police said personnel in the office tried to revive her before paramedics arrived. She suffered an apparent heart attack, authorities said.
No one answered the door at the Broadway office Tuesday morning, and a representative at another office declined to comment.
But the dentists, Laurence W. and Joseph David Feldman, did release a statement.
The statement read: "Words alone cannot measure the grief and sadness we feel on the sudden loss of Georgette Watson. We, too, are overcome with emotion while recalling past visits where we experienced her wonderful ways and charm. We know how much her family, as well as the Brentano School family, meant to her, and her to them. We hope that they can embrace her loving ways, as we will, as they struggle to face the loss of someone who occupied such a big place in their hearts and lives."
The statement did not address the circumstances of Watson's death.
CBS 2 has not confirmed who was performing the work, but it has been learned that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has placed the two dentists at the office, Lawrence W. and Joseph David Feldman, on probation.
The department Web site lists "substandard dental work and failure to maintain records" as the reasons.
The probation is in effect until Sept. 30, 2009. Both dentists have been disciplined for unspecified reasons in the past, the site said.
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