On February 24, Alyce Driver got a call from her hospitalized 12-year-old son Deamonte.

"His last words to me was Mom, make sure you pray before you go to bed."

Deamonte died hours later, his mother says a victim of a system that makes it difficult for the indigent to get dental care, infection in an untreated tooth have spreaded to his brain.

The bureaucracy involved in treating medicated patients is so extreme that a lot of doctors just decide not to treat any medicated patients at all.

"All you got to do was to say what kind of, what kind of insurance you've got, no, we don't take that, simply as that."

We must learn from this appalling failure of our broken healthcare system, and we must fix it.

Within days of Deamonte's death, Congress was considering legislation providing 40 million dollars in dental services to the poor. The state legislature in Annapolis is also considering additional funding to make dental care more accessible to indigent children.

It's an epidemic disease and it is preventable, and, and we know how to prevent it if we can just get those kids in the office.

Ray Rawson says days that have trimmed -medicated red tape see more dentists accepting the insurance and more patients using it.

This was not necessary and it can be fixed.

Lawyer Laurie Norris of Maryland Public Justice Center hopes Deamonte's death leads to more dental hygiene programs in schools, more pediatricians doing dental screening and more efficient government programs to provide dental care to the poor. Deamonte's mother says simply.

No one else should have to go through this.

Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Catonsville, Maryland.