OLYMPIA - State health officials have yanked the license of a local dentist, citing one of the worst cases of dental malpractice they've ever seen.

The patient is a prison inmate who had to be rushed to the hospital to save his life.

Dr. Joel Diven has worked at McNeil Island State Penitentiary for 17 years, taking care of inmates' teeth. That's what he was doing last May when he pulled a man's tooth.

But the procedure went horribly wrong.

"I think this is one of the more outrageous cases we've ever seen of just extreme, extreme patient harm," says Laurie Jinkins with the State Department of Health.

According to Health Department charges, Diven pulled out a, "half-dollar size piece of the man's jaw bone". The patient started bleeding uncontrollably and the top part of his mouth was torn, leaving a, "gaping hole exposing muscle and hanging upper sinus tissue."

Then, even worse, according to the Health Department - Diven left, leaving the patient at risk of dying.

"This is just awful," says Jinkins, "and no patient should ever be subjected to this kind of treatment - ever."

According to the state, the inmate's blood pressure was dropping and he was having trouble breathing. It was left to the other health care workers at McNeil Island to call 911. The patient had to be rushed by ambulance to Harborview Medical Center for severe trauma.

Also of concern, no one reported the McNeil Island incident to the Department of Health for five weeks. By law, dentists are required to report if a patient goes to the hospital.

"We want to know these things as soon as they happen because we've got to take action," adds Jinkins. "He could have gone out and practiced somewhere else."

KOMO 4 News tried to contact Dr. Diven for his side of the story, but no one answered our request for an interview. The Corrections Department hired the dentist to work only at McNeil Island. Even after the incident, Corrections kept Diven working at the prison. They told KOMO 4 he was on restricted duty, and could only examine patients but not do any procedures.

Tuesday, Diven resigned his state job, and with the suspension of his license, he can't work anywhere else either.

Diven is entitled to a hearing within 20 days at which time the state's Dental Quality Assurance Commission will consider revoking his license permanently.

DOH tells us the patient has still not fully recovered and has a number of health issues that he's going to have to deal with, because of this procedure.