A Georgia hospital lost part of a man’s skull, a lawsuit alleges : NPR

A Georgia couple has filed a lawsuit towards an Atlanta hospital after they are saying hospital workers allegedly misplaced a part of the husband’s cranium following his mind surgical procedure.

In a lawsuit filed in a DeKalb County, Ga., courtroom, Fernando and Maria Cluster say that workers at Emory College Hospital Midtown prompted them “ongoing bodily and emotional ache and struggling” and left them with hundreds of {dollars} in medical payments.

Emory Healthcare declined to touch upon the lawsuit filed by the Clusters however informed NPR in an announcement that the hospital system is “dedicated to offering high-quality, compassionate look after sufferers and people we serve in our communities.”

The lawyer representing the Clusters didn’t reply to NPR’s instant request for touch upon the lawsuit.

In accordance with the lawsuit, Fernando Cluster was admitted to Emory College Hospital Midtown in September 2022 after he suffered from an intracerebral hemorrhage — a kind of stroke through which there’s bleeding contained in the mind.

Cluster underwent emergency surgical procedure to deal with the bleeding, which additionally required eradicating a portion of his cranium, in line with the lawsuit. Throughout surgical procedure, medical doctors eliminated a 12-by-15-centimeter bone flap with the intent of reinstalling it in a follow-up process after Cluster healed from his preliminary operation, the lawsuit says.

However two months later, when Cluster was scheduled to have his follow-up surgical procedure, the hospital supposedly couldn’t find the bone flap that was eliminated.

“When Emory’s personnel went to retrieve the bone flap, ‘there have been a number of bone flaps with incomplete or lacking affected person identification’ and due to this fact, Emory ‘couldn’t be sure which if any of those belonged to Mr. Cluster,'” the go well with reads.

Emory Healthcare workers informed Cluster that his bone flap couldn’t be discovered and that his second surgical procedure can be canceled till an artificial bone flap was made, leading to an prolonged hospital keep, the lawsuit says. Moreover, the Clusters argue that the put in artificial flap prompted an an infection that required one more surgical procedure.

The hospital billed the Clusters for the artificial flap, the prolonged hospital keep and the extra process, totaling round $146,800, in line with the lawsuit. The invoice for the put in artificial flap alone was greater than $19,000, The Atlanta Structure-Journal reported. It’s unclear how a lot of the invoice was coated by their insurance coverage, if in any respect.

The couple alleges within the lawsuit that Fernando Cluster has been unable to work, has skilled “bodily and emotional ache and struggling,” and has suffered everlasting accidents because of the hospital’s negligence.

The Clusters’ lawsuit doesn’t element the particular quantity they search however states they search each “common and particular damages.” The couple demanded that the hospital compensate them for damages following a jury trial.