Fernando and Maria Cluster, a couple living in Georgia, have filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta hospital for allegedly losing part of Fernando Cluster’s skull following brain surgery, the NBCNews. They say Emory University Hospital Midtown lost part of the skull after removing it because “several bone flaps” were not identified.
The couple accuses staff of negligence that led to an extended hospital stay and physical and emotional harm, according to the lawsuit filed in DeKalb County. An email seeking comment from representatives of Emory Healthcare went unanswered Sunday. An Emory Healthcare spokesperson told CNN that the facility does not comment on pending litigation.
An intervention dating back to 2022
In September 2022, Fernando Cluster went to Emory Healthcare because he was suffering from an intracerebral hemorrhage, which is bleeding in the brain. To treat the hemorrhage, Fernando Cluster had to undergo emergency surgery that included removing part of his skull, according to the lawsuit.
Doctors removed a 5-by-6-inch bone flap with plans to replace it in a second surgery a few weeks later, the complaint says. But in November 2022, when Fernando was scheduled for his follow-up surgery, the hospital reportedly had trouble finding the bone flap.
But where is the piece of skull?
When hospital staff went to retrieve the skull piece, “there were several bone flaps with incomplete or missing patient identification” and, as a result, the facility “could not be certain that any of the flaps belonged to Fernando Cluster,” the complaint states.
As a result, he required a synthetic bone flap, which significantly extended his hospital stay. The couple claims the synthetic flap also caused an infection that required further surgery. As a result, the patient faced “medical bills in excess of $146,845” after being billed for the synthetic flap and the extended hospital stay, in addition to his surgeries, according to the lawsuit.
