What a headache.
A Georgia man is suing an Atlanta hospital after staff allegedly lost a nearly 28-square-inch piece of his skull after a routine procedure — and then billed him for a synthetic replacement when they couldn’t find it.
Fernando Cluster checked in to Emory University Hospital Midtown in September 2022 for an intracerebral hemorrhage — commonly known as a brain bleed — and doctors determined a 4.7-by-6 inch piece of his skull needed to be removed to reduce pressure, according to an Aug. 8 complaint obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But after returning to the hospital two months later to have the piece of skull replaced, the hospital couldn’t find it amidst a pile of other unidentified bone fragments from other patients’ bodies.
“We inspected the freezer where bone flaps are stored and could not find a bone flap with Mr. Cluster’s patient identification,” a note left by hospital staff in Cluster’s medical file read. “There were several bone flaps with incomplete or missing patient identification, but we could not be certain which if any of these belonged to Mr. Cluster.”
With a hole in his head and nothing to fill it with — the removal left Cluster with a large depression in the right side of his skull — Cluster’s surgery was cancelled while the hospital fabricated a synthetic piece of skull.
By the end of November, the replacement had been inserted into Cluster’s head — but the hospital charged him over $19,000 for the synthetic bone to replace what they’d allegedly lost.
Cluster’s nightmare was far from over, however.
After the synthetic bone was inserted, he contracted an infection and needed an additional surgery and was left unable to work for a time.
By the end of his ordeal, Cluster’s bill topped $146,800 — and the hospital allegedly never offered him and his wife any discounts for the treatment.
“While my clients are obviously upset that they and their insurance company were billed for the costs related to Emory’s negligence, I’m sure you can understand that their focus is on the egregiousness of Emory losing a part of his body and then having a flippant attitude about it afterwards,” Cluster’s attorney Chloe Dallaire told the Journal-Constitution.
Cluster and his wife are seeking to have the hospital compensate them for medical bills and emotional damages.
