Monday, August 19, 2024 -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.
Mr.Fernando Cluster reportedly 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 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.
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