A man loses part of his skull: he had been operated on for a cerebral hemorrhage, but the hospital makes a mistake: the dramatic story of Fernando

He had gone to Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta for an intracerebral hemorrhage. But he left without a part of his skull. Two months later, he discovers that the hospital has lost him, forcing him to spend over 140 thousand euros on surgeries. Now, Fernando Cluster, 62, filed a complaint against the hospital.

It happened in September 2022, when Cluster presented to the emergency room with an intracerebral hemorrhage. During the operation, the doctors they removed part of the skull of about 12 x 15 cm to reduce pressure on the brain. Two months later, when Cluster returned to complete the operation, the removed area was gone.

“We inspected the freezer where the bone fragments are stored and were unable to find the one with the patient’s identifying data,” the Cluster file explains.

Precisely because of the accident, Cluster filed a complaint against the hospital: “Emory University Hospital Midtown and its staff caused Fernando Cluster and his wife, Melinda Cluster, pain and suffering and forced them to pay more than $100,000 in unnecessary medical bills after they lost a segment of their skull during emergency surgery,” the complaint filed in DeKalb County state court reads. “When Emory staff went to retrieve the bone flap, there were several fragments with incomplete or missing patient identification, so Emory could not be certain whether any of these belonged to Mr. Cluster.“.

The hospital’s mistake forced Cluster to follow an expensive, lengthy and dangerous procedure, also because the man would have completed the operation 12 days late, replacing the missing bone flap with a synthetic implant. This would have cost about 19 thousand dollars and would have caused Cluster “an infection, thus making further surgery necessary“.

Furthermore, the hospital would have charged the costs of the error to the patientwith a figure that exceeds $145,000. Now, the Cluster family is seeking compensation. “It is shocking that a healthcare provider like Emory would lose part of one of its patients’ skulls and then refuse to accept responsibility,” Cluster said. “We now have to live with the consequences of Emory’s negligence, including the daily fear of another head infection and medical bills. We also want to know if this has happened to other patients. Our goal is to make sure this never happens to another patient again.”