A Georgia couple has filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta hospital after they say hospital staff allegedly misplaced part of the husband’s skull following his brain surgery. In a lawsuit filed in a DeKalb County, Ga., court, Fernando and Maria Cluster say that staff at Emory University Hospital Midtown caused them "ongoing physical and emotional pain and suffering" and left them with thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Emory Healthcare declined to comment on the lawsuit filed by the Clusters but told NPR in a statement that the hospital system is "committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care for patients and those we serve in our communities." The attorney representing the Clusters did not respond to NPR's immediate request for comment on the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Fernando Cluster was admitted to Emory University Hospital Midtown in September 2022 after he suffered from an intracerebral hemorrhage — a type of stroke in which there's bleeding inside the brain.
Cluster underwent emergency surgery to treat the bleeding, which also required removing a portion of his skull, according to the lawsuit. During surgery, doctors removed a 12-by-15-centimeter bone flap with the intent of reinstalling it in a follow-up procedure after Cluster healed from his initial operation, the lawsuit says. But two months later, when Cluster was scheduled to have his follow-up surgery, the hospital supposedly could not locate the bone flap that was removed.
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