Patient left with big dent in his head after hospital staff ‘lost piece of his skull & charged him $19k for replacement’

A PATIENT has filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta hospital after hospital staff allegedly lost part of his skull during a brain surgery. Fernando Cluster was admitted to Emory University Hospital in September 2022 for a brain bleed, but nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. The surgery required the removal of a piece of Cluster's skull, called the "bone flap.

" The bone flap, typically removed during a craniotomy , creates an opening in the skull for surgeons to access the brain. In Fernando's case, surgeons removed the bone flap to reduce pressure in his brain, giving it space to swell and heal. Two months later, Fernando returned to the hospital for a follow-up surgery to have the bone flap, which measured about 4.

7 inches by 6 inches, replaced. Read More On Brains However, hospital staff could not locate his bone flap, with some staff alleging that it had been lost with other unidentified bone fragments from different patients. Fernando's hospital file even included a note from staff confirming the missing piece.

LOST & FOUND "We inspected the freezer where bone flaps are stored and could not find a bone flap with Mr Cluster's patient identification," the note read, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution . "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.

" Most read in Health Fernando's surgery then had to be rescheduled, leaving him with a sk.