Fernando Clastres was admitted to Emory University Hospital, Midtown Hospital, in Atlanta, United States, in September 2022 for an intracerebral hemorrhage – known as brain hemorrhageBut what he didn't expect was to be left without part of his skull.
That day, the medical team there reportedly lost a 11.4-by-15-centimeter piece of his skull, which disappeared after a routine procedure to reduce pressure in his brain, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Claster is now suing the site, which had to undergo another operation six weeks later to replace the missing piece with an artificial bone. The hospital is charging the patient around US$19,000, or around R$100,000 at the current rate. The hospital claims it couldn’t find him among a pile of other unidentified bone fragments from other patients’ bodies.
Before artificial bones were inserted to replace what was missing, Claster was left with a hole in his head, with nothing to fill it.
“We checked the refrigerator where the bone flaps were stored and were unable to find a bone flaps with Mr. Claster’s patient identification,” a note left in Claster’s medical file by hospital staff reads. “There were several bone flaps with incomplete or missing patient identification, but we were unable to ascertain which, if any, belonged to Mr. Claster.”
The left piece of the cluster was removed, while the right side of his skull was compressed. The patient and his wife are trying to sue the hospital for their medical bills and emotional damage. But what the group thought would be the end of the story wasn’t. After the “hole” was replaced with artificial bone, he developed an infection and needed additional surgery, leaving him unable to work for a time.
At the end of the treatment, Clastres said the costs exceeded US$146,800, equivalent to about R$793,571.44 at the current exchange rate. According to him, the hospital did not offer him and his wife any discount on the treatment.
“While my clients are clearly upset that they and their insurance company have been charged costs related to Emory’s negligence, I’m sure you can understand that their focus is on Emory’s blatant loss of a body part and the brazen attitude he subsequently took about it,” the group’s attorney, Chloe Dallaire, told the Journal-Constitution.
