DETROIT – A former Detroit hospital employee’s family is suing the hospital after staff allegedly lost a portion of her skull that was removed during surgery, confusing it with another patient’s bones.
The family of Edna Burton says she worked at the hospital, then Ascension St. John Hospital, for more than 20 years.
She underwent a hemicraniectomy in June 2023 to relieve brain pressure following a stroke.
The family says the surgery was performed in the same operating room unit where she had worked for over two decades.
When it came time to reattach the skull portion months later, hospital staff informed the family they had lost it.
According to a lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, the hospital mixed up Burton’s bone flap with the bones of another patient named Edna Brown.
The hospital provided a prosthetic plate as a replacement, but Burton’s family claims her health deteriorated significantly after the prosthetic was attached.
She now requires nursing home care, is bed-bound, and depends on a feeding tube.
“She stopped talking, really, stopped eating, like bed-bound, she had bed sores,” said Burton’s daughter, Erica Burton. “Her physical therapist said I’m not going to continue to do physical therapy because we’re torturing her with how much pain she’s in.”
Oliver Bell Group filed the lawsuit on Tuesday (Dec. 16).
Attorney Cameron Bell, representing the family, said the hospital denies any connection between Burton’s decline and the prosthetic.
“We think it’s asinine that they’re suggesting she’s better off with the artificial skull compared to her natural God-given chunk of her skull,” Bell said.
The family says hospital administrators attempted to apologize by offering them a $25 gas card, which they found “very insulting.”
Burton’s daughter believes the hospital’s error denied her mother a chance at a better recovery.
“They could say that it all, what she’s going through stemmed from the stroke - how do we know?” Burton said. “You threw her bone away. You didn’t even give her the chance.”
Burton said the family hopes to hold the hospital accountable, and their reasoning for filing the lawsuit goes far beyond financial compensation.
“It’s not even about the money. You don’t know what you took from us,” Burton said. “I got a 20-month-old baby, a 5-year-old daughter, and an 8-year-old son. It’s like, please let them remember their nana.”
Henry Ford Health assumed stewardship of the hospital in 2024, after what happened to Burton’s family.
Ascension Health did not immediately return our request for comment.