Inset: Edna Burton (WDIV). Background: The hospital in Detroit where staff allegedly lost a “chunk” of Edna Burton’s skull (Google Maps).
A Michigan woman who went to the hospital fighting for her life from a stroke wound up leaving with a piece of her own skull missing, which was lost by staff and replaced with a prosthetic following a name mix-up, according to a lawsuit. The hospital then tried to make amends by offering her a $25 gas card, the lawsuit says.
“You threw her bone away,” Edna Burton’s daughter, Erica Burton, told local NBC affiliate WDIV about her mom’s “chunk of skull” allegedly being discarded by staff at Detroit’s Ascension St. John Hospital, now known as Henry Ford Hospital, in 2023.
“It’s not even about the money. You don’t know what you took from us,” Erica Burton said about the lawsuit. “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.”
The Oliver Bell Group, which has filed a legal complaint on behalf of the Burton family, sent out a press release this week announcing the allegations and Edna Burton’s situation. It described how Burton was admitted for a stroke and required “urgent treatment,” including a decompressive right hemicraniectomy, which is a procedure that removes part of the skull to relieve pressure on the brain.
“The surgeon was clear that the skull was to be preserved so it could be reattached after the swelling subsided,” the law firm says. “When that time came, the medical team made a shocking discovery. The hospital had actually lost a piece of the patient’s skull. The patient was told that the hospital mixed up her skull with the body parts of another patient who had a similar name.”
As a result, Burton was allegedly forced to receive a prosthetic replacement, which “lacks crucial benefits of the patient’s God-given anatomy,” according to the family’s legal team. Their lawyers say the “chunk” of Burton’s skull was lost after the hospital mistook her for another patient named Edna Brown.
“What should have been a step toward recovery became a frightening ordeal that continues to affect her daily life, health, and safety,” the firm says. “To add insult to injury, the patient was purportedly provided a $25.00 gas card by the hospital in compensation.”
Erica Burton told WDIV that her mom has stopped talking and eating and is now “bed-bound” and suffering from bed sores. “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,” according to Erica Burton.
The family’s complaint says her current health state is a direct result of the hospital’s “inability to have her bone flap reattached.” The medical term for the piece of skull that was removed from Burton is “bone flap,” according to the complaint.
The doctor who treated Burton allegedly wrote in his medical notes, “Her brain swelling has gone down and now I recommend replacement of her bone flap using her own bone. However, her bone was lost by the hospital so we are using a prosthetic plate of skull that the hospital paid for as replacement to remplant.”
Henry Ford Health, which reportedly assumed stewardship of Ascension St. John Hospital in 2024, is currently working to have its name removed from the lawsuit and replaced with Ascension.
“Providing safe, reliable, high-quality healthcare for every person who walks through our doors is always our highest priority,” a Henry Ford Health spokesperson told Law&Crime on Thursday. “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, it’s important to point out the alleged activity outlined in this lawsuit occurred more than a year before Henry Ford Health assumed operations of St. John Hospital. At the time the hospital was operated by Ascension Michigan.”
Attempts to reach Ascension for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful.
