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 was battling for her life in the hospital after suffering a stroke, reportedly left the facility minus a portion of her skull. According to a lawsuit, the hospital staff lost her skull fragment due to a name mix-up and replaced it with a prosthetic. In an attempt to make amends, the hospital offered her a $25 gas card.
“You threw her bone away,” exclaimed Erica Burton, the daughter of Edna Burton, to the local NBC affiliate WDIV. She described how staff at Detroit’s Ascension St. John Hospital, now Henry Ford Hospital, allegedly discarded her mother’s piece of skull in 2023.
Erica Burton emphasized that the issue transcends financial compensation. “It’s not even about the money. You don’t know what you took from us,” she stated, expressing her concern for her children, who she hopes will remember their grandmother. “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, representing the Burton family, issued a press release detailing the allegations and Edna Burton’s ordeal. Burton was hospitalized for a stroke and underwent an urgent procedure called a decompressive right hemicraniectomy, which involves removing a part of the skull to alleviate brain pressure.
The law firm explained that the surgeon had instructed that the skull fragment be preserved for reattachment post-swelling. However, when the time came, the medical team discovered the hospital had lost the piece. The patient learned her skull had been confused with another patient’s body parts due to a similar name.
Consequently, Burton received a prosthetic replacement, which her legal team argues lacks essential benefits inherent to her natural anatomy. The lawyers assert that the hospital mistook Burton for another patient named Edna Brown, resulting in the misplacement of the crucial skull fragment.
“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, which was obtained by Law&Crime, 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.
