In Detroit, a family says their mother went into the hospital for lifesaving stroke care, but when she came out, she was missing a portion of her skull that was supposed to be preserved and later put back! According to a lawsuit filed this week in Detroit, the hospital tried to apologize with a $25 gas card.
Edna Burton’s family has filed a suit against Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, saying that the staff lost the portion of Burton’s skull removed during a June 2023 brain surgery and confused it with the remains of another patient with a similar name. The case was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court by the Oliver Bell Group, and it lays out what the family calls a failure of basic medical care.
Burton used to work at Ascension St. John Hospital for more than 20 years. In June 2023, she had a stroke, and she underwent a decompressive right hemicraniectomy. The procedure lays out that the bone flap would be preserved and reattached once the swelling subsided. That reattachment never happened because the bone flap was allegedly lost.
A former Henry Ford St. John 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. https://t.co/XTgCpDlL2V
— Local 4 WDIV Detroit (@Local4News) December 18, 2025
Later, when Burton’s family expected the final step in her recovery, hospital staff told them the skull fragment was gone. According to the lawsuit, Burton’s bone flap got mixed up with another patient’s and could not be recovered. To make up for it, Edna Burton was then given a prosthetic plate to replace her bone. The family says that’s when her condition took a turn.
Edna’s daughter, Erica Burton, told Click on Detroit:
“She stopped talking, really, stopped eating, like bed-bound, she had bed sores.”
She also said that her mother’s physical therapist didn’t want to continue treatment because the pain from continuing therapy would “[torture] her.” Today, Burton is bed-bound and depends on a feeding tube to survive. According to the attorney, the Detroit hospital says there is no link between Burton’s decline and the prosthetic skull plate.
But Cameron Bell of the Oliver Bell Group called that argument absurd and said:
“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.”
If the allegations outlined in the lawsuit were not enough, the family says the Detroit hospital tried to smooth things over with a $25 gas card. The gesture felt insulting to them. The error robbed her family of memories, particularly for Edna’s 5 and 8-year-old grandchildren.
noellefrieltv A former Henry Ford St. John 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. Ascension Health did not immediately return our request for… pic.twitter.com/RhwvJjSEtg
— CrimeInTheD ® (@CrimeInTheD) December 18, 2025
Founding partner of the Oliver Bell Group (Alyson Oliver) said that the firm is seeking long-term support for Burton’s medical needs. Henry Ford Health assumed stewardship of the hospital in 2024 after the lawsuit.
Do you think Edna would have recovered if the hospital hadn’t lost something so irreplaceable?
NEXT UP: Pregnant woman on her way to Detroit gets slammed by a cashier
