Galveston, Texas (JusticeNewsFlash.com) – Yes, you read the headline right. After a stroke in January 2007, Marvin Simmons consented to having an eight-inch by four-inch piece of his skull removed in order to relieve pressure on his brain. The piece was to be stored in a bone bank while Simmons healed.
Doctor Haring J.W. Nauta at UTMB who performed the craniotomy for decompression, had scheduled Simmons for a cranioplasty on May 3, 2007. Yet, his cranioplasty was canceled three times and the doctors were stalling. Finally, Doctor Nauta stated that during the first process, the piece of bone had been ‘lost.’ Mr. Simmons’ cranioplasty was performed with titanium mesh instead.
Now in the lawsuit, Mr. Simmons is seeking damages for his ‘pain and anguish, mental anguish, physical disfigurement and physical impairment.’ He has also demanded a trial by jury. The plaintiff’s counsel / Houston medical negligence lawyer Tony Buzbee wrote in the suit, “This is not a case for medical malpractice, but rather a case alleging carelessness, gross negligence, and breach of a medical practitioner’s fiduciary duty to the patient.” Buzbee stated that it is not about the money, for no sum could ever replace a part of a man’s skull, it is about ‘tightening internal procedures within’. It is unexplainable how the piece of a man’s skull is misplaced in such a place as a hospital, each with their list of rules and regulations, yet it is not a perfect world, and all UTMB and physicians can do is comply with Simmons present and future wishes and needs.
