Hurley doctor says he faced retaliation for complaining after staff ‘lost’ infant who later died

The former head of neurosurgery at Hurley Medical Center is suing the Flint hospital, alleging that Hurley retaliated against him after he complained about patient safety in the wake of an infant’s death.

Dr. Sudesh Ebenezer says in a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, that, on the night of Dec. 9, 2022, he was called in to perform surgery on a 12-month-old who had been admitted with a traumatic head injury.

When he arrived, he said, he was alarmed to find that “numerous routine diagnostic testing and radiological analysis had yet to be performed, preventing him from immediately operating on the child.”

Hurley staff had failed to do a CT scan of the child’s head “despite being advised to do so,” the complaint said, failed to assess whethe