Wife's Wedding Ring Missing After Berwyn Hospital Stay, 'She Cries All The Time'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Was it theft or carelessness? Either way, a suburban woman doesn't have her wedding ring and other jewelry.
Her angry husband said it all vanished when his severely injured wife was a patient at a hospital two months ago.
CBS 2's Jim Williams has more.
"I sacrificed a lot and she deserves it."
Today, James Beran is a retired high school science teacher. More than 50 years ago he was a college student working as a welder for $2.85 an hour.
"You scrape together what you have," Beran said.
Modest pay, saved week after week, to buy his wife Kathleen a wedding ring.
"The cost is one thing. It's the sentimental value and how it affects my wife," Beran said holding back tears.
Kathleen's wedding ring, that she had 52 years, is gone now. So are other pieces of jewelry she wore in early November when she was rushed here to MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn after hitting her head in a fall at her home.
"They said somebody signed off for it, a family member or a friend," Beran said. "And all they could make out was the initial "L". Oh, probably my daughter, Laura."
But Beran said he later learned his daughter Laura never signed a release form and never received the jewelry. A spokesperson for Loyola Medicine, which includes MacNeal Hospital, said an internal investigation is underway.
"They even took her medical alert bracelet."
Beran filed reports with the police departments in both Berwyn and LaGrange, where Kathleen Beran is now in rehab at Lexington Health Care.
After investigating, police have no answers. And no charges have been filed. When asked what his wife has to say about this, she gets upset.
"She cries all the time, when this comes up. I do too."
Beran said he got a call from the hospital on Wednesday offering a financial settlement.
