LA boy gets compensation for a botched circumcision

An eight year old boy from Los Angeles was awarded a $4.6 million compensation by a judge on Monday for a botched circumcision that resulted in the top of his penis being cut off. The circumcision was carried out while the boy was in the Maternity Center of Vermont in Los Angeles. Eight years and several surgeries later, the boy is in counseling for the traumatic effect of this circumcision.

You are probably wondering what exactly went wrong? Surgeon Anthony Pickett used a clamp for the circumcision which is still considered a routine procedure for baby boys in the United States, after right after giving birth but mistakenly cut off the top of the penis. Ouch! I feel so sorry for that poor baby, and the boy that he has become! Apparently, the botched circumcision was a directly result of a design fault in the clamp.

The lawsuit was not against the surgeon who carried out the circumcision, but against the clamp's manufacturer Miltex Inc. as well as its parent company Integra Life Sciences Holding Corp. According to court papers, "because of the defective design of the circumcision clamp, there was no protection for the head of the penis and Dr Pickett was unable to visualize the glans when excising the foreskin." And the plaintiff's report continued: "For this reason, an amputation to the (head) of plaintiff's penis occurred."

Do you think the boy got a lot of compensation? He will actually only end up with $3.07 million after the court and lawyer fees have been paid. Much of that will be spent on future surgeries to save as much of the penis as possible, and on counseling for the boy. The moral of this very sad story may well be that it is a good idea to think long and hard about having the elective, non-medically warranted procedure called circumcision done to your children.