Boy awarded $1.42 million for botched circumcision
(Published June 9, 2001)
SACRAMENTO -- A Sacramento jury awarded $1.42 million to a 7-year-old boy this week for a botched circumcision performed by a first-year resident at the UC Davis Medical Center.The verdict exceeds the legal cap of $250,000 on medical malpractice awards because the hospital failed to obtain the parents' permission to operate.The child was 5 days old when he underwent the surgery in 1994.
Martin Blake, the parents' attorney, said the boy suffered from a pituitary condition that made circumcision difficult and dangerous."He will have to undergo multiple surgeries when he is an adolescent," Blake said.
Carole Gan, a spokeswoman for UC Davis Health System, said UC Davis does not agree with the verdict and is considering an appeal." We believe the parents clearly consented to the procedure prior to surgery," Gan said. "We regret that this particular surgery did not go as well as planned."
—Gwendolyn Crump
http://www.cirp.org/news/sacramento06-09-01/