South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog
Jurors handed down a $100 million Palm Beach medical malpractice verdict recently to the family of a boy who was mutilated in a botched circumcision that was performed 10 days after the doctor in question had his medical license revoked by the Florida Board of Medicine. The damage award is twice what the family had sued for, illustrating the impact the evidence and the child’s suffering had on those reviewing it. 
As longtime Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys, this case represents an egregious disregard both for patient well-being and professional standards set forth for medical doctors.
According to The Palm Beach Post, the former OB-GYN did not attend the trial, nor did he hire an attorney to represent him in the matter. In previous statements, the ex-doctor stated that the child’s condition was the result of a congenital deformity, rather than a failed circumcision. A midwife testifying on behalf of the family told the court the child, now age 3, had no such deformity at birth.
Whether the family will ever actually receive any of that money remains to be seen. The former doctor has not yet paid a settlement owed to the surviving spouse of another patient who died after giving birth to the couple’s second child. The doctor delivered the child, left the hospital to change his scrubs, and only returned in time to watch his patient die, according to court records.
The doctor was also the subject of a 2017 expose by the local newspaper into the deaths of six patients in procedures gone wrong over his career of three decades. These incidents prompted the state’s medical board to vote to restrict the OB-GYN’s license – a fact he did not tell the aforementioned patient before he was involved in the delivery.
Later, the board of medicine voted to revoke his medical license. However, that revocation did not go into effect until two weeks after the ruling, meaning he was technically free to practice medicine in the interim – though he didn’t tell any of this to the family of the infant he agreed to circumcise. Not knowing about his history, they agreed to pay $250 in cash to have the circumcision performed at his office in West Palm Beach. Despite the fact that the boy’s urethra was severed, he insisted to the family that the bleeding was normal. It was not. He attempted to stich it up, used caustic materials to stop the bleeding and sent them home with gauze and Tylenol. Three days later, they rushed their baby to the emergency room. The pediatric urologist who treated the boy was reportedly visibly stunned at the boy’s condition. Half of the top of the boy’s penis is gone. In addition to medical complications, the boy’s parents say they are devastated about what this will mean for his hopes at a happy life.
It wasn’t even the first time he’d botched a circumcision. He did so previously in 2017 to another child, effectively amputating his member. That case resulted in a confidential settlement.
The fact delay between the board’s vote and the actual revocation of the doctor’s license raises significant concerns that our West Palm Beach medical malpractice attorneys hope will catch the attention of Florida’s legislators and/or the state medical board.
In cases like this, it may be beneficial for medical malpractice lawyers to explore liability of third parties, such as the facility/hospital, other medical professionals who failed to intervene or respond more quickly, possibly those in supervisory roles, etc.
It’s also worth noting that patients and families can check on the medical licenses of physicians and view disciplinary and administrative actions via the Florida Department of Health. This isn’t always a failsafe method, but it may help to flag providers like these with an extensive history of misconduct.