In a notable medical malpractice case, a Palm Beach County jury has decided to award a 3-year-old boy $100 million, after a botched circumcision at the hands of a former doctor, Berto Lopez. The civil case verdict came down earlier this week, glaringly spotlighting both the physical and emotional damage inflicted on the child due to the malpractice that took place shortly after Lopez had his medical license revoked, as CBS12 News reported.
As per the lawsuit details obtained by CBS12 News, Dr. Lopez is accused to have "butchered" the circumcision procedure on February 15, 2021, just ten days after the Florida Board of Medicine revoked his license. The action has sparked discussions around medical accountability and the need for urgent reforms in the patient notification systems to prevent similar future occurrences.
The child's attorney, Gary Cohen, expressed his dismay at the proceedings, telling CBS12 News, "Dr. Lopez didn’t have the guts to walk into a courtroom and look him and his wife in the eyes and say for one time in his life ‘I’m sorry’". The family's legal counsel holds that the Florida Board of Medicine should bear a portion of responsibility for not taking immediate measures to publicize the revocation of Dr. Lopez's medical license, potentially averting such a tragedy.
The awarded sum will go into a trust for the boy's future needs, including potential medical bills and emotional support. In a statement obtained by WPBF 25 News, the boy's father, Michael Lubben, relayed the permanent scars this has left on their family, saying, "It's never going to heal and no matter what you do, even if you had the money to try to look into something, there’s no restorative surgery that can fix it."
Questions have been raised as to why a criminal investigation was not pursued by the West Palm Beach Police Department, who cited, according to WPBF 25 News, that "After making contact with the department of health it was determined that the doctor did have an active license at the time of the procedure." This stands in contradiction with lawsuit statements that Dr. Lopez's license had been revoked prior to the surgery. Police report details and responses to inquiries regarding this discrepancy from health authorities remain pending. Dr. Lopez was contacted for comment but his response was simply, "No."
