Malaysian Man Receives Over $21,000 in Settlement Following Botched Circumcision That Resulted in Penis Amputation
After the Malay government successfully appealed against his claim, a 22-year-old man who had his penis amputated in an improper circumcision at age ten had a compensation amount of £500,000 reduced to just $21,131 or £20,000.
According to reports, the unidentified victim lost nearly 90% of his penis during the procedure on December 13, 2010, at the neighborhood hospital in Kuala Lipis, Malaysia.
The decision was taken to send the boy to Selayang Hospital so that better-qualified surgeons could try to correct the horrific botched job because the medics who allegedly severed the boy’s privates lacked training in micro surgeries.
However, the delay meant that he wasn’t operated on until 10 hours later, by which time there was no chance left to reconnect his penis.
He was then hospitalized for more than a month while going through a painful and desperate healing process. With the aid of his mother, he then launched a case against the government and the hospital directors.
Justice Datuk Akhtar Tahir made a favorable decision on April 7, 2022, and gave him MYR 3.1 million (£532,409) in damages.
In June of last year, Judge Akhtar stated: “All expectations of a successful surgery to save the wounded part of the plaintiff had been eliminated by the delay of the medical personnel in attending to the plaintiff’s injuries. Although the Selayang Hospital was informed of the plaintiff’s move, the medical staff did not take any action to get ready for a potential surgery. It is obvious that no monetary award made by the court can make up for the plaintiff’s loss,” the court stated.
“This horrible loss is the cause of the plaintiff’s entire sense of shame and embarrassment. Since the age of ten, the plaintiff has entered into a shell and finds it hard to interact with others, let alone develop the courage ever to marry,” according to his mother’s testimony.
The plaintiff requested more than £500,000 in total, which included a long list of general, particular, and severe losses that all of the defendants were jointly liable for.
The Putrajaya Court of Appeal accepted the government’s appeal, which resulted in a significant reduction in the award.
At a hearing earlier this month, a three-judge panel unanimously decided that the plaintiff’s general damages of MYR 2 million (GBP 343,432) were unduly high.
The panel’s chairman, Justice Ravinthran Paramaguru, stated that no supporting paperwork existed for the amount. According to Paramaguru, the general damages of MYR 2 million have been lowered to MYR 100,000 (£17,172). The special damages have been decreased to MYR 23,556 (£4,045).
The plaintiff’s damages were drastically reduced only a few weeks after a German man posing as a cosmetic surgeon was sentenced to five years in prison for performing a fatally flawed penis enlargement procedure.
Torben K, a 46-year-old German caterer from Solingen posed as a fake doctor and had silicone oil injected into the patient’s scrotum and manhood as part of a surgery meant to “enhance girth.”
He was sentenced to prison on August 28 by Wuppertal District Court judges after being found guilty of inflicting death by great bodily damage.
The 32-year-old victim, not named in court, passed away in July 2019 from sepsis seven months after the gruelling procedure.
The fake doctor was described in court as having no medical training and advertising his penis enhancement services online.
