Gary Cohen Advocates for Infant Hurt by Botched Circumcision, The Palm Beach Post Reports
When a botched circumcision left an infant irreversibly injured, his parents turned to Attorney Gary Cohen of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen for help, as reported by The Palm Beach Post.
The OB/GYN at fault for this mishandled surgery is Dr. Berto Lopez. Attorney Cohen previously sued Dr. Lopez on behalf of a young mother, Onystei Castillo-Lopez, who was left to bleed to death due to his negligence. As a direct result of his actions in that case the Florida Board of Medicine permanently revoked his license at a hearing on February 5, 2021. Yet, on February 15, 2021, Dr. Lopez performed a circumcision for $250 cash. He cut an artery, which led to severe bleeding and mutilation of the 10-day-old boy’s genitalia.
According to the boy’s parents, Dr. Lopez told them that everything was fine, but a day later, the parents could not ignore their child’s worsening injury. They promptly took their son to the emergency room for treatment. The parent then consulted with a urologist.
“[The urologist] said he hadn’t seen a wound like this except maybe one other time in his career,” the father told The Palm Beach Post. “He confirmed one-third of the head of the penis was cut off.”
The couple contacted the sheriff’s office, only to be told that there was a delay between the decision to revoke Dr. Lopez’s medical license on February 5 and the filing of the official order to do so on February 22. This meant that Dr. Lopez technically had a license at the time of the surgery. However, during the time of the circumcision, Dr. Lopez was prohibited from performing any type of surgery without another doctor there to supervise him.
According to The Palm Beach Post, Dr. Lopez has neither medical malpractice insurance nor hospital privileges. This is not the first time he has botched a circumcision either, with one past instance involving the complete amputation of the organ.
“There is something seriously wrong with his practices,” Attorney Cohen said in a conversation with The Palm Beach Post. “These are not the normal actions of any doctor, not even a bad doctor. He never has taken even 1% of the responsibility for the deaths and injuries that he has caused.”
The urologist told the parents that the boy’s organ is permanently damaged and “will never look normal.” This has turned the joy of first-time parenting for this couple into a tragedy. For the mother, one of the worst parts was that Dr. Lopez wrongfully claimed everything would heal just fine.
“It’s so unfair that a doctor like that would lie to us to our face and not even tell us the truth so at least we could have gone to the emergency room and repaired the issues that he caused,” the mother said. “But he didn’t care. He was a liar. He shouldn’t have been operating on our son or anybody else.”
Attorney Cohen is working diligently on this case. He is also investigating whether the couple has a criminal case, in addition to a civil case, against Dr. Lopez for practicing medicine after his license was set to be revoked.
About Attorney Gary Cohen
Over the past 41 years, Attorney Gary Cohen has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients throughout Florida. He exclusively focuses his practice at Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen on medical malpractice cases because he truly cares about keeping the health care industry safe for all patients. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Broward County Trial Lawyers Association, a Distinguished Fellow of the Florida Justice Association, Best Lawyers®, Super Lawyers®, Martindale-Hubbell, the National Association of Distinguished Counsel, The National Trial Lawyers, and others have recognized his proficiency and skill in this area of the law.
To get in touch with Attorney Cohen, contact Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen online or at (866) 629-1061. We accept cases in Miami, Broward County, Palm Beach County and throughout the state of Florida.
