KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has advised a 19-year-old youth who lost the head of his penis in a botched circumcision to settle his suit against a government medical assistant out of court.
Counsel Mohamad Zainuddin Abu Bakar, who represented the teenager, said judge Datuk Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad during the case management proceedings in chambers today had advised parties to settle the suit out of court.
He said the court fixed April 3 for further case management and for the parties to update the status of their discussions for the settlement.
Zainuddin said he had filed a notice of appeal against the court’s decision allowing a striking out application by the government and four others who were previously the defendants in the suit.
“The notice of appeal was filed on March 6. However, a date for the hearing of the appeal has yet to be fixed,” he said.
On Feb 20, the court struck out the teenager’s suit after allowing an application by the government and the four others.
The four were the second to fifth defendants in the case. They are a medical officer, a director at Kuala Lipis Hospital in Pahang, a specialist and a director at the Selayang Hospital in Selangor. The government is the sixth defendant.
The application was filed on grounds that the circumcision procedure was performed at the medical assistant’s private premises and outside the latter’s official hours.
The medical assistant at the Kuala Lipis Hospital was named the first defendant.
On July 19 last year, the teenager filed the suit through his mother, claiming that he was permanently incapacitated due to the incident.
In the statement of claim, the mother, who is the plaintiff, claimed that on Dec 13, 2010, the first defendant and an assistant had performed circumcisions on two boys including her son at a residence in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, with the second and third defendants (Kuala Lipis Hospital medical officer and director) having knowledge of the procedure and after giving permission.
She claimed that during the circumcision, the first defendant did not follow the stipulated procedures and had sliced off the head of her son’s penis with the foreskin still intact.
She claimed that the son’s severed penis had affected his urinary tract.
She also claimed that the second defendant was negligent by not stitching back the severed part of her son’s penis and took a long time to send her child for immediate treatment at the Selayang Hospital.
After the surgery at the Selayang hospital, she claimed that the fourth defendant (Selayang Hospital specialist) had assured her that her son’s penis glans (head) would grow as he gets older, but at the age of 17, her son remained incapacitated.
As a result, she claimed that her son had become withdrawn, preferring to befriend children younger than himself.
She also claimed that she had spent more than RM100,000 for her son’s treatment at the Selayang Hospital, including transportation and legal consultation.
She sought general and special damages as well as interests and other damages deemed fit by the court.