Jury awards $1.3M for newborn’s botched circumcision after a brisk trial: attorneys

A baby who suffered a partial amputation of his penis during a botched circumcision performed when he was 12 hours old has been awarded a judgment of more than $1.3 million, according to attorneys for the child’s family.

The verdict was returned to the family of the boy, now 5, by a Cook County jury on Tuesday, according to a statement from the family’s attorneys.

Defendant Marc S. Feldstein, M.D., delivered Daniel Burden on Oct. 4, 2007, at Northwestern Memorial’s Prentice Women’s Hospital, the statement said. The following morning, during a circumcision procedure, a portion of the distal tip of the boy’s penis was inadvertently amputated, according to the statement from the attorneys.

The child was rushed to Children’s Memorial Hospital, where a pediatric urologist successfully re-attached it. Though he will be left with moderate scarring and is at risk for altered nerve sensation in the affected area, his penis should be fully functional, the statement said.

The trial began May 16 and ended Tuesday with the jury awarding the family $1,357,901.12, according to the statement.

“I’m sure that [the boy]will be grateful that this injury was not as devastating as it could have been,” attorney Timothy Tomasik of Tomasik Kotin Kasserman said in the statement. “But he will always be different, and that is something he has to live with for the rest of his life.”

Northwestern didn’t immediately comment on the case.