WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A Palm Beach County jury awarded a boy $100 million in a medical malpractice case after his newborn baby was circumcised by Dr. Berto Lopez of West Palm Beach and the procedure went wrong.
According to the lawsuit filed by the boy’s family, Dr. Lopez botched the surgical procedure on the infant on February 15, 2021, ten days after the Florida Board of Medicine revoked his medical license.
“At first I didn’t really know what was going on. I wanted to believe the doctor because he said he hit an artery and that’s why there was so much bleeding. Pretty quickly we realized he had caused such terrible injuries to our son,” said the Riviera Beach father, whose name we are not using to protect his son’s identity.
After the procedure, the family turned to the law firm Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen in Boca Raton for help.
They learned that Dr. Lopez has been sued several times throughout his career. Lopez is linked to nearly 20 serious injuries, including the deaths of six patients.
“I believe the medical association bears a large part of the responsibility for allowing things to get to this point – from 2004 to 2021,” said Gary Cohen, the family’s attorney.
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This week, after a two-day trial in a civil malpractice case against Lopez and his former practice, the jury finally found in favor of the patient, awarding him $100 million in damages, as well as compensation for physical injuries and emotional distress.
The jury heard from experts and the boy’s family. They also saw graphic photos of the boy’s botched circumcision.
“The damage is that almost the entire glans was severed or amputated,” Cohen said. “The records say it was more than 50%.”
Lopez did not attempt to save the amputated tissue for reconstructive surgery because he left the scene minutes after the procedure was completed, Cohen said.
Cohen added: “Dr. Lopez’s office insisted on $250 in cash. That says something about where the money went.”
Lopez wasn’t even in the courtroom. He didn’t even hire a lawyer.
“Dr. Lopez did not have the courage to walk into a courtroom, look him and his wife in the eye and say ‘I’m sorry’ once in his life,” Cohen said. “He has never done that since 2004, when the first charges were filed against him.”
The boy’s family and lawyers said the Florida Department of Health shares equal responsibility for allowing Lopez to get to this point.
“They need to find a way to notify the public when someone’s license is suspended. It should be suspended immediately. There shouldn’t be a two-week wait for a letter to arrive in the mail,” said Aimee Ferrer, another attorney representing the boy’s family.
The father of the boy, now three, said his injury is still traumatic for him and he hopes it will lead to changes at the state level.
“For us it’s more of a statement because we know the doctor has no money, but we hope it will make enough people sit up and take notice that something is going on here. This needs to be addressed,” said the boy’s father.
Lopez did not respond to CBS12 News’ request for comment following the jury’s verdict.