KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today has struck out a suit by a teenager who lost the head of his penis in a botched circumcision when he was 10, nine years ago.
Judge Datuk Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad made the decision in chambers after allowing a striking out application by the government and four others who were the defendants in the suit.
The four who were the second to fifth defendants were medical officer and a director at the Kuala Lipis Hospital in Pahang, as well as a specialist doctor and a director at the Selayang hospital in Selangor. The government was the sixth defendant.
Lawyer Zainuddin Abu Bakar, who represented the teenager who is now 19 said the court has struck out the suit after finding that there is no triable issue in the case and that the incident did not occur at the hospital.
“Although the court has allowed the defendants’ application, we will file an appeal in the near future.
“Meanwhile, the proceedings for the first defendant’s case will proceed and it is fixed for case management on March 13,” he said.
The first defendant in the suit, a medical assistant at the Kuala Lipis Hospital who had previously applied to strike out the suit has withdrawn his application.
The application filed by the second to sixth defendants was made on grounds that the circumcision procedure was conducted at the first defendant’s private premise and done outside his official duty.
In the application, they also claimed that they were not involved and had no knowledge about the procedure being done by the first defendant.
They, among others, had sought to strike out the suit as they had not contributed or caused any injury or disability to the boy.
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 conducted circumcision procedures on two boys, including her son, at a residence in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, with the knowledge and permission of the second and third defendants (Kuala Lipis Hospital medical officer and director).
She claimed that during the circumcision, the first defendant did not follow the stipulated procedure and cut off her son’s entire penis head, with the foreskin still intact.
She claimed that the severed penis head had affected the boy’s urinary tract.
She also claimed that the second defendant was negligent for not stitching back the severed part of her son’s penis and took a long time to decide 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 doctor) had assured her that her son’s penis glans 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 changed and became a withdrawn person and preferred to befriend children younger than his age.
She also claimed that she had forked out a huge sum for her son’s treatment at the Selayang Hospital, including for transportation and legal consultation, amounting to more than RM100,000.
She had also sought for general and special damages, as well as interest and other costs which the court deems fit.