KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today allowed an application filed by the Malaysian Government and four others to strike out a negligence suit filed by 19-year-old youth over a circumcision procedure that went awry when he was 10-years-old that caused him to suffer permanent disability.
High Court Judge Datuk Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad made the decision after allowing the application from the five namely, Kuala Lipis Hospital (KLH)’s medical officer and its director; Selayang Hospital’s specialist and its director; as well as the Malaysian government, as the second to sixth defendants, to set strike out the suit on the grounds that the circumcision procedures were performed outside the hospital and the government was not involved.
“There is no issue to be tried in this suit, but the trial between the plaintiff and the first defendant (KLH medical assistant) will continue,” said lawyer Mohamad Zainuddin Abu Bakar, representing the youth, to reporters after the proceedings in Nik Hasmat’s chambers here yesterday.
He said the court set March 13 for further management of the case.
The five defendants had filed an application to set aside the suit on Dec 7, last year.
Meanwhile, first defendant, KLH medical assistant had filed an application to strike out the suit but withdrew it later.
On July 19 last year, the youth, filed the suit through his mother, claimed that on Dec 13, 2010, at 10 am, the first defendant (medical assistant) had carried out the 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 defendant (KLH medical officer and director, respectively).
She claimed that during the circumcision, the first defendant did not follow the stipulated procedures and cut off her son’s penis’ entire head.
The woman claimed that because of the negligence, the head of her son’s penis was severed, adding that the medical assistant attempted to stitch back the severed part, but claimed it was not performed according to procedures.
She also claimed that while her son was at KLH, the second defendant did not provide immediate treatment to the boy, as well as failing to inform her and other family members that her entire head of her son’s penis was severed.
She alleged that she was only informed that the cut affected her son’s urinary tract.
The second defendant, she claimed, was negligent for not stitching back the severed part of her son’s penis and also took too long to decide to send her child for immediate treatment at the Selayang Hospital.
The plaintiff said her son was sent to Selayang Hospital where a surgery was performed to stitch back the severed part, but on the 35th day, she was shocked to find out that her son’s penis was without its glands.
She claimed that the fourth defendant (a specialist at Selayang Hospital) had assured her that her son’s penis glands would grow as he got older, but at the age of 17, it did not.
As a result of that, she claimed that her son had suffered permanent disability and become a quiet person and only makes friends with small children.
She claimed to have forked out a huge sum for her son’s treatment at Selayang Hospital, including transportation and for legal consultation, amounting to more than RM100,000.
She is seeking general and special damages, as well as interest and other costs which the court deems fit. –Bernama
