Clayton County jury awards boy $30M for botched circumcision

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Clayton County jury has awarded a boy $30 million for a botched circumcision, and the award could rise even higher as deliberations continue.

The verdict came down in the first phase of deliberations Friday, and the jury is expected to deliberate over whether to grant punitive damages later in the day, according to state court officials.

The boy was 18 days old in October 2013 when the flick of a knife at Riverdale’s Life Cycle Pediatrics severed part of his penis and set into motion a lifetime of issues.

The plaintiff's attorneys said the child, whose name is being withheld, will suffer mental anguish for years because of his deformity. There's also physical pain from chronic scabbing.

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It isn’t yet clear which of the plaintiffs will have to pay and how much.

Defense attorney Terrell W. Benton, who represents the nurse midwife and doctor who’ve been found liable, had told the jury Thursday that $1 million should cover the boy’s medical expenses as well as the the costs of long-term therapy and suffering.

But Neal Pope, representing the child’s mother, Stacie Willis, put a picture of Lebron James up on a projector screen, saying the basketball player made $99 million in three years, while pointing out that life expectancy estimates suggest the boy might live another 69 years.

“I think the case is a $100 million case,” said Pope.

This article was written by Joshua Sharpe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cox Media Group