Flesh-Eating Bacteria Consumed Man's Penis After Surgery, Says Lawsuit

DORAL, Fla. – A man suing after a major medical mistake left him disfigured gave testimony Thursday that revealed the intimate details of his misery.

Late Thursday afternoon, Enrique Milla testified at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse from his new home in Lima, Peru via Skype. He said he wanted a penile implant to improve his sex life in 2007. "About a year before I realized I had problems," Milla said through a translator. "I had problems having intimate relations with my wife. As time went by, that problem got worse."

He has to sit down to urinate. He'll never have any intimate relationships with anyone, and he's lost his manhood.
— Enrique Milla's attorney, Spencer Aronfeld

Milla's attorney argues that an anesthesiologist overlooked his client's pre-existing medical conditions, which resulted in Milla having no more external male genitalia. According to the lawyer, Milla should have never been allowed to undergo elective penile implant surgery to treat erectile dysfunction back in August 2007.

The anesthesiologist involved in the surgery, Dr. Laurentia Boeru, should have never allowed the surgery, the attorney said, because Milla had an extreme case of diabetes and high blood pressure, and his blood sugar levels were way too high on the day of his surgery. He had not seen a doctor in 15 years until that point. "Did he take your blood pressure?" asked the attorney of Milla.

"No," Milla responded.

"Did he take your blood sugar?"

"No."

Milla's attorney, Spencer Aronfeld, has argued that his client should have never been allowed to have a penile implant due to his uncontrolled diabetes. "The one and only person who cleared him for this surgery, on that day, was Dr. Boeru," said Aronfeld, "and our entire case is, that at that particular time, he should have said, 'Wait a second, let's treat the medical conditions first.'"

Boeru swore under oath that his obligations and risks only relate to the anesthesia, not the actual implant of the penis and potential risks. "I addressed a small period of time of contact with the patient, which is the preoperative period of time," Boeru said on the stand. "My role is stopped when the epidural catheter, that's what you do in Obstetrics, is out or the patient is out of recovery."

Milla's problems began after a Gangrene infection spread through his penis about nine days after the surgery. Aronfeld detailed the traumatic experience his client went through. "Turned into a flesh-eating bacteria that ate his penis centimeter by centimeter," he said, " and as a result of this, he has to spend the rest of his life without a functioning penis. He has to sit down to urinate. He'll never have any intimate relationships with anyone, and he's lost his manhood."

Boeru's attorney will have a chance to question Milla in the coming days. Then jurors will have to decided of Boeru acted as his physician and at any point committed any medical malpractice.

Read more at WSVN.