an unusual medical malpractice trial opens in a Miami court Monday, one in which a jury will have to decide whether an anesthesiologist can be held liable for a patient losing his penis.
The plaintiff, former Miami resident Enrique Milla, will be testifying at the trial via Skype because American authorities deported him and his family back to Peru last year.
“Mr. Milla lived in Miami for 40 years and worked in the medical supply business and paid taxes,” said Spencer Aronfeld, Milla’s Coral Gables attorney. “it shouldn’t make a difference that he was deported.
“At the end of the day, he has to sit down to pee through a tube.”
In 2007, according to records, Milla, then 60, chose to have elective surgery for an implant (a plastic straw) because of erectile dysfunction caused by diverse ailments.
“He didn’t do this to have a bigger penis,” Aronfeld said. “this was because of medical reasons: He just wanted to have relations with his wife.”
Two weeks after the surgery, however, a small infection turned into gangrene, and life-saving amputation became necessary.
Aronfeld’s contention is that anesthesiologist Dr. Laurentiu Boeru should have known that Milla wasn’t in top physical shape at the time of the surgery and would have a hard time recovering.
“Mr. Milla had high diabetes and high blood pressure when they cleared him for surgery,” Aronfeld said. “They should postpone the surgery until he got better.”
Milla originally filed the lawsuit in 2009, naming Boeru and urologist Dr. Paul Perito, the penile implant expert who performed the surgery.
Court records show Perito settled with Milla last year, although the details of the deal aren’t publicly available.
“What happened to Mr. Milla was just bad luck,” said Boeru’s attorney, Jay Chimpoulis. “but filing frivolous lawsuits won’t change his bad luck.”
REAL ESTATE ROYALTIES
Saudi royal Sheik Tarek Al Fassi has sold his Miami Beach mansion to L.a. real estate mogul Richard Meruelo, Miami-Dade County records show.
The nine-bedroom, eight-bathroom crib, slightly more than 10,000 square feet, went for $8.5 million.
The sheik made a mint: He bought two adjacent properties on Pinetree Drive in 1991 and combined them into one.
The prince is one of the owners of the Kuwaiti corporation Al-Jumaa, one of the Middle East’s largest.
One of last week’s celebrity breakups included Sofia Vergara, star of the ABC sitcom Modern Family, and her beau of two years, South Florida wannabe politician Nick Loeb.
And now that the Republican trust-funder, who considered a run for the U.S. Senate last year after a failed bid for the state senate, doesn’t have the Latin superstar by his side, can he still vie for something big?
Richard Giorgio, Loeb’s political consultant, says he can and that he expects Loeb to launch another run for office.
“Having a celebrity with you does help,” Giorgio said, “but Nick is his own person.”
Said GOP operative Jack Furnari: “Sofia Vergara made him look less serious. does a TV actress’ boyfriend make a serious politician?”
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