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MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

Refugee who was mistakenly given vasectomy instead of circumcision has his $2M payout cut to $1.4M as court says he was '30% responsible for mix-up'

41-year-old Zaw Zaw was referred to The Iowa Clinic for circumcision back in December 2015. However, he woke up the next day to find he had been given a vasectomy.
UPDATED FEB 19, 2020
(Source : Getty Images)
(Source : Getty Images)

A man who approached an Iowa hospital for circumcision but later found he had been given a vasectomy has had his previously reported $2 million payout cut down to $1.4 million by a jury. 41-year-old Zaw Zaw was referred to the Iowa Clinic for circumcision back in December 2015. However, he woke up the next day to find he had been given a vasectomy, WTKR reports.

While a jury had leveled a $2 million judgment last week against Dr. Kevin Birusingh -- the surgeon who performed the vasectomy -- they are now awarding Zaw $1.4 million instead.

According to jurors, the Burmese immigrant was 30 percent responsible for the mix-up.

Meanwhile, Dr. Birusingh was found 70 percent responsible for the surgery, and therefore the burden of fault lay with the surgeon.

Initially, jurors compensated Zaw with $1 million for past physical and mental pain and suffering, $500,000 for past loss of function of the body, $250,000 for future loss of function of the body and $250,000 for future physical and mental pain and suffering, which totaled to $2 million. 

The refugee from Myanmar first brought the lawsuit in November 2017 -- almost two years after the procedure.

Meanwhile, Birusingh's attorney has claimed Zaw signed two informed consents that were translated into Burmese for his perusal. Furthermore, he also had four consultations before undergoing surgery.

But Zaw's lawsuit claims there's no word for "vasectomy" in Burmese. A doctor's referral documents indicated Zaw was seeking a circumcision, as per his attorney Marc Harding.

Zaw entered The Iowa Clinic in 2015 with a referral form that reportedly emphasized four times that he needed to undergo a circumcision. That document was also faxed to doctors well in advance so there would be no confusion regarding the procedure. However, the mix-up was inevitable.

While the letters were meant to compensate for Zaw's difficulties with speaking English, he was asked to sign a couple of more forms once he entered the clinic. His lawyer argued that the letters should have guaranteed his client the desired medical treatment despite any language barriers.

But it was later found the faxed instructions had been shredded and destroyed, and the clinic thus failed to properly communicate what procedure was to be carried out. "Zaw Zaw never understood what they were trying to get across and that was their duty and their job to get that across," Harding told WTKR. 

When Harding tried to reach a settlement with the clinic out of court, officials continued to blame Zaw for the mishap.

"They blamed him. They said he should've known we were wrong in the way we were doing it and pointing the finger at him the whole way through," Harding said. "Dr. Birusingh, he was the professional, he was the one that should have made sure because he was the one cutting on the body."

The Iowa Clinic responded to Wednesday's verdict in a statement.

"We are grateful for the jury's hard work and are pleased that no fault in this matter was assigned to the Iowa Clinic," they wrote. "It is important to note, the physician involved in this case has not been on staff with the clinic for more than a year."

Zaw now plans to have the circumcision performed elsewhere and is also seeking to have the vasectomy reversed. 

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