Lawyers File Motion to Dismiss Penis Amputation Suit

In this April 4, 2012 photo made available by the University of Goteborg in Sweden, the Swedish research team practices before the operations to transplant wombs at the Sahlgrenska Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden. Nine ... In this April 4, 2012 photo made available by the University of Goteborg in Sweden, the Swedish research team practices before the operations to transplant wombs at the Sahlgrenska Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden. Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives and will soon try to become pregnant, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed. “This is a new kind of surgery,” Dr. Mats Brannstrom told The Associated Press. Brannstrom is leading the initiative at the University of Goteborg and will run workshops for other doctors on how to perform womb transplants later this year. “We have no textbook to look at,” he said. (AP Photo/University of Goteborg, Johan Wingborg) MORE LESS
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An attorney for two Alabama doctors accused in a lawsuit of amputating a man’spenis in what was supposed to have been a routine circumcision filed a motion Tuesday seeking to dismiss the claims.

Attorney Mike Florie says his clients, Dr. Michael Bivins and Dr. Alan Aikens, never performed a circumcision on Johnny Lee Banks Jr. that involved the removal of tissue or the amputation of the man’s penis. He said the suit’s claims are false.

Banks’ attorney, John Graves, filed the lawsuit on July 22, accusing the doctors and their medical groups of malpractice, negligence and other wrongdoing. It seeks an unspecified amount of money.

Graves says he stands firmly by the allegations but would not comment on specifics of the case.

Earlier this month, Will Axon, a lawyer defending the two doctors, said “When the facts become known this will be seen as an unfair attempt to damage the reputations of dedicated physicians and their outstanding clinics with sensational claims that are completely false,” said Axon.

Axon declined to answer questions about specifics in the suit, including whether the man had a penis when he left the hospital.

Banks and his wife filed the lawsuit this week against Drs. Vincent Michael Bivins and Alan Aikens, their medical groups and a hospital. Banks claims his penis was wrongly amputated during a circumcision last month and no one ever told him why.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of medical malpractice, negligence and other wrongdoing. It seeks an unspecified amount of money.

The hospital, Princeton Baptist Medical Center, previously said the claims are without merit.

The lawsuit contends Banks went to the hospital last month for a circumcision and awoke following the operation without a penis. No one ever warned that amputation could result from the procedure or explained what happened, the suit said.

The suit also names Urology Centers of Alabama, where Bivins works, and Simon-Williamson Clinic, where Aikens works.

The complaint says Bivins treated Banks for conditions that led to the circumcision and Aikens was scheduled to perform the procedure.

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