Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504030097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
The Virginia Beach Circuit Court jury on Thursday ordered Dr. David M. Lustig and Urology of Virginia Beach Ltd. to pay the damages.
According to the man's lawsuit, Lustig's actions amounted to ``a lack of treatment ... tantamount to an abandonment of his patient.''
The lawsuit said the man was ``severely and permanently injured, deformed and emasculated'' and ``has been prevented from being able to engage in normal copulative behavior for the rest of his life.''
Lustig and his attorney, John A. Heilig of Norfolk, could not be reached Friday or Saturday for comment.
The man's lawyer, Thomas J. Harlan Jr., discussed the case with The Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk. The newspaper honored Harlan's request not to name the man, who is 45 and married.
According to Harlan and the lawsuit, the man is a diabetic who suffered from occasional impotence. He visited Lustig in 1993 and asked about shots to cure his impotence. Lustig advised him to have surgery to implant a mechanical device that would force an erection. Lustig performed the surgery June 2, 1993, and the patient went home the next day.
At his first postoperative visit, six days after surgery, the patient complained of pain, so the doctor gave him an antibiotic, according to Harlan and the lawsuit. The man told Lustig several more times during the next two weeks that he was in pain. Lustig prescribed more antibiotics and pain killers.
Nearly a month after the initial surgery, the patient went to Virginia Beach General Hospital with fever and an infection in his penis. The implant was removed.
But by then, Harlan said, the man had lost all use of his penis. He has since undergone eight operations but cannot get an erection.
by CNB