A Florida doctor who cut off the head of a newborn’s penis during a circumcision has been linked to at least 14 other serious injuries.
A search of court and official records revealed that Dr. Berto Lopez, a 64-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist, was linked to a litany of medical failures, including a mother of two who bled to death in the hospital after Dr. Lopez went home to “lie down.”
And a 31-year-old woman accused a doctor of failing to fully remove her dead foetus, leading her to give birth to its remains in a friend’s bathroom.
Between 1988 and 2021, six patients associated with his care died and he performed two botched circumcisions. In February 2021, his medical license was revoked.
In the latest case, the parents said Dr. Lopez told them their son’s post-circumcision bleeding was “normal,” but when they took him to the hospital the next day, other doctors were “visibly shocked” by his injuries.
Last month, a jury ordered Dr. Lopez to pay the family $100 million for the injuries their son suffered.
Dr. Lopez told the family that the bleeding was normal, but worried, they took their newborn son to the emergency room the next day (the family is pictured above).
The review, revealed by The Palm Beach Postshowed that Dr. Lopez had been named in four disciplinary cases and nine other medical malpractice cases.
In the latest development, it was revealed that the doctor performed the circumcision, a surgical procedure in which the baby’s foreskin (the fold of skin covering the head of the penis) is removed, for $250 on February 15, 2021.
This came just 10 days after the state officially revoked his medical license due to the death of a pregnant mother of two.
The family, who asked to remain anonymous, were not aware of the court cases or the doctor’s revoked license and said if they had known, “they would have run out that door so fast it would have broken.”
Dr. Lopez no longer operates a clinic in Florida, after the order revoking his medical license went into effect in February.
But reviews on his clinic’s website raised alarm bells about his practice years before his license was revoked: One patient said he “always had food on his uniform and gown,” while another said his clinic staff were “eating pizza and drinking Red Bull on top of the (clinic’s) keyboard.”
Several patients left comments saying they would “never come back” and called the office “unprofessional” – some even suggesting it was a “scam.”
After performing the circumcision on the boy, the father said there was a lot of bleeding.
He said CBS12:At first I didn’t really know what was happening. I wanted to believe the doctor because he told me that I had hit an artery and that was why I was bleeding so much.
“We quickly realized that he had committed a terrible act against our son.”
He added: “The damage is that almost the entire head of the penis has been severed or amputated. In the records, it says more than 50 percent.”
The bleeding took 45 minutes to stop and a day later the parents took their newborn to the emergency room after raising concerns, where a doctor, the family said, was “visibly shocked” after seeing their newborn’s penis.
The mistake could lead to a lifetime of complications for the baby.
Long-term health effects resulting from the loss of the glans penis may include difficulty urinating, loss of sexual function, and emotional distress including anxiety, depression, and self-esteem issues.
Onystei Castillo Lopez, a 40-year-old mother of two, bled to death while under Dr. Lopez’s care after giving birth to her second child.
A court case claimed the doctor had gone home, leaving her in the care of a nurse and another doctor who was only available via Zoom.
On February 5, 2021, Dr. Lopez had his license revoked because he was found responsible for the wrongful death of a pregnant woman. But his revocation did not take effect until February 22, allowing him to continue practicing in the intervening days.
In the wrongful death case, he was alleged to have left 40-year-old mother-of-two Onystei Castillo Lopez bleeding in hospital after she went home to change out of her blood-soaked scrubs and go to bed in January 2017.
Ms. Lopez had suffered injuries during childbirth and suffered cardiac arrest, leading to her death that same afternoon from her injuries. Dr. Lopez was the doctor who delivered her.
Ms. Lopez’s family lawyer, Gary Cohen, previously stated that CBS12‘Dr. Lopez had caused multiple lacerations with a scalpel to the cervix while the baby was being delivered.
“What I needed to do was a complete hysterectomy, taking out the entire uterus and the cervix, which is where the bleeding happens.”
Administrative Hearing Judge Robert Cohen said in 2021 that Dr. Lopez’s decision to leave the hospital, go home, clean himself up and go to sleep was “what caused his failure to complete care for his patient to ultimately lead to her untimely death.”
“Maybe her patient wouldn’t have survived yet, but we’ll never know because (Lopez) left her to go home.”
Dr. Lopez first faced allegations of misconduct in 1988, when the family of baby Crystal Diane Hicks claimed her death was due to his failure to perform a timely Caesarean section.
In 1992, records show he was involved in settling a lawsuit brought by the family of deceased infant Earl Buchanan. Details of the case are not public.
Two years later he was linked to the death of Nakia Gilmore, an 18-year-old mother, although the cause of death was not revealed.
Dr. Berto Lopez, pictured above, has had his medical license revoked.
And also in 1994, court documents from the parents of baby Samuel Mercedes — who had turned to Dr. Lopez — show that their baby suffered severe birth defects after a neural tube defect was not promptly diagnosed.
In 2002, Florida’s medical board heard how he had failed to fully extract a 15-week-old stillborn fetus from 31-year-old mother Michelle Hirt. The mother explained how this led her to give birth to the remains in a friend’s bathroom.
In April 2011, she faced a lawsuit after a baby she was delivering suffered severe brain damage resulting in cerebral palsy following a delayed cesarean section.
In November of that year, she faced a lawsuit after baby Matthew Dixson was born with a broken arm and permanent nerve damage because a cesarean section was not performed.
In 2012, documents from the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office show how Joyce Rivers, 56, died after her small intestine was punctured during an operation, in which Dr. Lopez was involved, to remove her ovary.
In April 2014, Florida Department of Death records documents show how their patient Ashley Perez, 29, died from internal bleeding following a cesarean section after stitches on her ovaries came loose.
Three months later, Florida Department of Health documents show that a 32-year-old woman identified only as LR lost six liters of blood after a tubal ligation (or procedure to seal the fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy) failed. She survived her injuries.
In May 2017, he faced a lawsuit over a botched circumcision on another child, known simply as RRR, which was settled out of court.
Dr. Lopez has not publicly commented on his long list of medical lawsuits.
He has often agreed to pay fines, perform community service and take classes on how to keep medical records.
In the latest circumcision case, he failed to appear in court and did not hire a legal team to defend himself, the boy’s family said.