Jury Awards Plaintiff $9.5 Million for Permanent Damage From Erectile Dysfunction Treatment (2)
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Orr said that while there have been some malpractice claims filed against the company in other states, he was not aware of a case against Boston Men’s Health Center that went to a jury trial.
At the clinic’s Buford Highway location, Howard was placed in a waiting room filled with brochures warning about the dangers of erectile-dysfunction medications that are taken orally, such as Viagra or Cialis. The clinic’s staff told Howard that their therapy was “painless” and based on a proprietary formula, Orr said.
After the initial examination, the clinic’s staff diagnosed Howard with erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation and said they would inject their medication into his penis, a process that would be “painless.” Although described by the company as a “secret formula,” Orr said that the primary ingredient injected into Howard was a drug called papaverine. While papaverine had once been the primary means of treating erectile dysfunction, it was discarded as a treatment after Viagra was introduced in 1998, Orr said. The Food and Drug Administration has since warned that papaverine should not be used to treat erectile dysfunction, he said.
During his questioning of Howard on the witness stand, Orr said that he asked why Howard did not then get up and leave the clinic. Howard responded, according to Orr, that he had always considered himself to be “macho,” that he worked out at a gym five days a week, where he was also an instructor in weightlifting, and that he was not a “coward.”
“He said that he wasn’t scared of a needle,” Orr said.
But Howard also said, under questioning, that if he had known he would have received an injection in his penis, he would not have visited Boston Medical Group.
“Not a man on the face of the earth would go into one of these places if they knew what they were going to do to them,” Orr said.
The injection produced immediate results, Orr said.
Howard paid about $1,200 for a six-month supply of the clinic’s medication, which he was instructed to inject into himself in the same location three times per week over the next six months.
Two weeks later, on a Saturday, after receiving the shipment of the medications, Howard administered his first and only injection of the clinic’s product and had “the best erection he’s ever had in his life,” Orr said.
“He thinks that this stuff is really incredible.” Orr said.