OUDoc
9/25/2006, 01:18 PM
Patients: Doctor left us with deformed penises
The 44-year-old married Chicago man was lured in 2003 by the promise of a longer and thicker penis.
Thousands of dollars and multiple surgeries later, the man has something "that doesn't even resemble a penis," said his attorney, Lawrence Griffin. "It's absolutely grotesque."
Dozens of Chicago men have the same shrunken deformities, and each alleges Dr. Sheldon Burman was the one who convinced them his surgery could provide them with something that nature did not.
But based on the repeated horror stories emerging from his Male Sexual Dysfunction Clinic at 3401 N. Central Ave. -- 45 malpractice claims have been filed against Burman -- state officials recently moved to revoke his medical license.
It is one of the state's first revocation requests against a doctor for a "pattern of practice" showing "incapacity or incompetence to practice," according to revocation records, which add that Burman engaged in a practice to "deceive, defraud or harm the public."
That action comes after millions of dollars in judgments against Burman and his clinic, and as the American Urological Association labeled the penis-enlargement procedure he promotes as unsafe.
" has got a track record of a lot of horrendous acts," said attorney Robert Strelecky, whose Clifford Law Offices recently won a $454,000 verdict against Burman on behalf of a 57-year-old Chicago man [B]whose small intestine was punctured while fat was drained from his abdomen so it could be injected into his penis, enlarging it.
Burman said he stands by every one of the thousands of procedures he estimates he's done since 1981.
He knows there are critics who say he's selling fantasies to those with self-esteem issues and acknowledges a majority of his patients have normal-sized penises.
But he swears by the vacuum and stretching devices available on his Web site, www.lengthandgirth.com, and vows his surgeries can provide a penis with an extra half-inch of length and a 50 percent increase in girth.
Burman, 80, was once a well-respected heart surgeon until a 1981 car accident limited his mobility and he began operating on penises.
He said he is self-taught in the procedure and has no formal background in urology or plastic surgery.
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"We see infections, sloughing of penile skin, and we have to go back and reconstruct or graft the penis," he said.
There are seven malpractice claims pending against Burman in Cook County Circuit Court, though he says most of them are frivolous.
Burman says patients are to blame when procedures go wrong -- saying many don't follow post-operative steps like cleansing and weighting it down, to ensure a bigger penis.
More (http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-doc25.html)
The 44-year-old married Chicago man was lured in 2003 by the promise of a longer and thicker penis.
Thousands of dollars and multiple surgeries later, the man has something "that doesn't even resemble a penis," said his attorney, Lawrence Griffin. "It's absolutely grotesque."
Dozens of Chicago men have the same shrunken deformities, and each alleges Dr. Sheldon Burman was the one who convinced them his surgery could provide them with something that nature did not.
But based on the repeated horror stories emerging from his Male Sexual Dysfunction Clinic at 3401 N. Central Ave. -- 45 malpractice claims have been filed against Burman -- state officials recently moved to revoke his medical license.
It is one of the state's first revocation requests against a doctor for a "pattern of practice" showing "incapacity or incompetence to practice," according to revocation records, which add that Burman engaged in a practice to "deceive, defraud or harm the public."
That action comes after millions of dollars in judgments against Burman and his clinic, and as the American Urological Association labeled the penis-enlargement procedure he promotes as unsafe.
" has got a track record of a lot of horrendous acts," said attorney Robert Strelecky, whose Clifford Law Offices recently won a $454,000 verdict against Burman on behalf of a 57-year-old Chicago man [B]whose small intestine was punctured while fat was drained from his abdomen so it could be injected into his penis, enlarging it.
Burman said he stands by every one of the thousands of procedures he estimates he's done since 1981.
He knows there are critics who say he's selling fantasies to those with self-esteem issues and acknowledges a majority of his patients have normal-sized penises.
But he swears by the vacuum and stretching devices available on his Web site, www.lengthandgirth.com, and vows his surgeries can provide a penis with an extra half-inch of length and a 50 percent increase in girth.
Burman, 80, was once a well-respected heart surgeon until a 1981 car accident limited his mobility and he began operating on penises.
He said he is self-taught in the procedure and has no formal background in urology or plastic surgery.
.................................................. .................................................. ..
"We see infections, sloughing of penile skin, and we have to go back and reconstruct or graft the penis," he said.
There are seven malpractice claims pending against Burman in Cook County Circuit Court, though he says most of them are frivolous.
Burman says patients are to blame when procedures go wrong -- saying many don't follow post-operative steps like cleansing and weighting it down, to ensure a bigger penis.
More (http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-doc25.html)