Circumcision beyond his control, so inmate sues

(CBS/AP) SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - This is a story about a South Dakota prison inmate who is filing a lawsuit.

Need more? He is suing the hospital where he was born, claiming a doctor there "misled" his mother into having him circumcised.

And now, due to a circumcision beyond his control, he alleges he has suffered.

Dean Cochrun, 28, who is imprisoned in Sioux Falls on a kidnapping conviction, filed the federal lawsuit Friday against Sanford Hospital. Cochrun is asking for $1,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, saying he only recently became aware that he'd undergone the procedure and that it robbed him of his sexual prowess.

Still want more?

Cochrun asks in the lawsuit that his foreskin be restored "in the hopes I could feel whole again," though he acknowledged that he didn't expect such a restoration to be anything more than aesthetic.

Cochrun claims that an "unknown doctor" at the then-named Sioux Valley Hospital misled his mother to believe that the procedure was medically necessary. Cochrun argues that the procedure was unnecessary, unethical and without medical benefit.

"I was recently made aware of the fact that I had been (circumcised) and that ... I was robbed of sensitivity during sexual intercourse as well as the sense of security and well-being I am entitled to in my person," he argued in the lawsuit, adding that neither he nor his partners would "have that sensitivity during sexual intercourse and have a normal sex life."

Cochrun isn't represented by a lawyer. His lawsuit includes a letter from Sanford Hospital officials, responding to his own letter requesting that his foreskin be replaced. Patient relations representative DyAnn Smith replied that Sanford would not pay for the procedure.

"There will be no further correspondence about this matter," she wrote.

That's enough, we think.