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Baby Gets Circumcised Against Family's Wishes

post #1 of 95
9/11/10 at 12:51am
Thread Starter 
Apparently all the moms posting worried about keeping their babies intact in the hospital had good reason to be concerned; unfortunately.
http://cbs4.com/local/South.Miami.Baby.2.1907271.html
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post #2 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:14am
That's terrible. I can't imagine the stress that must be putting on the family and the emotional scar with being reminded about what happened to your son against your wishes. I hope one day the child will not harbour anger over it and will come to accept it (he can't be sheltered from the reason forever) but thankfully there are restoration techniques if he doesn't like it. But that's not the point, because he will grow up having to see he is different from his relatives because of a hospital screw up. I know if I had been cut for that reason I'd be upset today, even with financial compensation. And if it happened to my son, I'd be livid. If there's anything good to come out of this, it might be that hospitals make a lot more paperwork and a lot more hurdles to go through to get a child circ'd or just drop it, leaving it in the hands of clinics where at least mistakes like this cannot be made. We can only hope.
post #3 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:22am
how sad! i will say i like that the hospital came right out and said sorry... that is huge of them. however it should have never happened! i feel so sorry for the family and the baby!!!
post #4 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:37am
That is just awful. I had my first born, a son, in an American hospital and many friends and family warned me to tell everyone no circumcision, and to keep him with me when possible. I thought they were over-reacting at the time. Poor baby and parents.
post #5 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:42am
That poor child. I will definitely share that.
post #6 of 95
9/11/10 at 2:08am
Two things stick out at me from this sad story.

One is the awkward sentence construction of the journalist: "It turns out every man in Mario's family is uncircumcised." The phrase "it turns out" is generally used to express an unexpected fact; there is nothing strange about a Latin family in Miami not having a family tradition of circumcision. Second, "every man in Mario's family is uncircumcised" sounds creepy to me. Like they're all just awaiting their circumcisions. What's wrong with "Mario's family does not practice circumcision"?

The next thing is the hospital's icky apology. It comes across as, "Oops, but at least he got a really, really pretty circumcision! One of the best we've done!":

"The procedure itself was performed following appropriate surgical guidelines and the baby didn't have any complications. Nevertheless, we're all deeply sorry that this happened."

"We also immediately implemented new processes to ensure this mistake will not occur again."

Uh, better yet, why don't you just stop nontherapeutic circumcisions at your hospital? That way it's guaranteed this will never happen again. The hospital's insurance premiums and even doctors' insurance premiums may go down.
post #7 of 95
9/11/10 at 2:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brant31 View Post
"The procedure itself was performed following appropriate surgical guidelines and the baby didn't have any complications. Nevertheless, we're all deeply sorry that this happened."

"We also immediately implemented new processes to ensure this mistake will not occur again."
Actually, appropriate surgical guidelines were not followed because his circumcision was not "authorized" by his parents. So that right there is false.
post #8 of 95
9/11/10 at 2:38am
yup. ladies and gentlemen: if you are having a baby at a hospital ASSUME the worst COULD happen. take all precautions to prevent a hospital "mistake" like this from happening to your newborn. if possible, keep your baby with you at all times. be sure you do not sign a consent form while in labor. some people write "do not circumcise" on every hospital form. some people write it on their child's belly. tell every nurse and every doctor who comes in your room that you do not want him circumcised. repeat, repeat, repeat. if possible, follow your child any time he has to be taken away from your room for weight checks, heel pricks, whatever.

circumcision is serious business. protect your sons!!
post #9 of 95
9/11/10 at 2:52am
Oh my. That poor family.
post #10 of 95
9/11/10 at 7:36am
I wonder what would happen if the hospital had accidently gotten patients mixed up and removed the boys arm...

Would a letter of apology suffice?

Oops, we removed his arm, but you know it was done well and according to all guidelines...

Regards
post #11 of 95
9/11/10 at 10:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by brant31 View Post
Two things stick out at me from this sad story.

One is the awkward sentence construction of the journalist: "It turns out every man in Mario's family is uncircumcised." The phrase "it turns out" is generally used to express an unexpected fact; there is nothing strange about a Latin family in Miami not having a family tradition of circumcision. Second, "every man in Mario's family is uncircumcised" sounds creepy to me. Like they're all just awaiting their circumcisions. What's wrong with "Mario's family does not practice circumcision"?

The next thing is the hospital's icky apology. It comes across as, "Oops, but at least he got a really, really pretty circumcision! One of the best we've done!":

"The procedure itself was performed following appropriate surgical guidelines and the baby didn't have any complications. Nevertheless, we're all deeply sorry that this happened."

"We also immediately implemented new processes to ensure this mistake will not occur again."

Uh, better yet, why don't you just stop nontherapeutic circumcisions at your hospital? That way it's guaranteed this will never happen again. The hospital's insurance premiums and even doctors' insurance premiums may go down.
Yes, the journalist makes it sound like an aberration to be "uncircumcised", rather than how it should be: "all boys are born intact". Somehow they need to be educated to understand that intact is normal, circumcised is not.

Also, as Brant says, if hospitals would just stop offering circumcisions, and stop doing them, then mistakes like this would not happen and a lot more boys would get to keep the best part.
post #12 of 95
9/11/10 at 11:08am
I'm sorry...we just accidentally amputated the baby's leg, but everything went fine and there are no complications...bet that would go over well...think the hospital could have gotten away with a little apology then?
post #13 of 95
9/11/10 at 11:44am
I've had nightmares about this sort of thing.
post #14 of 95
9/11/10 at 11:58am
Horrific. And also complete incompetence on the part of the hospital staff. Heads need to roll ( figuratively speaking ).
post #15 of 95
9/11/10 at 12:43pm
Terrible. This poor family.

We wrote "no circ" on all ds1's and ds2's onesies and diapers while in the hospital. We also never let him out of our sight, not even for the newborn tests. I insisted on going with him to the nursery while they did them.
post #16 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:07pm
Wow. I am literally sick thinking about this. I was terrified of this happening to my twins when they were in the NICU. Thankfully they came home whole!

Is there any way to communicate with the authors about their language in the article? E,g, intact versus uncircumcised? Etc.

So sorry for this mama, daddy, and baby boy. I hope they get a big settlement!!
post #17 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galatea View Post
Terrible. This poor family.

We wrote "no circ" on all ds1's and ds2's onesies and diapers while in the hospital. We also never let him out of our sight, not even for the newborn tests. I insisted on going with him to the nursery while they did them.
Just wanted to mention that parents have the right to demand EVERYTHING (weighing, ped exams, etc) done in their room. The nurses may hate you for that extra hassle, but who cares. We've done that with both of our kids. So they never had to leave the room.
post #18 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fyrestorm View Post
I'm sorry...we just accidentally amputated the baby's leg, but everything went fine and there are no complications...bet that would go over well...think the hospital could have gotten away with a little apology then?


That poor baby, that poor mama
post #19 of 95
9/11/10 at 1:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by QueenOfTheMeadow View Post
I've had nightmares about this sort of thing.
Me too :-(
post #20 of 95
9/11/10 at 2:05pm
I didn't like the "it's a family tradition to be uncircumcised" part of the article, either.

So a circ'd dad who didn't want his son circ'd would have less reason to be angry than an intact dad?

My dh is circ'd and would have been beyond livid if this had happened to our son.
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