I started the other morning as I usually do, between two sleeping babies. And because they got the memo it was Saturday and you sleep in on those days, I was awake scrolling through emails and social networks earlier than usual. In my attempts to keep my boys asleep by staying in bed and myself distracted I stumbled upon a very sad story.
A grandfather was asking for prayers and thoughts in his family's time of need his new grandson was in the hospital hemorrhaging. The source of his uncontrollable bleeding? His circumcision wound.
After the doctor removed his foreskin from his penis B's blood loss became an immense amount and no amount of platelets, clotting agents, or plasma would help. B soon started to seize and was still losing blood, his kidneys and liver began to fail. After two days of attempts to stabilize B, he died. It was later found that he was hemophiliac, and after his circumcision his body was unable to clot blood to stop the bleeding from the wound.
I shed silent tears for this family and squeezed my babies tight. I was caught in a whirlwind of emotions. My anger was boiling my blood. B had just joined the statistics of "risks" for circumcision, death being one of them. Over one hundred baby boys die from circumcision in America each year. A cosmetic surgery that is elective was the source of this and many other newborns death. I'm sure that the hospital will note that the cause of death as hemorrhaging of a hemophiliac. And the compensation that the hospital gave the family? They will pay for his funeral services. No amount of money will heal that mother's heart of the loss of her newborn.
My anger was cooled only by my sadness. The family and their grief, was ground shattering in my world. I wanted to hold that mother and tell her how sorry I was that she lost her baby boy. I wished that I could reverse time and do what the doctor should have done and warn the family about the real risk of circumcision. I wished I could have been there to at least encourage them to wait and let their son decide if he wanted to be circumcised.
But shock was the biggest emotion I was flooded with. After reading some of the comments on the report of his death, and the attack that this family was receiving while they were grieving was immense. People have no shame in claiming these parents were too ignorant and ignored the facts of circumcision. I wanted to scream at these people to show some respect and let them grieve. To stop pointing fingers and instead use that energy to educate other parents about the true risks of circumcision.
I cried and said a silent prayer and plea to please help this family through the pain and suffering they were facing. I also might have commented that those ignorantly pointing fingers had no right to do so, and made the rest of us normal intactivist look as crazy as they were acting.
But because that is what I am, an intactivist, I felt like this story and others like it should be shared (with respect) to help shed light on the real risks of circumcision. And more so than that please do not revere circumcision as a simple surgical procedure as many people and doctors do. It is a traumatic and invasive procedure. One that shouldn't be done on infants fragile bodies; especially those with heart conditions, traumatic or premature births, and any other compromising conditions.
If you or someone you know is thinking about circumcision, please consider this. It is something that cannot be undone once done. Leave the choice to your son. After all it is his body, and his choice what to do so with it.
For more information on infant circumcision please feel free to visit drmomma.org, savingsons.org, or www.WHOLEnetwork.org three of my favorite sites for accurate information on circumcision and intact boys.
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