The terrified screams of her little boy from behind the closed door of a doctor’s surgery tore through Salma Khan’s heart. It was supposed to be a simple, straightforward circumcision but her mothers’ instinct told her that something was very wrong. Every part of her wanted to run in and rescue five-year-old Yusuf.
Today, Salma (27), of Auckland, says she will always regret not stopping the botched procedure that left Yusuf terrified and bleeding heavily. He later needed surgery in hospital to repair the damage done by the GP, who has just been found in breach of medical guidelines after an investigation by the Health and Disability Commissioner. Salma and her family are ouslim and their faith requires that boys are circumcised while they are young.
“We wanted to have it done when he was a baby, but I had a difficult birth and I didn’t want to put any more stress on him at that time,” she explains, cuddling close to her son. When Yusuf turned five, Salma and her husband decided it was time to go ahead with the procedure.
“If a boy turns seven and he is not circumcised, he can’t pray or perform any of the rituals in the mosque,” Salma says. The couple saw a flyer about a GP who charged $250 for circumcision and took Yusuf in for a consultation.
After examining the little boy’s penis, the doctor confirmed that the operation, which involves removing the foreskin and applying stitches around the head of the penis, could go ahead. Salma asked if the operation could be performed while her son was under general anaesthetic, but the GP reassured her that this was not necessary. He was adamant Yusuf could be circumcised under local anaesthetic.
Before the appointment, the family received a phone call to say that another doctor would be assisting. When the family arrived at the medical centre they were alarmed to hear the frightened shouts of a 14-year-old Samoan boy coming from the treatment room.
“The clinic manager came to reassure us that our son’s procedure would not be like this because the Samoan boy was sensitive, had not reacted well to the local anaesthetic and that he was ‘a bleeder’,” says Salma. “I didn’t know what ‘a bleeder’ was but by that stage I actually wanted to opt out. The 14-year-old’s parents were furious and said they didn’t have this trouble with their older two boys.
“Yusuf was given the local anaesthetic but started screaming immediately. I think the doctor started before it had time to take effect. My son was saying he could still feel the pain. “I became distressed and the doctor chased me out, saying I was passing my anxiety on to Yusuf. My son was grabbing my hands and begging me to stay, crying, ‘Please, don’t leave me alone!'”
Not long after this, Salma’s husband also had to leave the room because he felt like he might pass out. For the next hour, a distressed Salma, her husband and two brothers sat in the waiting room, listening helplessly to Yusuf’s howls of pain and despair. “He was screaming nonstop, yelling out to us, ‘Help me, help me! I can feel it. I can feel it!’
“At one point, my brother took me outside so I could stop crying and try to hold myself together but, even outside, I could hear my son screaming.” After an hour, Salma’s husband could take no more and walked back into the operating room. As he entered the surgery, he heard the doctor speaking on the phone, admitting that he didn’t know what was going on during the circumcision procedure.
Then the clinic manager – who was also the doctor’s wife – told the frantic parents that Yusuf needed just one more stitch, but there was also a damaged vein and they were having trouble stopping the bleeding.
“That’s when I decided I had to halt the operation so I went in and told them that,” says Salma, becoming upset at the traumatic memory. “I saw a lot of cotton wool soaked in blood. I saw my son – he was all red and it was like he had no energy left. It was just horrible.”
The family was taken by ambulance to Starship children’s hospital, where surgeons began repairing the damage. Alarmed at what they saw, the Starship doctors urged Salma to complain to the Health and Disability Commissioner. The investigation found that the doctor assisting the operation was not licensed to practise here and the GP himself had not followed the recommended guidelines for circumcisions in New Zealand.
It took at least one week for Yusuf’s wounds to heal but the psychological scars have taken far longer to fade. The little boy has suffered nightmares ever since the operation, a year ago. “He was so scared, he didn’t let us touch his penis for about six or seven months. But we’ve had him all checked out and everything is okay.”
Salma says that if she has another son, she will insist that he is circumcised under general anaesthetic. “I’m not opposing the fact it has to be done and I will go along with it. But what I do oppose is a doctor doing it when they don’t know how to do their job. It should never be such a painful process.
“All I would say to parents is, if you have to have your son circumcised, do look around for the best doctors available and make sure you have it done under general anaesthetic. “We should never think twice when it comes to the safety of our children,” she asserts.
The Health and Disability Commissioner has recommended the doctor in charge of Yusuf’s operation review his practices and reconsider whether he should undertake circumcisions on boys aged older than six months. The case has also been referred to the oedical Council of New Zealand to determine if further action is necessary.
**Names have been changed.*
Circumcision
Circumcision in males involves the amputation of the foreskin. During World War II, circumcision rates in New Zealand were as high as 95% but fell to 40% in the early 1970s. These days, it is estimated that around 15% to 20% of boys are routinely circumcised.
Reasons include:
oedical – to prevent recurrent infections.
Cultural – the practice is common among Polynesian men.
Religious – Jewish and ouslim men are routinely circumcised.
Sexual – a partner may prefer it.
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