‘Please help my only child’
KUALA LUMPUR: It’s a living nightmare for the father of a nine-year-old boy who had part of his penis severed during a botched circumcision.
Fighting back tears, the boy’s father – who wanted to be known only as Ali – issued a plea to medical experts and authorities to help his only child.
“Please help us. We don’t know what to do. It has been 16 days since this happened and it has been 16 days of torture for us,” he said at a press conference at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).
The boy’s case is the first of two botched circumcisions that have been reported in the past two weeks.
On Dec 15, Ali’s son had the front of his penis completely severed during a circumcision procedure using scissors at a clinic in Jalan Ipoh.
Ali, who was in the room when the doctor accidentally severed the boy’s penis, claimed the doctor had admitted his negligence to him and quickly stitched back the severed part. Apparently, the reattachment was not done properly.
The boy was then rushed to a medical centre for reconstructive surgery.
He was later referred to HKL but by then it was too late as the penis had turned black.
Doctors had no choice but to amputate the penis, he said.
Ali said his son, who was too young to understand the gravity of his situation, was still being treated in HKL.
However, he is not in pain as the doctors have put him on anaesthesia.
Ali and his wife are now seeking help from the Health Ministry to send their son overseas for treatment.
“Countries like Singapore and Saudi Arabia have expertise in such cases, so we hope that he can be sent there,” he said.
Their lawyer P. Uthayakumar said he had written to the Health director-general and the director of HKL to seek financial assistance to send the boy overseas.
On Dec 20, a 10-year-old boy reportedly had part his of his penis severed during a laser circumcision procedure at a clinic.
Soon after the procedure, the doctor told the boy’s father that he had accidentally cut off the head of his son’s penis.
The boy was rushed to Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, which then referred him to the HKL for surgery to reattach the head. It was learnt that the surgery was a success.
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