Baby Dies after Circumcision Surgery Blood Loss and Heart Failure

I am utterly broken to learn that we have lost yet another baby, Joshua, after the perils of circumcision surgery. There is so much I'd like to say at this moment, and yet my grieving heart needs time to be still, my head time to refocus. I've cried often for Joshua during his struggle. He was born with a severe congenital heart defect and I cannot imagine the pain he endured in his last day of life on earth as his fragile heart worked so very hard to try and keep up through circumcision surgery and seven hours of post-op hemorrhage. It truly is more than any seven week old baby deserves.

I am devastated that somehow, someone could not have reached Joshua's parents a mere 24 hours ago with accurate and complete information about the risks of putting a baby through circumcision surgery when he is not otherwise in perfectly healthy and stable condition. Physicians should have been the ones to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) protocol which clearly states there is no medical indication for circumcision surgery, and that it is never to be performed upon a baby who is not in the utmost healthy and stable condition.

I am, in fact, appalled that any physician with letters behind his/her name would needlessly slice into the body of an already struggling baby - knowing the risk of cardiac arrest skyrockets during the horrors of genital cutting even for healthy babies (cortisol and other stress hormones spike to incredibly high levels which is very trying on the human heart). Knowing also, of the real risk of hemorrhage, even for healthy babies. Losing just 1 ounce of blood results in hemorrhage, and a loss of merely 2.3 ounces is enough to put a heart-healthy baby into cardiac arrest from blood loss. Knowing, very well, that no medical or health organization in the world recommends circumcision. Again, knowing the AAP has declared since 1999 that there are no medically justified reasons for infant circumcision, and that if the prepuce is amputated for cosmetic reasons, it should never be upon a baby who is not otherwise healthy and strong enough to endure the surgical procedure (one which is commonly done without anesthesia). How did a physician manage to ignore all these things, not give full detailed information to Joshua's parents, and needlessly cut anyway on a baby struggling with a congenital heart defect?

Please, I beg you, review the real risks of circumcision surgery, and the real benefits of keeping our children whole and intact as they come into this world - perfect. The prepuce is not a genital defect - it is a natural, normal, vital (dare I say God-given) organ that plays many important rolls in both men and women. Please, become fully informed on the prepuce, intact care, and circumcision surgery. If you've already lost one baby to circumcision, or have made choices at times when you weren't well equipped with information, know that many of the most life-changing mothers and fathers today are those who were once victims of a myth-filled society along with their son.

The reality is that today more baby boys die from circumcision surgery each year in the United States than from choking, from auto accidents, from suffocation, from SIDS, from (recalled) sleep positioners and from (the newly banned) drop-side cribs. Do not allow your child to suffer or be taken from you for senseless cosmetic amputation surgery upon his perfectly formed penis.

Please.

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Hospital Information:

St.Vincent Women's Hospital

8111 Township Line Road

Indianapolis, Indiana 46260

(317) 415-8111 Main Line

Email Contact Form Here

St. Vincent is a Catholic Hospital

Information on Catholicism, the Catholic Church and its stance on circumcision here.

Christianity and Bible based resources on circumcision here.

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Additional information on newborn circumcision-related death in the United States:

Bollinger, Dan. Lost Boys: An Estimate of U.S. Circumcision-Related Infant Deaths. Thymos: Journal of Boyhood Studies. 2010;4(1):78-90.

Baker RL. Newborn male circumcision: needless and dangerous. Sexual Medicine Today. 1979;3(11):35-36.

Death From Circumcision

Circumcision Information Resource Pages - Death

Doctors Opposing Circumcision - Statement

Circumstitions - Complications

NOHARMM - Complicaitons Incidence

National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers 2010 newsletter

Partial list of those who've died from circumcision

Doctors Re-examine Circumcision

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision

Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma

Chidren's Genitals Under the Knife


Circumcision: The Rest of the Story

Several texts examine past research on this subject here

Update: It appears that a few pro-cutting persons posed as 'intactivists' and hurt this family and those trying to help. For a response to this terribly unfortunate situation, see Coias' article here.

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