Queens Baby Dies on Table During Circumcision


Source: Daily Mail Reporter

A two-year-old boy died on the operating table after circumcision. The devastated parents of Jamaal Coleson Jr, from Queens, are demanding to know why their son died during the procedure at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.

Jamaal's uncle Jabbar Coleson, 23, said his nephew died on Tuesday about ten hours after he went in to be circumcised. His grieving parents - Taleah Echezerriam and Jamaal Coleson - were too distraught to speak.

Coleson told the New York Post that the hospital was supposed to give the two-year-old a local analgesic, but instead gave him a general one. Jamaal, who would have celebrated his second birthday next month, was said to have "woken up and called for his mother, and then went critical."

Jamaal never regained consciousness and was declared dead at 8.35pm.

Coleson, who lives in Atlanta, told the Post, "I want to know what happened. He was so sweet and energetic and so happy - a very happy child. I am very upset and I am glad I am a couple of hundred miles away. I have time to calm down and say my prayers."

The family are demanding answers and want to know what went wrong. The hospital said in a statement:
We extend heartfelt condolences to the family of the young patient in question. This is a devastating event for his family as well as for the staff at Beth Israel who tried to save his life. We immediately notified the Medical Examiner's Office and requested that they accept this case for further review, which they have. We also are in the process of reporting this case as an unexpected death to the NYS Department of Health.
Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the ME, confirmed an autopsy was conducted yesterday to determine the cause of death, the results of which have yet to be released.

Jamaal's parents were to be married next year. Coleson said, "We just don't understand what happened. Now my mother is out buying a suit for the funeral (instead of the wedding)."

Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan where Jamaal Coleson died while undergoing circumcision.

UPDATE:

Angry relatives report to the New York Post that they have refused the East Side Medical Center's offer to pay or Jamaal's funeral. "I'd rather have him back. I wish there was a way to clone him. We miss him so much," said Jabbar Coleson, uncle of Jamaal.

A spokeswoman for Beth Israel Medical Center said she was unaware of any offer.

The autopsy performed Wednesday on the toddler was "inconclusive," said Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner's Office.

When performed, genital cutting on male babies and children in the United States is executed with general anesthesia if the baby is over 6 months of age, or 10 pounds in weight. Local anesthesia, while not used in the majority of circumcision surgeries performed on U.S. newborns, is exclusively used on young or light weight babies. This seems to be a carry over practice based in mythology in the U.S. from the decades when babies were said to be born "without the ability to feel pain." Today, it is common practice in the U.S. to not use anesthesia of any kind when cutting a newborn baby boy (although this is against the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics), or to use local anesthesia in the first weeks or months post-birth, and general anesthesia when circumcision surgery is performed later.

The family, however, has accused the hospital of giving Jamaal general anesthesia when they expected him to only receive a local analgesic for the 30-minute amputative surgery of his prepuce organ.

"He started to tell his mommy he wasn't feeling well. It took them four hours to get him into surgery. Then they couldn't find the doctor," Coleson said.

The hospital reports they have turned over all information to the New York state Department of Health.


Related Reading:

New York Post article on the tragic death of Jamaal Coleson Jr. can be read here.

Death From Circumcision

Circumcision Information Resource Pages - Death

Doctors Opposing Circumcision - Statement

Circumstitions - Complications

NOHARMM - Complicaitons Incidence

Cut vs. Intact Outcome Statistics

National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers 2010 newsletter

Partial list of those who've died from circumcision

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.


Related News Briefs:

Baby Dies in South Dakota

New York Baby Dies

Baby Dies After Brit


Baby Dies After Circumcision Surgery Blood Loss and Heart Failure

More newborn baby boys die from circumcision surgery each year in the United States than from choking, from auto accidents, from suffocation, from SIDS, from sleep positioners and from (the newly banned) drop-side cribs.


Books:

Doctors Re-examine Circumcision

Circumcision: An American Health Fallacy

Circumcision: The Painful Dilemma

Circumcision: A History of the World's Most Controversial Surgery

Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Circumcision

Circumcision: What Every Parent Should Know

Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America

Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma

Circumcision: The Rest of the Story

Circumcision Exposed: Rethinking a Medical and Cultural Tradition

40 Compelling Reasons Why You Should Respect His Birthright and Keep Your Son Whole


Children's Genitals Under the Knife


Additional books published on circumcision linked and available here.

Additional information on the prepuce organ ("foreskin" or "clitoral hood"), intact care, and circumcision found at Are You Fully Informed?  

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HIV/AIDS Rates Continue to Climb in Africa

By Flavia Lanyero

A new report by PANOS Eastern Africa has shown that new HIV/Aids messages meant to reduce the prevalence of the disease are instead facilitating its spread as they have created false impressions, especially with regard to multiple concurrent partnerships and male circumcision. PANOS is a network of institutions the world over that carries out research and documentation of development information in marginalised communities.

The report, titled, Communication Challenges in HIV Prevention: Multiple Concurrent Partnerships and Medical Male Circumcision, shows that majority of rural population believed that male circumcision gives a complete protection to HIV/Aids, while more than 88% did not exactly know what "the sexual network" was.

The report also notes that most of the HIV/Aids messages are urban based with little or no translation for the rural people. In addition, younger people are no longer scared of the HIV pandemic because it is no longer as scary as it used to be. These communications include the "Be a Man!" campaign, "Go Together - Know Together," "Go Red!" and the "Fidelity" campaigns.

"Current Multiple Concurrent Partnership (MCP) policies, programs and communication initiatives in Uganda are not addressing the social, cultural and economic issues that underline why people engage in MCP. Future attempts should incorporate an analysis of the social drivers of HIV," the report released last month reads in part.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Kampala, the Director PANOS Eastern Africa, Peter Okubal, said the report was prompted by the increasing number of infections every year. Last year alone, 120,000 new infections were recorded. One of the lead researchers, Daudi Ochieng, from the Uganda Health Marketing Group, said that the messages have lost authority and have become cliché. "People are tired of the same old messages, the campaigns are vague and boring, there is nothing shocking about them, and they lack coherence as everyone gives a different message," Mr Ochieng said.

Also, communication about HIV has become complacent in the Ministry of Health (MOH). "The role of MOH in educating people about HIV transmission seems to have ended with the introduction of ARVS [anti-retroviral drugs]. Once these drugs were introduced, even the international donors shifted from financially helping institutions like Aids Information Centre, and are now funding those offering ARVS, and more recently, circumcision," a respondent said.


Related Research and Reading:

Dr. Dean Edell Discusses Africa, AIDS, and Circumcision

Doctors Reject Circumcision as HIV Prevention 

HIV Increases in Africa Where Men Circumcised

African HIV/Circumcision Study Ends Early: Too many women becoming infected

African Healer Sees Higher HIV Rates, Lower Condom Use After Circumcision 

Malawi rules out circumcision as AIDS-prevention: No evidence that it works

The Nuts and Bolts of HIV in the USA and why Circumcision Won't Protect Men

Circumcision is Not a Cure-all for AIDS

Position Statement on the use of Male Circumcision to Limit HIV Infection

The Truth About Circumcision and HIV

Circumcision: Already Illegal?

Here we go again: New York Times publishes headline on HIV and Circumcision

FGM/MGM: Similar Attitudes and Misperceptions


Male and Female Circumcision

The Cut: FGM in Africa

History of Female Circumcision in the U.S.

Circumcision and HIV: Public Health Policy Site


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