5-month-old boy dies after home circumcision by parents goes horribly wrong
A 5-month-old baby died after a botched circumcision that was performed on him by his parents at the family home in Italy, reports said.
The infant boy was rushed to a hospital in Bologna, Italy, after he suffered a cardiac arrest on March 22 afternoon after the procedure didn't go as planned. The infant is believed to have died in the hospital later on that night.
A manslaughter investigation was opened up against the child's parents — whose identity was not revealed but who are believed to be Ghanaian natives - by the prosecutor's office in the northern province of Reggio Emilia. An autopsy will follow shortly.
This tragedy follows a similar botched home circumcision case, wherein a 2-year-old child died after severe loss of blood in December last year in Rome. His twin brother too almost died after a circumcision procedure but was able to cling on to life after intensive care treatment, the Daily Mail reported.
That operation took place in a center that was provided by Arci, a non-profit organization, and the council in Monterondo, which is a north-western suburb of Rome.
Italian media reported at the time that the doctor, who is believed to have been an American citizen of Libyan origin, called for emergency help when the boy started bleeding profusely.
His infant twin brother also went through the operation and was admitted into the Sant Andrea hospital but was later transferred to the pediatric ICU at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
The children's mother was said to have been a woman of Nigerian origin, who was believed to have sought asylum in the country. She is reported to have five other children still in Nigeria.
Local media reported that the woman is said to have asked for the religious operations in line with Nigeria's Islamic traditions even though she is Catholic.
Circumcision is not a practice common among the Roman Catholic majority in Italy, but many immigrants who are in the country are Muslim and practice circumcision for cultural as well as religious reasons. The community has trouble sometimes when it comes to accessing the practice in hospitals.
Italian hospital costs tend to be prohibitive or doctors outright refuse to perform the circumcisions until the child has attained at least 4 years of age.
More than 5,000 circumcisions, however, are still performed in the country each year with more than a third of them being carried out illegally, the Telegraph reported.
The circumcision procedures held at private clinics in Italy reportedly cost up to €4,000 ($4,500), but they are offered to members of the community at backstreet surgeries for €20 to €50.
Founder of the Association of Foreign Doctors in Italy, Foad Aodi, has now appealed to the health authorities to allow circumcisions at affordable prices and to also lower the age of access in order to battle the illegal procedures.