Another Circumcision Death

After several months of contemplating starting a blog, I have finally caved (or should I say stepped up to the plate?)  I wish I could say it was the requests from friends to share my experiences and passion with the internet world, but unfortunately it was not.  It was a much more depressing, infuriating and 100% avoidable death of an 11 day old sweet baby boy.

A baby boy I will call only by "Baby Boy B" died yesterday evening after complications from his routine infant circumcision (RIC) at UC Davis Medical Center.  In the words of his grandfather from Thursday morning:

"He wouldn't stop bleeding after his circumcision yesterday and had multiple seizures last night.....They gave him clotting meds, plasma and platelets, but they do not know why he's bleeding or seizing!"

Followed on Friday by:

"The prognosis is not good.  We're hoping for a MIRACLE, but the Doctors are not optimistic for his survival."

and ultimately confirmation of Baby Boy B's death later than evening.

In college I worked for a pediatrician whose wife is also a doctor and nurse practitioner.  They were (well, they still are) Jewish and the doctor is also still a mohel...a Jewish man who performs ritual circumcisions on the 8th day of life.  Shortly after I began working there, one of their patients died the day after his circumcision.  When the autopsy came back, an "undiagnosed blood clotting disorder" was cited as the cause of death. No one was held accountable for this baby's death.  It was just considered an unfortunate outcome to an otherwise "safe" routine procedure.

I'm certain when/if the family of Baby Boy B has an autopsy done they will get a similar answer as the family at the practice I worked at.  Will circumcision even be mentioned as the cause? A contributing factor even? Or will the circumcision connection be swept under the rug in favor of hemorrhage or hemophilia or organ failure or even lumped together into the more general "neonatal death" rate for those who pass within the first 28 days of life?

Could unrecorded deaths from circumcision be contributing to our atrocious neonatal death rates compared to other countries?  This list from our very own CIA shows just how much we suck compared to other developed nations: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html  Cuba and South Korea rank better than the United States for Christ's sake! Not to mention the few countries I've never even heard of.  Come on, you can't tell me you had honestly heard of Wallis and Futuna before!

172

Croatia

6.06

2012 est.

173	United States	6.00	2012 est.

174	Faroe Islands	5.94	2012 est.

175	Guam	5.70	2012 est.

176	Northern Mariana Islands	5.70	2012 est.

177	New Caledonia	5.62	2012 est.

178	Hungary	5.24	2012 est.

179	Greece	4.92	2012 est.

180	French Polynesia	4.88	2012 est.

181	Canada	4.85	2012 est.

182	Cuba	4.83	2012 est.

183	New Zealand	4.72	2012 est.

184	San Marino	4.65	2012 est.

185	Wallis and Futuna	4.61	2012 est.

186	Portugal	4.60	2012 est.

187	Taiwan	4.60	2012 est.

188	United Kingdom	4.56	2012 est.

189	Australia	4.55	2012 est.

190	European Union	4.49	2012 est.

191	Liechtenstein	4.39	2012 est.

192	Luxembourg	4.39	2012 est.

193	Belgium	4.28	2012 est.

194	Isle of Man	4.27	2012 est.

195	Austria	4.26	2012 est.

196	Denmark	4.19	2012 est.

197	Slovenia	4.12	2012 est.

198	Korea, South	4.08	2012 est.

199	Israel	4.07	2012 est.

200	Jersey	3.94	2012 est.

201	Switzerland	3.90	2012 est.

202	Ireland	3.81	2012 est.

203	Andorra	3.76	2012 est.

204	Netherlands	3.73	2012 est.

205	Belarus	3.70	2012 est.

206	Czech Republic	3.70	2012 est.

207	Malta	3.65	2012 est.

208	Guernsey	3.52	2012 est.

209	Germany	3.51	2012 est.

210	Norway	3.50	2012 est.

211	Anguilla	3.44	2012 est.

212	Finland	3.40	2012 est.

213	France	3.40	2012 est.

214	Spain	3.37	2012 est.

215	Italy	3.36	2012 est.

216	Iceland	3.18	2012 est.

217	Macau	3.17	2012 est.

218	Hong Kong	2.90	2012 est.

219	Sweden	2.74	2012 est.

220	Singapore	2.65	2012 est.

221	Bermuda	2.47	2012 est.

222	Japan	2.21	2012 est.

223	Monaco	1.80	2012 est.

The death of the little boy when I worked for the pediatrician was responsible for putting circumcision on my radar, but it wasn't for a few more years and several sexual partners later that my interest (I would admit even obsession) in learning everything I can about the anatomy and physiology of the normal penis was undoubtedly captured.

Unfortunately, it has taken the death of another precious newborn for me to not put off starting a blog.  I can not and will not be quiet on the topic of routine infant circumcision any longer.  It's time I use my personal experiences and subsequent knowledge to help others make confident informed decisions before another  child needlessly loses their life from this vile tradition.