ZIMBABWE: Father, son, another in hospital after botched circumcisions

Nehandra Radio (Zimbabwe)
October 3, 2012

Father and son hospitalised after horror circumcision

THREE Gweru men, among them a father and son, were reportedly admitted to Gweru Provincial Hospital after they reacted by bleeding profusely after being circumcised at the hospital’s circumcision clinic.

In an interview, one of the men said he had taken his son, aged 16, to the hospital circumcision clinic when they suffered the complications. He said he was hospitalised in the same ward with his son for three days following the anomaly.

“We spent three days admitted to the hospital following the incident and we were later discharged on Thursday last week. We discovered that there was another man in the same ward who had also suffered some complications after being circumcised,” said the man.

He said they were not in the light on whether the complications they faced were as a result of the doctor’s failure to properly conduct the operations.

“I was very disappointed because I am the one who persuaded my son to undergo circumcision only for us to develop the complication. We believe the doctor might have failed to conduct his duties properly. This is because we later discovered that there was another patient in the same ward who also experienced problems after being circumcised,” he said.

Gweru Provincial Hospital medical superintendent Dr Fabian Mashingaidze, however, said it was common that circumcision patients could develop “adverse complications” after circumcision. He said the number of patients who responded negatively after being circumcised was, however, minimal.

“These particular cases were not brought before my attention maybe because they were not serious or common adverse events. This can happen when a patient develops normal complications after undergoing circumcision. Remember, this is an operation and these incidences do happen but they are very minimal,” he said.

Dr Mashingaidze said the Gweru circumcision clinic has conducted many circumcision cases and had not recorded any serious complications in the process.

“In fact, globally the chances of one getting complications after getting circumcised is one out of 100 and according to a national audit, which was conducted recently, only two percent of the circumcised population had complications meaning that the chances of one getting complications like bleeding or infections is very low in the country.

“Some of the challenges that might arise are due to failure to take care of the wound on the part of the patient,” he said. The Chronicle