Pretoria - He’s hoping that last week’s surgery went well and that he will leave hospital soon, says the 12-year-old victim of a botched circumcision after a four-hour procedure to remove dead cells from his penis.
Speaking to the Pretoria News in an upbeat but groggy voice as he came out of the haze of anaesthetic, the boy said: “I’m fine, I am alright,” during a post-operation interview.
He had just been through his second operation in a week following complications after he underwent a medical circumcision.
His mother had taken him to a doctor in Atteridgeville at the beginning of last month for the cut which she believed would ensure cleanliness and hygiene.
After only a week, and after being pronounced well on the road to healing, complications set in.
The boy was in such pain that his mother took him back to the doctor’s rooms for treatment.
There his penis was dressed and the boy instructed to keep his bandage on for seven days to allow healing.
But at midnight a couple of days later his mother took him to Kalafong Hospital where nurses removed the bandage and found that his penis was badly infected.
He was admitted and treatment started.
He was taken to theatre a week later for surgery and for a catheter to be inserted into his lower abdomen.
His anguished grandmother, with whom he lives, and his mother expressed concern over his failure to get better, saying they feared he might be left with lasting injuries and have to carry a urinal colostomy bag for the rest of his life.
Surgeons performed a penile debridement to feed antibiotics into his penis and to remove dead cells.
“They also performed a skin graft,” said his mother, who was at his bedside when he came out of theatre.
“I am happy, and hopeful, but I will only be truly happy the day he walks out of the hospital well enough to go back to school and to his normal life,” she said.
She would wait for the doctor to give her a report from the surgery.
“I am really hoping for good news.”
The hospital said he had come in with septic circumcision and doctors would ensure he was healed, and his dignity restored.
“His condition is stable,” a spokesperson said, adding that arrangements were being made for a clinical psychologist to counsel the boy.
@ntsandvose
Pretoria News