Despite telling hospital staff repeatedly that they did not want their baby boy circumcised, the circumcision was done. According to Vera Delgado, the baby’s mother, she had told staff at South Miami Hospital on a number of occasions that she did not want Mario to be circumcised.
When the baby was eight days old, even though he was in intensive care, doctors took him out of the ICU unit and performed the circumcision – the mother was not present at the time.
In a statement, the hospital announced:
The baby’s circumcision was an unfortunate mistake caused by a misread consent form. As soon as the error was discovered, the doctor and nurses let the family know what had occurred. We also immediately implemented new processes to ensure this mistake will not occur again.
The procedure itself was performed following appropriate surgical guidelines and the baby didn’t have any complications. Nevertheless, we’re all deeply sorry that this happened.
Although the boy did not suffer any physical complications from the procedure, the mother said the damage has already been done.
The family’s lawyer, Spencer Aronfeld, says a lawsuit will be filed next week – the hospital will be sued for battery.
Aronfeld said:
They went and they did an unnecessary, unwanted surgical procedure on this child without the parents’ permission.
In his blog, Aronfeld writes:
Some question why this is objectionable. After all many people are circumcised everyday in this country without any objection from the parents. As a Miami medical malpractice lawyer, I disagree and on Monday we will file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the hospital and doctors who performed the irreversible amputation of this helpless baby’s functioning tissue. We take the position that the procedure constitutes more than just medical malpractice, it is a battery and a human rights violation with lifelong consequences.
Written by Christian Nordqvist