Thane: Boy goes for surgery, gets a circumcision!

The boy had been admitted after suffering an injury to his left leg. Pics/Navneet Barhate

The parents of a nine-year-old boy who was recently admitted to a sub-district hospital in Thane for leg surgery claimed on Thursday that he had been mistakenly circumcised instead. They have filed a complaint with the hospital and police, alleging that the doctors got confused due to the presence of other patients in a similar age group. While doctors claim that they were in the right as the boy had an infection on his penis, his parents firmly deny this. An inquiry has been initiated under the supervision of Dr Kailas Pawar, civil surgeon of Thane Civil Hospital.

According to the boy's parents, he is a Std IV student who goes to a civic school in Shahapur. His father is a daily wage labourer while his mother is a domestic help job for livelihood. "In the last week of May, my son went to school. While returning back around 5 pm, he and his classmates go to a playground. He was hit by a stone on his left leg there. We took him to the OPD of the sub-district hospital where doctors prescribed a few medicines," said the boy's mother, a 30-year-old.

The sub-district hospital in Shahapur where the procedure was carried out

"However, the injury was deep and pus began to ooze from it. So, we went to the hospital again and after treatment was administered, surgery was recommended," she added. On June 15, the boy was admitted to the hospital and after doing a check-up, doctors decided to operate on June 17. "After the doctors brought him out of the theatre, I learnt that they had circumcised him. When I asked them why they had done this, they took my son inside again and carried out the actual procedure," alleged the mother.

‘There was confusion'

She added when they questioned the doctors about the circumcision, they claimed nothing would happen to the child and he would be fine. "After inquiring a little, we found that four boys in total went under the knife that morning. Three had infected penises. My son's operation took place after the first one. They must have thought that he suffered from the same affliction. It was a case of confusion and mismanagement. Though we had all the reports and X-rays, they still made a mistake. If they truly wanted to carry out such a procedure, they would have informed us or sought our permission before doing anything," the mother said.

The boy had been admitted after suffering an injury to his left leg. Pic/Navneet Barhate

"We have filed a complaint to the police and medical officer, asking that strict action be taken. There was a doctor named Swapnali and some staff who erred but were not ready to own up. Strict action for such negligence is a must," she added. An uncle of the child said, "The boy's mother was by his side all the time. When they took him in for surgery she was sitting outside, but suspiciously they didn't inform her about the procedure. If there was an infection, they would have brought it up earlier. But from the start, he was only treated for a leg injury. Strict action must be taken against the people concerned," he said.

Doctor Speak

Gajendra Pawar, the medical officer at the sub-district hospital, denied all allegations, saying, "It's not a case of negligence and the child was treated properly. He had an infection on his private parts and we have mentioned this in reports. The leg surgery was done as per reports. The only oversight was not informing the parents about the procedure. The treatment was done as per the reports. Any patient if admitted for surgery first gets admitted. We carry out a check-up and later, scrutinising the report, we carry out surgery." Asked about the complaint made by parents, he said, "An inquiry has been initiated under the supervision of the civil surgeon of Thane Civil Hospital.