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*****
Vera Delgado says she was shocked when she learned last month that her infant son, Mario Viera, was accidentally circumcised without her consent at South Miami Hospital when he was 8 days old.
``Oh, my God,'' Delgado said. ``How could this happen?''
No male in her family has been circumcised for years, she said.
``I didn't want this for him. I'm opposed to circumcision. They didn't have the right to do it.''
The hospital has said it is ``deeply sorry'' and vowed to take steps to prevent the mistake from happening again, but Delgado says that's not enough. She filed suit against the hospital Monday and a criminal battery report with South Miami police Wednesday.
The boy at the center of the dispute is still less than 2 months old. Mario Viera was born at South Miami Hospital July 24, and kept in the intensive care unit so doctors could fight an infection, Delgado says. On Aug. 2, she says she entered his hospital room and noticed a vial lying beside him in his bed. A nurse told her it was Tylenol for the pain from his circumcision.
The hospital later apologized in a prepared statement: ``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.''
*****
Just last week a new story was posted to Fictionmania. The story's author took the unusual step of using the synopsis to criticize magic/sci-fi fiction stories as unoriginal.(She repeated this in a reply to her story comments) Her own story featured a man gets a sex change operation and breast implants by accident. I criticized the author on several counts at the Hyperboard, one of which was that the events of their story were if not impossible highly improbable.
Then the above happens. It wasn't a sex change done to Mario Viera but it was surgery to the same area of the body and it wasn't supposed to be done.
Comments
Accidental surgeries
Having been married to a Nurse for 40 years, I can say that REAL stories like this abound. It is something we often talked about at the dinner table. Wrong hands removed, wrong kidneys, wrong legs, and yes, I think there was even an accidental castration more than once.
It is not surprising, no matter how tragic.
Gwen
Circumcision
Passing a comment about genital surgery on a TG site feels a little odd, bit here's my take:
Surgery like this can be seen as mutilation. Many recipients do indeed take that view, and as a non-USAnian I find it odd that such a high proportion of male children are treated this way. Surely, taking a knife to your delicate bits is something that should involve informed consent. On a lesser, but similar, note, I see an increasing proportion of very young children with pierced ears, and by "very young" I mean unable to walk. What next--infant tattoos?
Piercing
I find any type of piercing a bit strange. Why do people feel the need to stick holes in themselves? My wife doesn't wear any jewellery except her wedding rings and certainly not ear rings. As for circumcision (both male and female) ... shudder. I know it's sometimes done for religious reasons (at least I think so) which seems odd. Wouldn't the god of your choice have created you already circumcised if it was deemed "a good thing"?
Robi
Actually, I quite like to be pierced.
Both my ears, used to include my nose and nipples, but I was not woman enough for the latter. LOL
Gwen
Just as with many cultural habits, there are many reasons
In Judaism, circumcision is a religious duty which many Jewish parents feel obligated to perform, and it has complex symbolisms and meanings that are quite independent of any particular level of piety or adherence to any particular level of religious observance. Atheist Jews are almost as likely to have their male children circumcised as are the Hasidim. In the USA, it was for many years (and still is in some circles) presented as a hygienic measure that offers a great deal of protection for women against certain types of cervical cancer and other diseases of the female reproductive apparatus. With this background, it was a societal obligation for every almost every concerned parent without religious or cultural objection, so boys were often circumcised by default, almost as routine as prophylactic silver nitrate in the eyes to prevent blindness in case the mother was exposed to gonorrheal venereal disease.
Ear piercing for girls is as ubiquitous in many cultures, performed at about the same age as a sign and celebration of femininity within a particular cultural context.
The fact is that our parents "choose" our gender and cultural presentation until we reach the age of reason, amd most people are fairly happy with the choice their parents foisted on them, just as many children are quite happy with the religion chosen for them by their parents, or their names for that matter. We all of us grow up speaking a certain language, going to particular schools, wearing particular clothes, because of where we live and who our parent are.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
You might recall
You might recall the John/Joan debacle that ruined the reputation of Dr. John Money and destroyed a family? Twins were born and circumcised, but one was botched and too much was taken from him. Dr. John Money of the John Hopkins decided the accident was heaven sent to allow him to prove his theories of gender development, namely that at birth gender was a blank slate and whether a kid would be a boy or girl was dependent on how they were raised. Dr. Money was, IIRCC, an endocrinologist at the John Hopkins clinic, not a psychiatrist? Anyway, he convinced the family to raise the injured child as a girl, the other as a boy and not tell either about the accident.
The "girl" in his papers on the subject was called Joan. She proved that he was far wrong, as she had hell trying to grow up a girl while she "knew" she was a boy or at least her life was wrong. The experiment continued a long time, well into the kid's teens, and Joan was started on hormones early to try to help her adjust to the good doctor's desires, which of course didn't help with her self identity issues.
In the meantime, the good doctor saw both children in the nude unaccompanied by parent or nurse, touched them inappropriately and had them touch each other to try to convince Joan of the gender he wanted her to accept. He also lied about Joan's progress in his reports and papers at meetings and in publications.
Joan was finally told the truth where upon she ended the experiment in no uncertain terms.
He still had many problems in school, family and in interpersonal relations, did finally marry, and did commit suicide in his 30's, actually preceded by his twin brother who was also very traumatized by the parents betrayal and the doctor.
The father divorced his wife during the family trauma, and both died early deaths.
John Money was exposed for the egomanic and liar he was, and though he had done many things to help TS, his good work is overshadowed in his legacy by the stupid thing he did that caused such hardship on an entire family. I suppose he "forgot" the "First do no harm" credo some doctors are so proud to proclaim, in the interest of and in the spirit of science, of course.
It is this tragedy that has finally started loosening the automatic "normalization" of children born intersexed, along with the follow up studies showing that as many as 60% of children assigned a gender at birth are not happy with that gender. But many doctors are very conservative and loathe to relinquish their early teachings, besides losing the opportunity to play "God" as many are accused of.
It is because of this RL case that I do have problems with some TG fiction, especially where sudden, accidental or magical transformations are concerned. I can "understand" that in magical transformation, acceptance by the transformee could come about by being included in the spell, but it rarely seems to be used since drama is needed and it becomes a plot device.
Accidental transformation is best handled when the person is able to make an informed decision, not just "wake up" transformed. But it should be, I would think, a very traumatizing event, unless the person was already TG and some do use this plot. It does make the easy acceptance of "Metagene" transformations by many of it's victims somewhat glaring, to my mind.
Though John Money showed his feet of clay, the insurance ramifications are just too severe for many reputable doctors to take such a risk without the knowledge of the transformee, as the case sparking this blog shows. So in the real world, a consent form duly notorized would be required. This is included in some stories, but not all.
But then there is writer's license for plot so that reality can be ignored in the name of story, and far be it from me to cast a stone at a story for using it, but at least a little bit of angst could be experienced........
CaroL
CaroL
This ain't the first time!
There were a few problems like that. When my leg was amputated they marked it well in ink. I was told that this had become a legal requirement, after several, mostly minor mistakes had been made.
Wren
And it's a good idea, too!
Another fallacy, I think, is something that happens in the scenario where the surgery is NOT in and of itself life-saving but is still botched. For example, when (take a relatively minor example) the cosmetic surgery, instead of changing the nose to a smaller one, makes it a bigger one.
That fallacy is the assumption that the patient actually knows, in detail, what is supposed to be done with him, and is on the same wavelength with the medical staff. I guess, the easy way is to have the doctor and the patient discuss the operation immediately before the anaesthetic is applied, or have the patient have a hold on the operation description and verify it with the doctor before going under.
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Open Heart Surgery patients
Are put under 90 minutes to two hours before surgery is scheduled to start. In my case, it was about 90 minutes. The surgeon is no where near the operating room but I did get to see the anesthesiologist.
Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant