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A mother wrote this letter recounting an incident in which she says her son's foreskin was forcibly retracted during orchioplasty/inguinal hernia surgery.
I wonder if anyone has heard of something like this happening, why the doctor might do this (apparently routinely), whether doctors are/were trained to forcibly retract during these surgeries, and general opinions on this case.
The mother complained, and says she was told "this Dr. has been employing this practice his entire career without negative consequence..."Since birth, [son] has had an undescended testicle that occasionally allowed gravity to prevail. He needed to have an orchioplasty; a surgical reconstruction of the testes. It was also recently discovered that along with the undescended testicle, he had an inguinal hernia, which were both to be operated on [2007] in the [unnamed] Childrens Hospital location. We authorized ONLY these two necessary medical procedures.
Prior to the surgery, during our consultation with Dr. [unnamed] in his [location] office on [2007], we specifically explained our two utmost concerns. One of our strongest concerns, aside from [son] being put under anesthesia and receiving a caudal epidural block, was that his genital integrity not be compromised. We explained to Dr. [unnamed] that we made the educated decision to refuse to circumcise our son when he was born. [...] One of the last things Dr. [unnamed] said to us during the consultation was that it was a non-issue that [son] was intact. He said absolutely nothing about adhesions, phimosis or retractibility of [sons] foreskin, all of which Dr. [unnamed] later claimed to be the basis of his decision to perform this cruel procedure.
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It wasn't until hours later, during a diaper change in a rest area on the way home from the hospital, that we realized, to our horror and disgust, that the surgeon had forcibly retracted our son's foreskin. Our sons foreskin, just as most babies and toddlers prepuces and glans are adherent in nature, was only about halfway retractable and otherwise fused, prior to surgery. During his diaper change (post-surgery), we realized what had happened to our son, as his foreskin retracted completely, revealing blood, and a red, raw, open wound. Fortunately, the effects of the anesthesia still had not worn off during this incident.
We were not asked permission to allow the surgeon to perform this barbaric procedure and certainly would not have given any authorization to do so. We were not advised by anyone after the surgery (until the surgeon returned our urgent phone calls once we were back at home) that our son's prepuce was forcibly and surgically stripped away from his glans penis (just as a fingernail would be torn from the nail bed), prematurely exposing what should be an internal organ. The surgeon's excuse for performing this horrific procedure was that our son had a (phony and commonly over/mis-diagnosed in prepubescent boys) condition called phimosis, adhesions, as well as a build up of smegma. The definition of phimosis did not apply to our son and certainly shouldnt apply to anyone as young as our son. [Sons] old pediatricians, whom we trusted whole-heartedly with guidance on how to care for our sons intact penis and whom had just seen [son] prior to our move to [state] in [2007], never raised any concern over phimosis, smegma buildup or adhesions.
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...Because of the actions of Dr. [unnamed], forcibly tearing the flesh of the balano-preputial lamina (which connects the foreskin and glans-the synechia membrane) and destroying the skin that is considered the first line of defense, our son has experienced swelling, redness, painful urination, sleepless nights and anxiety. Our son has been exposed to potential iatrogenic infection, adhesions and acquired phimosis. During his most recent bath, [son] retracted his own foreskin no longer halfway, but about three-quarters of the way, revealing adhesions that have already re-attached the glans to the prepuce, preventing any further retraction. We can only hope this condition will resolve itself over time, allowing him natural, non-painful, full retractability by or near puberty as it should have naturally happened. Although, we are disheartened to say, we have been advised by medical professionals and doctors that our son will probably need to have the foreskin surgically separated from the scar-connected glans in the future (as the synechia has already been damaged).
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Our son is two years old and had many years before him for his foreskin to naturally separate from the glans in a non-traumatic fashion without any uninvited medical intervention.
[Son] has been traumatized. His body has been violated. He will likely suffer further physical, mental and emotional pain throughout life and consequently, require additional surgeries to correct his penis, all which would have been avoided had Dr. [unnamed] only performed the two authorized procedures. ...
I wonder if anyone has heard of something like this happening, why the doctor might do this (apparently routinely), whether doctors are/were trained to forcibly retract during these surgeries, and general opinions on this case.
