Mother speaks out on son’s horrific procedure

As a mother, there is no greater fear than seeing your child in harm’s way. For one mother that fear became a terrifying reality when a routine procedure put her baby’s life at risk.

Kaashifah Kopp gave birth to a healthy baby boy in May, 2023. Unaware of the tragic incident that was waiting to unfold, she booked a circumcision procedure with a doctor, but just a week before the scheduled date, she was informed that the doctor had passed away. Panicked, she searched for another doctor and was referred to Dr J van der Merwe at Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital.

“When I spoke to the receptionist, she assured me that the doctor is a new urologist who is highly recommended and great at his job. The assurance gave me hope that my son’s procedure would go the right way.

“The procedure was scheduled, but on the day, the hospital was experiencing load-shedding, and the doctor seemed rushed. I was instructed to leave the room but when I heard my son screaming in agony I rushed back inside. The doctor had performed the circumcision but there was so much blood, and my son could not stop crying,” Kopp said.

Despite her concerns, the doctor’s assistant assured her that everything was normal. However, she noticed that her baby still had excess skin, and she began to suspect that something was wrong.

“My son was bleeding excessively for seven days, and when I took him back to the hospital the doctor told me that such outcomes are normal, especially for infants,” Kopp adds.

It wasn’t until she consulted with another doctor that the true extent of the alleged negligence became clear. The second doctor examined the baby and revealed that the original circumcision had not been performed correctly, and the baby would need to undergo the procedure again from scratch. She took her son to a second doctor on February 13 where the procedure went smoothly.

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Additionally, after sharing her traumatic experience on Facebook, more parents came forward and expressed similar experiences with the same doctor. Eight mothers shared their horrific experiences with the same doctor.
Michelle Holmes and Tasmin Naidoo shared that after their first circumcision with Van der Merwe, they too experienced the same trauma with their sons. According to Holmes, after a week of treating their son’s circumcision, they noticed that their son started developing an infection caused by the excess skin popping over the head of their son’s genitalia.

Her son was unable to urinate as white discharge was coming out of the child’s genitals. Tasmin shared that, after her son’s procedure, she treated her son as she was told, but she too was noticing that something was wrong. She adds that she called the hospital each day indicating that she has to keep pushing her son’s skin back onto his genitalia for it to look circumcised.

It was later confirmed by the second doctor that Van der Merwe did not cut off all the tissue on the skin from the child’s genitals. According to Adri Botes, the hospital manager at Life Wilgeheuwel, the hospital is aware of the Facebook posts made by Kopp on February 17 sharing an unpleasant experience of her son’s circumcision which took place in the doctor’s rooms. Botes adds that Dr Van der Merwe is responding to the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s (HPCSA) investigation.

“As an independent practitioner, he is regulated by the HPCSA. We understand that circumcision is a delicate procedure and can be distressing for parents to witness. At this stage, no determination by the HPCSA suggests malpractice. These allegations are under investigation by the HPCSA, to which Life Healthcare awaits the outcome.”