Botched circumcision: ‘I don’t want to lose my penis'

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Cape Town - A Kreefgat man is afraid he’ll lose his manhood after a voluntary circumcision apparently went wrong. Wesley Herbert, 26, says he is in so much pain he can hardly walk after the Sactwu Worker’s Health Programme (SWHP) offered the procedure to residents in their area. “In May, people were walking in our area with clipboards explaining the importance of circumcision and we were about 30 men and boys who agreed and signed up. I got my date for 26 May,” he explains. “They explained the procedure and then I got injected. After the injection I could feel all the pain when they started cutting. “It was a bad pain, like a stab wound, and on May 30 is when my problems started.”

“All of a sudden my penis started swelling. I couldn’t walk at all. I was crying because of the pain I was in. I went back and the doctors injected me again, removed the stitches and it was worse than the operation itself.

“I had to go for dressing and when the bandages came off, the skin [of my penis] came off.

“I looked and there was a hole in the back of my penis.

“Dit het gelyk my penis wil af val, dit het so aan die een kant gehang (It looked like my penis was about to fall off, it was hanging to the one side). I don’t want to lose my penis,” Wesley says.

He believes it is has gone septic and regrets ever going for the circumcision.

“Ek is baie spyt(I really regret this). I am not going to just leave things like this. I can’t even walk properly anymore.

“I could not go work for over two weeks. I want that clinic to close down.

“I don’t want anyone else going there, I would advise people to not go at all. I was rushed to hospital because of my high blood pressure because ek worry oor wat kan gebeur met my(I worry about what could happen to me).”

SWHP Project Director, Rudi de Koker, says they can’t comment on the matter but urged Wesley to contact the clinic.

“SWHP is bound by client confidentiality and hence cannot discuss the specifics of any particular individual with anyone outside of our own programme,” said De Koker.

“That said, we are not aware of any of our clients who are experiencing challenges such as those described. We would strongly encourage the individual to contact the facility where he underwent the procedure.

“SWHP takes any adverse event very seriously and should the client identify themselves to our clinical staff as the complainant, we would immediately ensure that our medical adviser follows up on the case until the matter has been completely resolved.”

The Western Cape Health did not respond to queries.

Daily Voice