Ashraf Helmi has said his son’s penis was amputated after a botched circumcision turned gangrenous (Picture: CEN/Getty)

A one-month-old has had to have his penis amputated after it turned gangrenous following a botched circumcision in Egypt.

The boy’s dad, Ashraf Helmi told local media he had gone to have his son Mohamed vaccinated at a medical centre when his family convinced him to have his son circumcised.

He said he agreed to let a nurse do the operation, because she claimed she was a doctor.

Local media reports have claimed the nurse carried out the circumcision to earn a 50-EGP (£2.40) bonus.


‘She did it at an emergency room and not an operation room. I made sure I was there because you hear of all the botched surgeries out there,’ Mr Helmi said.

Ashraf Helmi, the boy’s dad said the woman claimed she was a doctor (Picture: CEN)

‘After finishing, she fastened the gauze so tightly and when I told her it’s very rough for a small boy, she said, “I know what I’m doing!”‘



But when he noticed a swelling on his son’s penis, Helmi went for a follow-up appointment back at the Manti Medical Centre in northern Cairo.

He saw the woman again, but became suspicious after she allegedly told him to wait till she brought a ‘doctor’.

A few days later, Mohamed developed an infection and his father then rushed him to a different hospital where they had to amputate his penis due to the deadly infection.

Mr Helmi said he didn’t know what had happened in the operating room until someone told him: ‘Come take your daughter’.

The baby boy developed an infection and had to be rushed to another hospital (File picture: Getty)

Ministry of Health Deputy Minister, Hamdi al-Tabakh told local media that the nurse admitted she had gone through with the ill-fated surgery.

However, he said it was at the father’s house, not at the medical centre, a claim which the Mr Helmi denies.

The nurse has been detained and the case is being investigated.

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