The Medical Council of Thailand has come to the defence of a male nurse at a clinic who mistakenly circumcised a boy who wanted to have an abscess in his mouth removed.
On Thursday, Rattanaporn Manaschuen, the mother of the 12-year-old boy, complained to the Public Health Ministry after her son was circumcised at a clinic in Samut Prakan’s Phra Pradaeng district on Monday. She said the boy actually went there for treatment of an abscess in his mouth.
Acting Medical Council president Somsak Lohlekha said it was a case of miscommunication.
Dr Somsak said the doctor at the clinic correctly diagnosed the boy with a mouth abscess and did nothing wrong. The doctor wrote ‘‘excision’’ on an order assigning the nurse to perform the operation.
But the male nurse confused ‘‘excision’’ with ‘‘circumcision’’ and proceeded to cut off the boy’s foreskin.
Dr Somsak said the mistake was unintentional.
He said the doctor was not to blame, although the matter would go before a council panel on medical ethics.
‘‘Usually, a circumcision is a minor operation and a doctor can assign a nurse to do it,’’ Dr Somsak said.
He said looking on the bright side, the accidental circumcision would help the boy keep his genitalia clean and lower the risk of cancer.