Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Britain: A black midwife who caused a four-week-old baby to bleed to death in a botched home circumcision operation walked free from court

Grace Adeleye, 67, carried out the procedure on Goodluck Caubergs without anaesthetic, using only a pair of scissors, forceps and olive oil. The nurse, originally from Nigeria, had been paid £100 to perform the operation at the home in Chadderton, Greater Manchester, using a traditional African method known as clamp and cut. But it went drastically wrong leaving the child with a serious wound and causing him to bleed to death despite the efforts of doctors at Royal Oldham hospital to save him. Adeleye was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after a trial at Manchester Crown Court and was given a 21 month suspended jail term. Justice Keith Lindblom said that the boy's death had been wholly unneccesary. The court heard how Adeleye had set herself up as a mobile circumcision "clinic" for Christian parents - many who had no idea the simple procedure is available on the NHS. She had previously carried out 1,000 similar procedures in Nigeria and in Britain earned £100 a time for her legal "home ops" during which she would say traditional prayers. It emerged during the trial that up to three children a month are admitted to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital due to bleeding after home-based circumcisions. The case has led for calls for mobile circumcision clinics to be made illegal.

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