A Pennsylvania Rabbi is being sued for severing the penis of a baby boy during a circumcision gone awry.
Jewish Rabbi Mordechai Rosenberg, 54, was performing a bris, a traditional Jewish circumcision, on April 28 at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. During the ritual circumcision he accidentally severed the 8-day-old boy's penis, according to the parent's lawsuit obtained by Trib Total Media. The parents witnessed the event.
The baby's injury was so "catastrophic and life-changing" that he was rushed to Children's Hospital where he received microsurgery and leech therapy.
Carrie Sorenson, a clinical pharmacist at St. Alexius Medial Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, told Trib Total Media that leeches are used to help the body accept reattached limbs by increasing blood flow.
According to CBS Pittsburgh, the microsurgery took eight hours. The boy also had six blood transfusions and was hospitalized for two months, but doctors said the reattachment was a success.
Rosenberg is a "Certified Mohel by the American Board of Ritual Circumcision," the Rabbi's website says. "A Mohel is specially trained in the medical and surgical techniques of circumcision."
However, Mohels are not approved by a government body because a circumcision is classified as a religious ceremony and not a medical procedure, Trib Total Media reported.
"This is pretty much unregulated," attorney David Llewellyn, who handles botched circumcision cases, told Trib Total Media. "There's virtually no regulation of this any place in the United States that I know of," he said. "I think the government probably should require some sort of training if this is going to be done."
Llewellyn also said that injuries during circumcisions are extremely rare. The identities of the baby and his parents are not specified in the lawsuit.
"I am trained in this," Rosenberg told CBS. He said what happened to the boy was a "tragic accident" and a "horrible situation."
Rosenberg said he still performs circumcisions.
