A four-week-old baby bled to death after a botched home circumcision by a nurse, a court heard today.Goodluck Caubergs died the day after nurse Grace Adeleye carried out the procedure without anaesthetic and using only a pair of scissors, forceps and olive oil, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The 66-year-old medic is originally from Nigeria, as are the youngster’s parents, where the circumcision of newborns is the tradition for Christian families, the jury heard.Adeleye, also a midwife, was paid £100 to do the operation as Goodluck’s parents were not aware the procedure was available on the NHS.
The Royal Oldham Hospital was just a mile and a half from the family home in Chadderton, near Oldham, but by the time an ambulance was called the child could not be saved.
Adeleye, of Sarnia Court, Salford, Greater Manchester,
denies manslaughter by gross negligence of the baby boy.
It is alleged she botched the procedure by leaving a
'ragged' wound that bled, and her post-op care was also woefully inadequate.
Adrian Darbishire QC, opening the case for the prosecution,
told the jury: 'The allegation essentially here is that the care she provided
in the course of that procedure was so bad that not only did it cause the death
of that young baby wholly unnecessarily, but it amounted to gross negligence
and a crime.'
Mr Darbishire said circumcisions were routinely carried out
among Christian families in Nigeria who brought the tradition with them to the
UK, and the procedure was an 'ancient, well established and widespread'
practice across the world.
But the court heard that up to three children a month are
admitted to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital due to bleeding after
home-based circumcisions - a danger the nurse should have been aware of.
Goodluck was born on March 22, 2010, in Rochdale and died on
April 17, the day after the circumcision, aged 27 days.
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