LI Dad Says Infant Son Is Fighting For His Life In NYC Hospital After A Botched Circumcision

[Sugar Cookie]

A Long Island dad says what should have been a routine circumcision for his newborn son in a New York City hospital has left the little guy fighting for his life.

Cole Jordan Groth was born on March 31 at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital — although he was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease, he was otherwise healthy — and scheduled to go home with his parents to meet his 2-year-old big brother at their Long Island house in Lake Grove on April 16.

Two days prior, the doctors called Tim Groth and his wife, Gabrielle, asking if they wanted to have their son circumcised, and what transpired turned into a “parent’s worst nightmare,” Groth, 35, told The Post on Monday.

Within a few hours of the common procedure, the infant nearly bled to death, started having seizures and suffered damage to multiple organs, the dad said.

When his wife came to the hospital to go over her son’s discharge the next day on April 15, she discovered the baby boy was “pale, screaming and despondent,” Groth said.

Over the next 10 days, Cole had to receive blood transfusions daily and had multiple surgeries — including one on his stomach, since parts of his intestines had failed due to the blood loss.

The boy, who remains in critical condition, was put on a respirator, given pain medications, has a colostomy bag to go to the bathroom and is receiving all his nutrition intravenously, Groth said.

“He looks like he’s been through war,” the dad added. “He’s pale, vascular … you see the hole in his stomach for the ostomy bag. Part of me is really angry.

“All of it was so avoidable and so unnecessary. Part of me is really sad. My son is obviously suffering … you wouldn’t wish this on your worst enemy.”

The father filed a grievance with the hospital searching for answers.

He explained that his son’s bleeding was discovered by a nurse around 2:30 a.m. April 15 but it wasn’t until after 5 a.m. that blood work was finally ordered. And the attending doctor wasn’t notified until 8:30 a.m., during a shift change, about what was happening.

“They failed to stop the bleeding and failed to identify and diagnose how much blood he lost,” he said. “You can’t go from a circumcision to a baby nearly bleeding to death and have done things the right way.”

Baby Cole faces a long road to recovery.

He’s expected to remain in the cardiac neonatal intensive care unit for months as doctors hope to eventually perform another surgery to reconnect his intestines so they can remove the colostomy bag.

And there have been some positive signs — the baby hasn’t required a blood transfusion in several days. But his parents are still bracing for any long-term implications.

“I spent my time crying,” Groth said. “I’ve gotten to the point now where I have to deal with it. Now it’s a lifetime of we have to figure out what’s the next complication.”

Read complete article here

LI dad says infant son is fighting for his life in NYC hospital after a botched circumcision: ‘He looks like he’s been through war’

A Long Island dad says what should have been a routine circumcision for his newborn son has left the infant fighting for his life for weeks in a New York City hospital.

nypost.com

Here is the link to the family's gofundme.

On March 31st at 10.17am our son Cole Jordan Groth was born into the Cardiac Nicu at Columbia with CHD. After getting a PDA stent and being one of the healthiest babies on the floor, Cole was set for discharge Wednesday 4/16/2025. On Monday 4/14 at around 11pm Cole was Circumcised. Between 2am-9.30am Cole nearly bled to death. Cole Bled so much that he suffered Kidney damage, liver damage, neurological damage, had seizures, and worse intestinal damage. After what seemed like 3 days of recovery today at 4am we received a call from Columbia notifying us that part of our son Cole’s intestines died (NEC) and that they called in the surgeon for emergency surgery. After cutting him open they found 5 segments of his intestines had died and turned black and that there was feces throughout his abdomen. They proceeded to cut out the dead intestines and identified several other areas in the intestines that might die. Cole now sits in ICU left cut wide open, with countless tubes, medications, fluids, etc, helping us cling to the hope that he might live. Words can only touch the surface of the pain Cole, My wife, our family and I feel physically and emotionally from this. As a society we need to do better we need to stand up for a change. How can a licensed medical providers can “lose track” of a Cardiac ICU baby, not act with an abundance of caution, and ultimately cause the potential death of a child, and somehow be right back at work the next day like nothing happened? Where is the accountability in poor medicine? 5 years later when a lawsuit settles that’s accountability? The people responsible for decisions impacting life and death in our healthcare community need to be the most thoughtful and capable decision makers this country has, and yet we have a situation here that you wouldn’t even expect in a third world country from one of the “best” hospitals in the country. When are we going to say enough is enough? We all need to come together and demand change. We need to demand accountability in medicine and we can make Cole’s life meaningful by coming together around his story. Many people have reached out offering prayer and support, asking what they can do to help. All we ask is that Coles story is heard and that we as a community do our best to make changes. Therefore I want this post to go Viral, I want the news to cover it, and I want a wave of momentum that forces decision makers to listen. There is no place for carelessness in medicine in our country. Could you imagine scheduling your son’s circumcision and possibly having him die? We don’t want any other families or babies to experience the pain and heartbreak we are going through

Here is what we know about Coles care the night and early morning following his Circumcision:

11pm - circumcision

12-2am diaper checked 2x no bleeding

2.30am diaper full of blood, stool, urine, so full that it had leaked onto the sheets and his leg. This diaper weighed significantly more than any diaper he ever had before. Nurse informs NP who did circumcision and attending. NP comes and rewraps penis with steri-strips. No blood work is ordered, no labs are ordered.

3am- resident observed him at bedside noticed more bleeding and orders thrombin a coagulant which is applied at 3.30am

4am- penis is still slowly dripping blood

5am- Cole is pale and his temperature has dropped below acceptable levels.

5.15am blood work is ordered

5.40am blood is drawn

6.30am bloodwork comes back and his hematocrit has dropped from mid 30s to low 20s.

6.30am-7.10am an Np tried 4 times to put a line in but isn’t successful because he can’t get access due to the amount of blood loss

7.10am- 2 more people tried to put a line in adding up to a total 9 times without success.

Change of shift happens.

8.15am my wife Gabby arrives with anticipation of reviewing discharge and care procedures. They allow Gabby back to Cole where no one is trying to place a line or anything. They are actually looking for blankets because he is so cold. My wife wraps him in blanket she brought for discharge.

8.20am-8.30am the attending that is taking over the shift (night attending was never notified of the situation just the resident) sees Cole is despondent, Pale, and crashing. They ask my wife Gabby to leave.

8.45am they intubate Cole

9.15-9.30am a central line is placed by anesthesia and 40ml/kilo of blood is transfused “urgently”. Babies his age have typically 80-90ml/kilo of blood.

Our questions?

Why was blood not ordered at 2.30am?

When they noticed his temperature dropped at 5am and he looked pale, why was a central line not established before bleeding nearly to death? (HE WAS CRITICAL AT 5AM!)

Why wasn't an EPOC done sooner?

Is this the type of stuff we want to start happening regularly in our country?

We are living a nightmare, all we ask is that if you can't donate anything please share our story and help make Coles life meaningful and purposeful.

Donate to Support Cole Jordan Groth's Fight for Life, organized by Timothy Groth

Update 4/20/2025 Baby Cole is continuing to bleed and need transfusions so… Timothy Groth needs your support for Support Cole Jordan Groth's Fight for Life

www.gofundme.com

$64,242 has been raised - I hope the hospital covers any cost that the insurance does not.

 

[elmgems]

All for a barbaric cosmetic procedure

 

[BuffettGirl]

That's a lot of trauma for a bitty with a heart condition!

 

[DamagedGoods]

I do not understand why circumcision is still a thing.

 

[cubby]

Part of me is really angry.

ALL of me would be very very angry and I would own that fucking hospital!

I didn't chose to have my older son circumcised, but later on it needed to be done, I did everything they told me to do, stretch the skin daily, but the foreskin tightened up and wouldn't stretch out, the head of his penis was trapped behind it. He was 10 months old and with all the aggro that went with it for his age, I wish I had done it when he was born.

It just feels weird to be talking about my 45 year old son's foreskin.