Israel - Boy who lost consciousness after circumcision dies

A baby boy died in Holon on Friday morning after slipping into unconsciousness during a circumcision ceremony and was taken to the hospital in critical condition on Thursday.

The Chief Rabbinate and both chief rabbis sent their condolences to the family and told media they had been in close contact with both the mohel who had performed the circumcision and the hospital doctors who were trying to save the baby’s life despite his serious condition.

The rabbinate told Channel 2 that the doctors at Holon’s Wolfson Hospital were able to confirm that the boy’s life-threatening condition had been caused not by the circumcision itself, but by a preexisting medical condition.

Last Thursday, the eight-day-old infant had been undergoing the brit milah ritual at the Pinhas Lavon synagogue in Holon when he stopped breathing and lost pulse.

The family made desperate calls to Magen David Adom for an ambulance and to the Hazalah first response organization.

Medic Yehuda Mizrahi was first to arrive on the scene.

“When I arrived, the baby was completely blue, not breathing and with no pulse,” he told Channel 2, and described how he began resuscitation techniques, including massages to try to restart the boy’s vital systems. Finally an ambulance arrived and the infant was rushed to Wolfson hospital.