Victims of botched circumcisions wait for penis donors

Six South African men, all victims of circumcisions gone wrong, are ready and waiting to receive penis transplants — but they need donors to come forward.

Professor André van der Merwe, who performed the world’s first penis transplant in December last  year, said the Western Cape health department recently provided approval for another procedure to take place. A single operation and one month’s post-op treatment costs R300, 000.

However, the men will have to wait because donors have not yet been found.

Apart from the six men — who have all undergone psychological screening and have been approved for surgery — six others are in the process of being screened.

“We don’t have a next patient, so to speak. For the moment I’ll only pick from the six. We also need a potential donor. Then we do screening for blood typing ... and will consider a recipient according to blood type first.

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“Let’s say, for example, that the donor is blood type A, and three of the recipients are blood type A, we eliminate the other three. Then we will look at tissue typing. This is just to minimise any risk and to make sure the transplant is successful,” said Van der Merwe, head of  Stellenbosch University’s urology division.

After the procedure — which takes about nine hours — the recovery process requires absolute dedication from the recipient, who is expected to take a daily dose of various medications. Recipients are also expected to report to doctors every week. If they fail to do so, the procedure could be rendered useless.

However, this was not a factor when it came to the world’s first penis transplant recipient.

The man, who has not been named, underwent the nine-hour operation at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town last year when he was 21. Three years earlier, his penis had to be amputated after his traditional circumcision went badly wrong.

Van der Merwe described the man, now 22, as the “perfect patient” — he never missed an appointment, always took his medicines and remains in constant contact with his medical team.

“Anyone under the age of 25, for any type of transplant, is at risk of not complying with their medication regime or follow-up appointments. But not this guy. He has been diligent. I see him virtually every week and he’s really doing very well,” said Van der Merwe.

It was announced earlier this year that the man’s girlfriend was pregnant.

“Last week when I spoke to him, everything was going really well with the pregnancy. She is about six  months along now, and he is absolutely delighted. He always has a big smile on his face. He’s a very decent young guy and very thankful for what we’ve done.

“It’s a completely different life he’s leading now. He’s managed to get a permanent job, with benefits — which he didn’t have. His confidence has grown. The big difference is that he isn’t ashamed of his genitalia any more,” said Van der Merwe.

The current situation, according to Van der Merwe, was about ensuring that more of these procedures could take place so that more men’s lives could be turned around.