New York City Toddler Dies From Circumcision Operation

(NEW YORK, NY) — On Wednesday, May 4, 2011, Jamaal Coleson Jr. died after his parents brought him in for a circumcision procedure at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. He died one month before his 2nd birthday.

Jamaal's parents are blaming doctors for using general anasthesia instead of a local anasthetic. His parents were too distraught to speak publicly following the tragic death of their son. They refused to accept the hospital's offer to pay for Jamaal's funeral and are still demanding an explanation, according to the New York Post.

Jamaal's uncle, Jabbar Colseon, 23, spoke with the New York Post. After the operation, the boy "woke up and laughed and called for his mother and then went critical," Coleson says. "It took them four hours to get him into surgery. Then they couldn't find the doctor." Jamaal never regained consciousness, and was declared dead 10 hours later.

The results of an autopsy conducted by the hospital are "inconclusive," reports the New York Post.

"I don't want to see another family lose a child -- a happy child, a smart child, or any type of child without a reason," Coleson tells ABC News. "I don't want no one to go through that pain -- to cry every five minutes, to feel like you have to throw away all his things just to stop thinking about it."

Jamaal's parents were to be married next year. "We just don't understand what happened. Now my mother (Jamaal's grandmother) is out buying a suit for the funeral (instead of the wedding)," Coleson tells the Post.

Approximately 1.3 million routine circumcisions are performed on newborns in the United States each year (2010). A recent study estimates that 117 newborns die from circumcision each year.