A South Florida doctor almost killed a baby during circumcision, the state says
2024 UPDATE: The state’s Final Order on this case with the punitive action against Dr. Xie posted on May 6, 2024.
A Margate doctor caused a baby to turn blue, have a seizure and stop breathing during a circumcision, the Florida Department of Health said.
Dr. Donghua Xie gave the baby boy about twice as much pain medication as he should have, the department said in an administrative complaint filed March 1.
This complaint starts the disciplinary process against Xie. Records show no previous disciplinary actions on his Florida license, which he has had since May 6, 2016. The state says he also claims licensing in Michigan, Connecticut, Kentucky and Virginia.
After becoming a medical doctor in China in 2002, Xie did urology fellowships from 2010-2014 at Duke University Medical Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Weill Cornell Medical College in partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Detroit Medical Center.
Xie said in a reply email that the Herald’s email to him asking for comment on the state’s allegations had gone to his junk folder and he hadn’t seen it until Wednesday.
“I feel sad, even if other people told me that this kind of incident is not uncommon,” Xie’s email read. “We love this country and will still need to work hard and serve our patients better. We will apply for a hearing and hope the license can be maintained.”
Problems during circumcision
According to the complaint, the circumcision in question happened last May 25. Parents of 6-month-old K.H. brought him in to Xie’s Margate office for a “planned circumcision with lysis of penile adhesion.”
Massachusetts General Hospital explains that “A penile adhesion or skin bridge is a dense piece of skin seen in some males who have been circumcised. The skin forms a bridge fused to the head of his penis. Lysis of this bridge involves separating and removing the bridge of skin.”
K.H. weighed 8 kilograms (about 17.6 pounds). The complaint says after applying lidocaine cream to K.H.’s foreskin and scrotal skin, Xie “injected 8 ml of 2% lidocaine for penile nerve blocking and, circumferentially, the planned inciscion site.”
Later, the complaint says, Xie injected another 2 ml “for dorsal nerve blocking.”
The complaint says that’s when the problems began:
“Shortly thereafter, Patient K.H. turned blue, stopped breathing and began having a seizure. (Xie) and Patient K.H.’s father performed CPR on Patient K.H. until Margate Fire Rescue arrived.”
Margate Fire Rescue got the boy stabilized and took him to Northwest Medical Center.
The complaint says the “prevailing professional standard of care” of 4.5 mg per kilogram of injected lidocaine as a maximum meant K.H. should’ve received no more than 36 mg of lidocaine.
Xie, the complaint said, injected K.H. with between 140 to 160 mg of lidocaine.
Xie “fell below the minimum standard of care in his treatment of Patient K.H. by using approximately quadruple the recommended amount of 2% lidocaine solution injection on K.H. while performing a circumcision,” the complaint said.
The state calls that “medical malpractice.”
Correction: The original version of this story used the original administrative complaints incorrect statements of the child’s weight and how much lidocaine should’ve been used. The state later corrected its complaint.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:11 PM with the headline "A South Florida doctor almost killed a baby during circumcision, the state says."
