Two-day-old boy killed after getting circumcised without anesthetic, doctor charged

The doctor who fatally injected narcotics into a two-day-old boy instead of an anesthetic has been criminally charged.

Orange County prosecutors have charged Dr. Hong-An Jan with a felony count of involuntary manslaughter after botching the February 2024 circumcision of Charles Wang, a newborn, at his clinic in Garden Grove.

He has had his medical license suspended pending his case’s resolution and pleaded not guilty on Feb. 19 to the felony charge. Jan is set for a pre-trial hearing in court on May 1.

Jan had guided and cared for the baby’s mother when she gave birth, and suggested the circumcision.

During the procedure, he allegedly injected Charles with Demerol, a narcotic painkiller, instead of Xylocaine, a local anesthetic, and performed the circumcision.

His parents then took the baby home, where Charles refused feedings and appeared lethargic. The baby’s parents, Yiqi Wang and Hongyu Lu, said Jan told them the symptoms were “normal and not cause for concern.”

Concerned, the parents took him back to Jan’s clinic. He reassured them again that the symptoms were normal, they claimed.

“Jan only ‘looked’ at [Charles] and reassured [his parents] that these symptoms were ‘normal’ post-circumcision reactions and advised them to return home,” a civil suit from the parents against Jan and South Coast Global Medical Center in Santa Ana claims. “He did not take any blood samples or order any laboratory studies, even though he observed the symptoms … symptomatic of opiate substances.”

The baby was found cold to the touch around 3 a.m. the next day. Charles died of bronchopneumonia due to acute Demerol intoxication, according to a coroner report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

A toxicology report revealed there was no local anesthetic in Charles’ system, but there were high levels of Demerol. Local anesthetic is commonly used during such procedures.

The Wangs were unaware of the toxicology findings until prosecutors filed charges against Jan this year.

They alleged that Jan misled them by saying he only used Lidocaine and hid the use of Demerol in medical records.

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Irvine Police Department Detective Brian Feeling claimed that Jan’s actions were “negligent and preventable,” in a court declaration.

Jan had told Feeling that he did have Demerol in his clinic but denied that he would’ve mixed it up with a local anesthetic.

The newborn’s parents are also suing Jan in civil court for wrongful death, medical malpractice and fraud.

A person at Jan’s office told The California Post that he had retired from medicine. He graduated from the National Taiwan University College of Medicine in 1967.

Circumcision deaths are rare. Just 100 babies die in the U.S. from the operation or associated complications.