A Queens toddler died this week after a routine circumcision -- a tragedy his family thinks was the result of the wrong analgesic.
Hospital officials say it "could take weeks" to get results of an autopsy for the 2-year-old boy, Jamaal Coleson Jr.
A spokesman from the medical examiner's office told NBC New York that an initial autopsy was inconclusive and that the baby's remains are "pending further testing," which could take weeks. But Coleson's family wants answers sooner.
"I want to know what happened," the boy's uncle, Jabbar Coleson, 23, told the New York Post from his hometown of Atlanta. "He was so sweet and energetic and so happy, a very happy child. I am very upset and I am glad I am a couple of hundred miles away. I have time to calm down and say my prayers."
Coleson Jr. died on Tuesday, just 10 hours after what the boy's uncle called a routine procedure at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan.
Jabbar Coleson told the paper that his nephew was supposed to receive a local analgesic but instead received a general. The child "woke up and laughed and called for his mother and then went critical." He was declared dead later that night at 8:35 p.m.
In a statement, the hospital said it reported the case as an "unexpected death" to the state Department of Health, and will conduct an internal review.
"This is a devastating event for his family as well as for the staff at Beth Israel who tried to save his life," the statement read.
