Holden Gothia news from yesterday

[Hash (imported)]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ocialLinks

Looks like a great kid, wish him well.

[JesusA (imported)]

Here is the text of the article linked by Hash. There are several photographs and a short video on the Daily Mail web site.

Castrated by his own drug addict mother at five weeks old, staggering courage of the boy scarred for life... but who just keeps on fighting

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search. ... l+Reporter)

Mail Online

18 June 2012

Five years ago, five-week-old Holden Gothia was sleeping inside the suburban Houston apartment he shared with his parents when he was castrated by his own mother who was high on drugs.

Katherine Nadal claimed the family dog tore off her son’s genitals but a jury found her guilty and she was sentenced to 99 years in prison in August 2009.

Doctors said Holden faced years of surgeries and counselling but, today, the boy acts like a typical five-year-old, playing football, singing and running around with his older brothers.

He has had a number of medical issues and has undergone surgery on his left foot after his mother's attack left him with a severed artery, but, for now, Holden is unaware of the true extent of his injuries.

‘I think in his mind, genitals are something he gets when he gets older and the response to that comment is, “you're exactly right, you will, when you're older,” which is not untrue,’ Patches DeShazo, his paternal aunt and legal guardian, told Fox News (http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/18743 ... -for-child).

‘The physical part can be fixed, it's the emotional part that I do worry about the most,’ she added.

To raise money for Holden’s future reconstructive surgery and his growing medical expenses, the ‘Heroes for Holden Foundation (http://heroesforholden.org/)’ held a benefit concert on June 10. Last year, the same gig raised more than $240,000.

Holden, who played the drums at the event, was excited about the party, even though he did not know why it was being held.

The boy lost half the blood in his nine pound body during the mutilation but his severed body parts were never found.

'[He has] a lot of scar tissue, he looks as though he's been severely burned in the genital area, so it's that type of scar tissue,' DeShazo said.

Authorities say his mother, who had prior drug arrests, tested positive for cocaine, methadone and Xanax after the attack.

After Nadal's sentence was announced, DeShazo read a victim impact statement in the courtroom.

'I am thankful by the time you are eligible for parole you will be beyond childbearing years. It makes me crazy to this very day to hear you say I did not hurt him,' DeShazo said, according to the Associated Press.

Her remarks prompted Nadal to yell back from the table where she sat with her defense attorneys: 'I failed him. I did not hurt him.'

The boy's father, Camden Gothia, who has regular contact with his son, then stood up and yelled to Nadal: 'You abused him when he was in the womb,' a reference to Nadal having taken drugs when she was pregnant with Holden.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ocialLinks

Downloaded: 19 June 2012

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

He certainly won't have to worry about whether to tell people about his injuries or not,

everyone on earth knows.

[Cainanite (imported)]

Makes me wonder.

If everyone already knows about his injuries and scars, what will the point be of all the cosmetic surgeries he'll have to go through in the future?

Here's my (biased) logic. You would generally have those surgeries to look more "normal" to others. It is not as though what will be built for him will ever be functional. He would neither be able to produce viable sperm, nor would he be able to feel anything through such a cosmetic appendage. It seems to me that the whole point of it would be to merely look normal, and fit in in a communal locker room.

As his secret is already out there, what's the point?

I'd hate to see the little guy suffer through years of painful surgeries for no real point.

I guess I wouldn't be so concerned if the Aunt/mother of the boy said she was raising the money should he decide later on to undergo the surgeries. If the boy chooses for himself to go through all that suffering to look normal, then I can get behind the whole idea. If they are subjecting him to the surgeries before he can fully understand what it would mean, then I think it is another kind of child abuse stacked on top of what he has already endured.

At this point, he doesn't know life with genitalia. Cosmetic surgeries to form him new ones will be extremely invasive and painful. We already know what will be made for him will not be functional in the same way as what he lost. He could essentially have the same results from a bit of extra padding at the front of his shorts, and a private changing stall.

Maybe I'm completely off base on this.

[Paolo]

I've been thinking about this too, since I read it last night, and I agree with Cainanite.

There isn't any sexual fantasy involved here, not by any leap of the imagination. Personally, I could tear this woman to pieces with my bare hands and not feel a bit of guilt. Archive fantasy is one thing, but this is reality. Sickening reality.

As the story states, right now, the boy knows about genitals, knows that he doesn't have them, but believes that he will get them in the future. From the way this story and the others read, it seems that the boy believes that it's perfectly fine to attach genitals later on when one is older. I am not sure that I go along with this belief. It's hard enough explaining to my 3.5 year old grand-godson why I have some hair on my chest and belly when he doesn't. I certainly can't envy the guardians' position in this one. That, and he's already endured the pain and ordeal of having his left ankle/foot operated on. Perhaps later on, when he's a bit older, they can explain that he'll have that same pain from being "worked on" in his already scarred (story) groin. That's IF they don't start up with the procedure of genital construction so early.

I mean, as Cainanite said, what are they going to attach? Are they going to do some oddball stem cell research and grow him a penis on the back of a mouse? If that worked, and he wanted it later on, hey I'm all for it, though. IF and only IF the BOY decides on it.

But...this also leads us back - in reverse format, oddly enough - to the age old discussion of "how old is old enough" to decided on something like genital surgery? Castration? No, undoing castration this time. Different side of the coin.

As I said, I don't envy the guardians in this matter at all!

I just hope they aren't shoving the "normal" thing down his throat and leading him up the garden path that ends in a patch of thistles and nettles!

[Losethem (imported)]

This is something that each individual must decide for themselves (if on a non-medical need basis) or have done because it is medically necessary. This child had it forced upon them because of the drug induced problems of his mother. I hope she rots in jail.

I wanted to be a eunuch, this child didn't have the choice.

--LT

[Cainanite (imported)]

I remember watching the documentary on intersexed children, and watching the interviews with the grown up sufferers of unwanted surgeries.

Almost all of them would have preferred to have been left alone to make the decision for themselves. One of the men described all the painful surgeries to "repair" his penis to make it look normal. It left him scarred, suffering from recurring infections, and he still didn't have a "normal" penis. Surgery after surgery, pain on top of humiliation, and no one ever chose to explain to him why all this was necessary. He suffered child abuse of the worst sort, all in the name of making him like everyone else.

I think this has the makings of turning out much the same way.

I too think the birth mother of Holden should rot in jail for the rest of her days. What she did was horrendous, and unforgivable. What I'm looking at now, is what the Aunt is doing with the boy.

I would argue that the boy should be allowed to make the decision of whether to go on hormones to trigger puberty or not. He should also be allowed to make the decisions about reconstructive surgery or not, when he is old enough to understand the implications.

Maybe when he is 12 or 13, and can have the situation explained to him in a way he'll understand, he'll be ready to make the choice. Maybe later, maybe earlier. He should not be subjected to those surgeries until he can understand and consent. Inflicting the pain and suffering of unnecessary operations is cruel, especially when it is on a little boy, who is still waiting for the genital fairy, to make a penis grow in the night.

The poor kid has some harsh realities coming to him. I feel terrible for him. He should never have gone through this horror in the first place.

My concern now, is minimizing his pain. Don't compound the abuse he has already suffered, by adding a torture of a different kind.

If he consents, when he is old enough, then I support whatever he chooses. Maybe in the future they can grow him new equipment on the back of a mouse.

If he's too young to understand what is happening to him, then I am against the idea.

Whatever happens, I know I'll be interested in seeing where the boy is 10 years from now. I hope he gets a happy resolution to his story (if such a thing is even possible.)

[Hash (imported)]

The Chinese did do a penis transplant and in my mind that would be the best for Holden, a real penis versus a made up one from arm tissue. I'm wondering how much was removed, is there any remnant left? Stump? He doesn't need testicles, not really, but it should ultimately be his decision and he should be able to make that on his own. What would you do? Puberty means he'll have to be given large doses of testosterone, but will he want that? I suppose he would to keep up with his male peers, but what do I know? What a dilemma. Echo's back to the boy who had his penis burnt off and then was turned into a girl.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dr-money ... -no-penis/ Ultimately this boy committed suicide. Sad.

[transward (imported)]

This is an very difficult situation. Before the sexologist, Milton Diamond revealed the real outcome of the Dr Money/Davod Reimer surgery, standard operating procedure in a case like this would have been to assign him as female and raise him accordingly. From the 70's when Money first publicized the case till '97 when Diamond blew the whistle, there were quite a few cases following these procedures. Money based his actions on sound mechanical principles. As one of the US's top SRS surgeons explained it, "It's much easier to make a hole than a pole." The chances of becoming a sexually functioning female were much greater than of becoming a genitally functioning male. Unfortunately he vastly underestimated the psychological problems.. It was bad science to base a standard procedure on one case, but it is probably equally bad science to completely abandon it on basis of one bad outcome. I have tried repeatedly to find out how some of the others who had their sex changed as infants turned out, but they seem to have disappeared into society; I suspect that at least some of them worked out well. If they all had bad outcomes, I think the publicity about the case would have brought some of them into the news to corroborate Reimer. Clearly the way Money handled the case was unethical, bordering on (or crossing the line) into child sexual abuse, trying to coach very young children on sexual roles, multiple early surgeries, concealing what was done to him. But I am not sure the idea of raising these children as female is entirely wrong either. There were two different things going on in the Reimer case, the gender assignment, and the early, non-consenting surgery. Holden seems to realize that at this time he is different than other boys, but seems to have adopted an identity as a boy. I think, at a very early age it would be appropriate to tell him that, while most people are stuck with the sex they were born with, he has a choice and that about the age of 13 -14 he can choose his sex. From conversations with inter-sex people, it seems the thing they resent the most is that they were given no choice in the matter.

And is anyone else bothered by the publicity surrounding this case. It was after all a particularly vicious sexual attack on a very young child. Normally the media does not publish the names of child sex victims. Now you have an entire nation speculating about the sexuality of a 4 or 5 year old child, which seems very inappropriate and rather creepy. Money, for all his sins, kept Reiner's identity secret until Reimer was old enough to chose for himself to reveal his situation. If this poor kid decides to take a boy to the prom, it's likely to make the national news, "Boy without Penis Gay??" That is not fair to the child.

Transward

[fhunter]

And is anyone else bothered by the publicity surrounding this case. It was after all a particularly vicious sexual attack on a very young child. Normally the media does not publish the names of child sex victims. Now you have an entire nation speculating about the sexuality of a 4 or 5 year old child, which seems very inappropriate and rather creepy. Money, for all his sins, kept Reiner's identity secret until Reimer was old enough to chose for himself to reveal his situation. If this poor kid decides to take a boy to the prom, it's likely to make the national news, "Boy without Penis Gay??" That is not fair to the child.

Transward

Yes, it really bothers me. On many levels. Be it ethics of such publicity or opening him to bullying etc. I have no illusions about children's cruelty towards the ones who are different for any reasons.