CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A newly circumcised eight-year-old boy was seriously injured after he fell onto a protruding cabilla (corrugated steel) beneath the stairs of his home in Barangay Punta Bonbon early Monday morning.

According to reports, the boy had just taken a bath in the sea and was stepping down from their house after changing clothes when he lost his footing and fell face-first onto the steel rod, which pierced his right abdomen and exited through his back.

Responding Oro Rescue personnel used a metal saw to cut the steel rod in order to extract the boy and rushed him to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center with the rod still lodged in his body.

The victim was undergoing surgery in the intensive care unit to remove the embedded steel, according to reports.

The boy’s grandmother said he was circumcised Sunday afternoon, and as part of the traditional practice, he was advised to wade in the sea and wear a skirt to prevent infection.