Circumcision gone wrong can be disastrous. Either the boy who went through the ritual dies or he loses his penis through amputation.

However, there's hope in the future for the victims as South African doctors have made a breakthrough in successfully doing the first penis transplant. The nine-hour operation saw a boy who's genitalia had been severed badly get a new organ.

The official press release by Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch indicates that the activity was done last year as part of a pilot project by both institutions.

"This is a very serious situation. For a young man of 18 or 19 years the loss of his penis can be deeply traumatic," Andre van der Merwe, the head of the university's urology unit and the lead in the operation told the press.

The donor of the organ was a deceased who gave out his penis.