A British cancer patient is suing his hospital after doctors removed the wrong testicle in an operation last June.
The Salisbury Journal reports that the 48-year-old man, whose name has not been released, is suing Salisbury District Hospital and the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, as he fears he has become infertile due to the accident.
British tabloid Metro noted that, while surgeons realized their mistake and attempted to re-attach the healthy testicle, the surgery did not work.
The Daily Mail quoted the man as saying the botched procedure has caused "incredible stress and strain."
Metro contacted the Wiltshire Involvement Network, a patient watchdog group, which called the incident "tragic."
"With this type of operation men need confidence they can put their trust fully in the hospital," WIN chairman Phil Matthews said, per Metro.
Reached by the Salisbury Journal, a hospital spokesperson confirmed the hospital had received notice of the suit.
“This is a regrettable incident and the trust once again offers its sincere apologies to the patient," the spokesperson told the Salisbury Journal. "Remedial surgery took place at the time and the patient was informed straight after the completion of surgery of the situation and that additional surgery had taken place to rectify this.”
While unfortunate, these types of medical accidents are not as rare as you might think. The Associated Press reported that a U.S. Air Force veteran filed a similar suit against the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, after doctors removed his healthy right testicle, instead of his atrophied left one in 2007.
Similarly, doctors at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St. Edmunds, England, botched a testicular operation on a man in 2010, which resulted in the patient becoming infertile, according to The Independent.