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- Sep 30, 2011
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A Pennsylvania man won nearly $900,000 in court after a nightmare surgery ended up removing the wrong body part.
Of course, operating on the wrong side of the body, while not common, is far from unheard of in the medical community. The New York Times estimates that it happens as many as 2,700 times per year in the U.S. But what happened to Steven Hanes still makes one squirm.
You see, Hanes’ doctor, Dr. Valley Spencer Long, removed the wrong testicle.
According to PennLive.com, Hanes suffered from chronic pain in his right testicle for 15 years before consulting with Long, a 77-year-old urologist. Long recommended removing the testicle, while Hanes later claimed there were other treatment options available that were less invasive.
In surgery, it is not clear how Long mistook the healthy testicle from the other one, but he noted in a post-operative report that “it appeared” he may have made a mistake, per PennLive.com. Long told Hanes as much in a follow-up appointment.
As a result, Hanes’ attorney claimed in court, the 54-year-old Mount Union, Pennsylvania, man now suffers from a “debilitating” fear of receiving further treatment.
“Mr. Hanes is now forced to either live with the painful testicle or undergo treatment that could result in the loss of the remaining testicle, making him reliant on hormone therapy the rest of his life,” his lawyer, Braden Lepisto, said, per the Legal Intelligencer.
Read more here: He had chronic pain in his right testicle. His doctor mistakenly removed the left one
Would he have received a larger amount if the jury was all men?
Of course, operating on the wrong side of the body, while not common, is far from unheard of in the medical community. The New York Times estimates that it happens as many as 2,700 times per year in the U.S. But what happened to Steven Hanes still makes one squirm.
You see, Hanes’ doctor, Dr. Valley Spencer Long, removed the wrong testicle.
According to PennLive.com, Hanes suffered from chronic pain in his right testicle for 15 years before consulting with Long, a 77-year-old urologist. Long recommended removing the testicle, while Hanes later claimed there were other treatment options available that were less invasive.
In surgery, it is not clear how Long mistook the healthy testicle from the other one, but he noted in a post-operative report that “it appeared” he may have made a mistake, per PennLive.com. Long told Hanes as much in a follow-up appointment.
As a result, Hanes’ attorney claimed in court, the 54-year-old Mount Union, Pennsylvania, man now suffers from a “debilitating” fear of receiving further treatment.
“Mr. Hanes is now forced to either live with the painful testicle or undergo treatment that could result in the loss of the remaining testicle, making him reliant on hormone therapy the rest of his life,” his lawyer, Braden Lepisto, said, per the Legal Intelligencer.
Read more here: He had chronic pain in his right testicle. His doctor mistakenly removed the left one
Would he have received a larger amount if the jury was all men?
