Man given vasectomy by mistake

[954Stealth]

--- How mad would you be?? ---

A man has been mistakenly given a vasectomy by medics who were supposed to be performing a "minor procedure" on him , a hospital has admitted.

The patient, who has not been named, went to the Royal Liverpool Hospital for a minor urological operation but was wrongly made sterile by a blundering surgeon.

Medics tried to reverse the error but it is not known whether the reversal was successful .

Health bosses at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust said they have apologised "unreservedly" to the patient.

They said an internal investigation into the incident has been launched and the responsible surgeon has been suspended from carrying out operations pending the result.

An operation conducted on the wrong body part is classed as a "never event" by health officials. The incidents are regarded by the Government as so serious they should never happen. Between April and September last year there were 148 such incidents recorded by NHS England.

A vasectomy is a minor operation, where the tubes that carry sperm from a man's testicles to the penis are cut, blocked or sealed. It is possible for a vasectomy to be reversed but the success rate is around 55%.

NHS guidance states: " Even if a surgeon manages to join up the vas deferens tubes again, pregnancy may still not be possible. This is why you should be certain before going ahead with the vasectomy."

Dr Peter Williams, medical director of the Trust, said: "We can confirm that a patient who was scheduled to have different minor urological procedure was wrongly given a vasectomy.

"We greatly regret the distress that this has caused him. We have apologised unreservedly to the patient and we are offering him our full support.

"It is our duty, in the best interests of the patient, to uphold their confidentiality, therefore we cannot provide any further detail without their agreement.

"This is a serious incident and we are investigating this fully to understand why it occurred and how we can ensure it does not happen again. We take any incident such as this extremely seriously and report them at the highest level in the Trust and to our regulators.

"Since this incident, the surgeon has not been carrying out any operations, pending the findings of the investigation. In addition we are carrying out routine checks on compliance with the WHO checklist and our surgical teams are compliant."

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2014, All Rights Reserved.

[MikeyV]

Not as bad as the guy who went into hospital a few weeks back in the US, they removed his entire penis.

[UncleWede]

He approved when the nurse drew the X on his scro. . .

[2011CrazE89]

Staff meeting

[P1]

NHS? No surprise there.

[954Stealth]

I hope the doctor gets sacked

[stimpy]

What a bone head mistake.

[954Stealth]

When he told his wife she said;
"No, baby!"

[KingOfJericho]

I've had a bunch of procedures and every single time, without fail, they asked no less than five times what my name is and what procedure I am having done that day.

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

I've had a bunch of procedures and every single time, without fail, they asked no less than five times what my name is and what procedure I am having done that day.

Same here..... and i still self mark my limbs with *DO NOT CUT* when going in! Although i wouldn't have marked my balls. But that would have been welcome for me. I actually asked if they could do a little snip snip when i had my appendix taken out. No luck.

[finaloption]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Uber V8]

Larry H. Parker will get him $2.5M

[2011CrazE89]

Stupid dick

[Taskmaster]

I'd throw a huge fit, because I lack the testosterone do anything about it.

[m3ray]

This kind of thing happens a lot more than people think.

The law suit is bound to be tremendous.

Is a vasectomy reversible?

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by m3ray

This kind of thing happens a lot more than people think.

The law suit is bound to be tremendous.

Is a vasectomy reversible?

Do you mean reversible like give him a vagina?



(I'm joking of course)

[iatros]

As a US surgeon, it is hard to imagine how this could take place without gross negligence being involved. As mentioned above, we are required in most hospitals to mark the site of the surgery with the surgeons initials....and it has to be done by the surgeon, not a nurse or tech. Once we arrive to the OR, we have "time out" before proceeding, verifying the patient, type of surgery, antibiotics given, etc. They are classified as "never events" here in the states, and if it occurred, it's basically a blank check for the aggrieved party.

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by iatros

As a US surgeon, it is hard to imagine how this could take place without gross negligence being involved. As mentioned above, we are required in most hospitals to mark the site of the surgery with the surgeons initials....and it has to be done by the surgeon, not a nurse or tech. Once we arrive to the OR, we have "time out" before proceeding, verifying the patient, type of surgery, antibiotics given, etc. They are classified as "never events" here in the states, and if it occurred, it's basically a blank check for the aggrieved party.

Exactly. There are so many checks and balances that fault can not lie solely with the physician. Was the negligence the surgeon's or the OR staff who were prepping the patient and the room while the physician scrubbed in?

[iatros]

Well, in the US, they would likely sue the physician and the hospital. Even the poor anesthesiologist (who had little to do with it) would get dragged into the middle of it. At the end of the day, the surgeon will almost certainly be held responsible (rightfully so). But they would also get a huge payout not only from the insurance co of the surgeon, but also from the hospital system. Woof. Things like this (and retained foreign objects) always keep me hyper vigilant in the OR. However, they are extremely rare in occurrence (thankfully).

[954Stealth]

Thank God for 1m/3m

[pgviper]

The puns in this thread are priceless.

As @iatros stated, there should be absolutely NO WAY that this can happen. Yet somehow it does... Reminds me of the statefarm commercial about humans lol

[upstatedoc]

Serves the guy right for letting medics do his procedure.