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A 2-year-old boy who was supposed to undergo a “minimal operation” was “castrated” when doctors accidentally operated on the wrong testicle, his family says.
The boy was treated for an undescended testicle at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children in the United Kingdom. But doctors told the family that they put a camera into “the wrong side” — the healthy gonad — rendering him infertile, BBC News reported on Friday.
“I was very distressed. It was an awful disaster for a simple operation. They destroyed everything and they ruined my son,” his father said. “They castrated him and now my son’s future life has dramatically changed.”
Undescended testicles are uncommon in babies but can be easily corrected with laparoscopic surgery by moving the testicle into the scrotum and stitching it in place, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The problem was detected during a routine checkup, the boy’s father said.
The family was told the operation would take about 30 minutes and had “minimal risk.”
“We were waiting and waiting,” said the dad, who was not named to protect his son’s identity. “After two and a half hours the manager, surgeons and consultants they came and I knew something was not right. Me and my wife started panicking, they called us into the office and told us things didn’t go right and the operation wasn’t a success.”
The boy’s mother said she’s so distraught, she has “no more tears” left to cry.
“They broke my heart and they basically destroyed his future,” she said.
“As soon as our staff members realized what had happened, they met with the family, told them what happened, and apologized again at that point,” a hospital spokesperson said. “I would like to reiterate that we take patient safety extremely seriously here and also the quality of our clinical care.”
The UK’s National Health System estimated that one in 25 boys are born with undescended testicles. The universal health care system said surgery to correct the condition was “relatively straightforward” with a good success rate.