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Surgeon who cut off testicle in error struck off

The testicle was removed from the unnamed patient at a private hospital (the BMI Chiltern Hospital), which is located in Buckinghamshire, England, in April 2014. The hearing into the surgeon’s conduct has only just been completed.

In June 2016, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard that the surgeon Dr. Marwan Farouk, who was intending repair a hernia and remove a cyst on the epididymis (a tube that connects a testicle to a vas deferens), cut off a testicle in error. The surgeon then disposed of the testicle and failed to tell the patient the organ had been removed.

In fact, during a post-op consultation, Farouck apparently said to the patient: “You have a small right testicle but it won’t give you any problems.” The Daily Mail adds that Dr. Farouk wrote to the man’s personal doctor to say there had been some tissue damage, without advising either the patient or his physician that the testicle had been removed.

According to a report from the BBC, the assisting nurse told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal she had been told to “chuck it” (the testicle.) In the event it was the surgeon himself who threw away the patient’s right testicle into a medical waste bin. The bin was later incinerated.

The conclusion of the tribunal was that Dr. Farouk had acted in a misleading way and had behaved dishonestly. The surgeon has 28 days to appeal against the decision.

In response, Twitter user Tug Wilson (@tugw47) messaged: “Surely they missed a headline to say ‘Surgeon got the sack'”; whereas another wit, Peter Telford (@PeterTelford) tweeted: “Testicle removal surgeon Marwan Farouk struck off. Well, worse things than #Brexit I suppose” (the latter point being a reference to the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union.)

The incident related to an incident at a private health clinic and it doe snot reflect upon the U.K.’s National Health Service, which conducts the majority of such operations.

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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