Forty men left without TESTICLES due to botched medical care win payouts from the NHS

Almost 40 men have won compensation claims against the NHS in the last two years after botched medical care meant doctors needlessly removed one of their testicles.

In the majority of cases, surgeons had to remove a testicle that could have been saved if a man had been diagnosed earlier.

But in a handful of horrifying cases, doctors have removed the wrong testicle in a surgical blunder and then have to operate again to remove the other one when the mistake is discovered - leaving the man with no testicles.

The NHS typically pays out around £20,000 when it admits it is at fault for leaving men as monorchid - the medical term for having just one testicle.

But payments for removing a man’s only healthy testicle in a surgical mix-up can be around £70,000 as the individual gets compensation for being left infertile.

Often the compensation figure includes a sum to pay for cosmetic surgery to provide the men with a false testicle.

Figures from the National Health Service Litigation Authority (NHSLA) show that in the last two years 38 successful cases have been brought by men who claimed they were victims of botched surgery on their testicles.

In total £815,000 was paid out by the NHSLA in those cases, meaning the average payout has been around £21,000.

Last year a 48-year-old company director, who didn’t want to be named, revealed he was bringing legal action against Salisbury District Hospital after he had a healthy testicle removed by mistake.

He had gone into theatre expecting a cancerous testicle would be removed, but 40 minutes after the operation a doctor realised the blunder.

The healthy testicle was then frozen, while a plastic surgeon was rushed to the scene and tried to undo the damage.

He said: 'It seems I can no longer father children. I have gone through incredible stress and strain.'

The most common reason for payouts is when medics misdiagnose testicular torsion where the tubes inside the body get twisted cutting off the blood supply.

The condition has to be diagnosed quickly as the testicle can be dead within a few hours.

Other claims result from the consequences of hernia operations where the blood supply to the testicle is accidentally cut off in the surgery.

Joyce Robins, Co-Director of Patient Concern, said: 'It is beyond belief that medics could be so careless. No monetary amount could compensate for a life wrecked because a man can no longer father children.

'We would like to think that surgeons who make this such a crass error were barred from performing similar operations in the future - but we realise that is a vain hope.'

This aticle is courtesy from The Daily Mail.