A doctor who reportedly carried out of vasectomy on a patient by mistake has been fired from the Broadgreen hospital in Liverpool.
Dr. Peter Williams, a representative from the Broadgreen University and Royal Liverpool Hospitals said is that over the past 12 months, there have been three serious incidents and two "never" events that have taken place at the right urology department. "We are still in the process of investigating some of these incidents, including looking at how to improve the processes and systems in place and are taking appropriate action. We cannot comment on the outcomes of these investigations at this stage. Patient safety is always our priority and we use the lessons learnt from any incident to occasionally improve our standards of care." He added that the majority of patients the feedback from the hospital urology department has been positive.
According to reports, doctors attempted to reverse the unintended vasectomy, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The victim role now be unable to have children naturally. Lawyers in the area are now saying that the man could receive more than £100,000 in damages, depending on several factors including his age. Clinical negligence lawyer, Ian Cohen, said that this could potentially turned out to be a big financial payout, "If a 25-year-old who wants a family is told he won't be able to father children, it will be devastating. In a case like this where the hospital has said it's made a mistake, the NHS Litigation Authority should encourage the hospital to hold its hands up."
A vasectomy is considered as one of the more permanent methods of birth control where the tubes connecting the testicles to the urethra are closed off or sealed so that the man is not able to release sperm during ejaculation. A female egg will not be fertilized in the absence of semen, thereby avoiding conception.