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Pa. jury awards $900K to man after doctor removes wrong testicle

The doctor is no longer performing surgeries.

A Pennsylvania man was awarded $900,000 after the wrong testicle was removed.
A Pennsylvania man was awarded $900,000 after the wrong testicle was removed.Read moreFile photo / AP

A Pennsylvania jury of 11 women and one man awarded nearly $900,000 to a man after his doctor removed the wrong testicle during an operation.

Steven Hanes, 54 of Mount Union, consulted a urologist in 2013 after having suffered chronic pain in his right testicle for 15 years, PennLive.com reported.

Instead of less invasive procedures, Dr. V. Spencer Long recommended that the testicle be surgically removed at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon, the news outlet reported.

"It appeared that the left testicle and cord may actually have been removed instead of the right one," Long wrote in a post-operative report that was documented in a court filing, the story said.

The mistake was later confirmed in a follow-up visit.

On Wednesday, after a two-and-a-half-day trial, the Huntingdon County jury reached a verdict against the doctor and hospital, awarding Hanes $620,000 in damages for pain and suffering and $250,000 in punitive damages against Long for "reckless indifference," according to PennLive.

Hanes' lawyer, Braden R. Lepisto, said his client now has a "debilitating fear" of further treatment. Lepisto told the website that Hanes was still in pain. If the right testicle does eventually have to be removed, his client would need testosterone replacement therapy for the rest of his life.

Long, now 77, is no longer performing surgeries, according to the story.