Veteran Has Wrong Testicle Removed During Surgical Procedure

Benjamin Houghton, a 47 year old Air Force veteran, has filed a federal claim against West Los Angeles VA Medical Center after undergoing a medical procedure in which surgeons made a drastic mistake.

After discovering that Houghton's left testicle was potentially cancerous, Houghton underwent surgery to remove the testicle. Problem is, surgeons accidentally removed the right (or in this case, wrong) testicle. Houghton, left with the still cancerous testicle, is now seeking $200,000 from the hospital to cover damages and medical care.

Now, Houghton and his wife, Monica, are taking their story public, hoping to gain the attention of the VA whose practices and health-care standards have been heavily questioned in the recent past.

Though Houghton had been diagnosed with metastatic testicular cancer as early as 1989, he had undergone chemotherapy and remained in mostly good health up until shortly before undergoing the surgery. It was only when the testicle became painful that he sought medical assistance through surgery.

While the testicle is said to have been cancerous, Houghton has specified that the surgery was not urgent. Now, he is left with one cancerous testicle while the healthy one has been mistakenly removed leaving Houghton in a dire predicament. During the procedure, he was also to have undergone a vasectomy.

Houghton has received an apology from Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the Greater Los Angeles VA System. However, Norman has specified that, since they are now in the middle of litigation proceedings, he is unable to comment fully on Houghton or the incident itself.

The actual procedure was carried out by John T. Leppert, a medical resident at UCLA.

According to the consent form Houghton signed before surgery, the form stated that the right testicle was to be removed. Houghton was told by the surgeon that the form included "what was talked about before" and to simply sign. Houghton admits that he never actually read the consent form, assuming that the information was correct as it had already been discussed.

However, Houghton also notes that he was asked to identify the affected testicle and pointed to his left testicle. This step, to mark and identify the surgical site, is common, but Houghton recalls that no one ever marked the testicle that he had indicated.

Though operation on the wrong limb or organ (or sometimes, even the wrong patient altogether) is said to be rare, it does occasionally happen. For Houghton and his wife, Monica, they simply hope that by exposing the wrongs of the VA medical system, they can save someone else the heartache of what they have experienced.