A Kentucky man sued his doctor after he awoke from a surgery and found his penis removed, instead of a circumcision performed.

Phillip Seaton, 61, alleged he went to the hospital last October and the doctor who was supposed to circumcise him amputated his penis, according to the lawsuit the man filed against Dr. John M. Patterson last week.

Mr. Seaton, and his wife Deborah, both Tennessee residents, said the doctor who performed the surgery wasn’t given the consent to do that. What Philippe Seaton told him to do was to remove “the foreskin on the penis.”

But Mr. Patterson disregarded that when he decided by himself to cut off Philippe’s manhood. Because he allegedly believed he found cancer, he didn’t put an end to the procedure in order to notify the couple and discuss with both of them the findings, like he should have. Consequently to the operation, the man experienced pain, mental anguish, as well as loss of enjoyment of life, the lawsuit said.

A test performed later on did reveal the fact that Seaton had cancer, said Kevin George, Seaton’ attorney.

"Sometimes you have an emergency and you have to do this, but he could very easily closed him up and said, 'Here are your options. You have cancer,' and the family would have said, 'We want a second opinion. This is a big deal,'" Mr. George said.

Besides Dr. Patterson, who amputated the male genital organ, the lawsuit also names Dr. Oliver James. During the surgery, James administered a general anesthesia although Seaton specifically requested the anesthesia not to be used.

Mr. Seaton went to the hospital to have the procedure on Oct. 19, 2007, in order to better treat inflammation, The Associated Press reported.

Ouch!

This is a little worse than an isn't it?

it says TN man.. funny thing, while in Nashville my son fell and broke his knee cap. We got him the the hospital via ambulance (we had all been drinking) first thing that should of told us to turn away and go somewhere else the EMTs were wearing confederate civial war pants!! (yes its part of the EMT uniform!!!)

Now I guess its kinda cool and all, and here are my friends saying oh we have better Hospitals than Chicago.. (Vanderbilt University Medical Center #15 in the states) that's great but they don't live that close so we have to go to one less than 45 min away. after an x-ray, they gave him a loratab, and brace and said it would need surgery ..maybe they got excited we had insurance!! this place was nice enough but surgery for a fractured knee cap? well we waited and came home took hime to my ortho and they changed the brace gave an MRI said nothing else needs to be done! and guess what the TN Hospital gave no crutchs! and wanted him to walk out of the hospital I had to STEAL a wheel chair and they didn't want us to use it!!!

Yeah good hospitals there I say, don't go! thank god my son might have had his leg amputated!!

This happened to a child here in Iowa.

It happens. I don't care where you live, medical errors are killing probably 200,000 people annually. I'd say that's a conservative estimate. More than the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars combined, every single year!

For example, this Medical News article states that mistakes in hospitals cost 195,000 lives every year.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/11856.php

This doesn't include deaths from misprescribed, overprescribed drugs or drug interactions that occur outside the hospital. That's probably another 80,000 deaths, according to one study I read.

Really, why are we getting so upset about the 4000 deaths in Iraq? There are far far worse preventable problems going on in the medical profession. Yes, they are all tragedies. But we do need to have a sense of proportion, and put our attention on the biggest health problem facing Americans today -- too much of the wrong kind of medicine is too expensive and kills probably a quarter of a million people annually.

A single death is a tragedy. A quarter million deaths is a statistic. But we really need to start taking this seriously, and DO SOMETHING!!!

all i have to say is wow.. to the article and the comments thus far.

4,000 deaths in Iraq (on our side); many more on the Iraqi side . . . plus, by some reckoning the "tearist" wars (Afghanistan & Iraq) will eventually end up costing the U.S. about a TRILLION dollars after all is said and done, and that's not counting it lasting as long as McCain once said.
THAT trillion plus what may turn out to ultimately be a TRILLION dollar final bail-out tab of Wall Street and their ilk . . . well, if that doesn't put the hex on our government's financial future, I don't know what will.
I'm pessimistic [shock!]

i feel for him..

What has some guy losing his dick got to do with the the war in Iraq or the future of the american government?!

Maybe they can grow him a new one on the back of a mouse. It worked for Mr/Mrs Garrison.

You're right, pessimist. Just think how many deaths the Iraqis would have suffered if they had the American health care system! The mind boggles.

Well they might not all be dead but they would be eunuchs. I'm just saying...