An Italian man whose penis was allegedly wrongly amputated by doctors is demanding compensation of €400,000 (£354,000).
Surgeons allegedly amputated the man’s genitals because they thought they had detected cancer in the organ.
That diagnosis was subsequently found to be wrong – the man in fact had a type of syphilis which could have been treated with medication.
The operation took place in San Donato Hospital, in the Tuscan city of Arezzo, in November 2018.
The man, now aged 68, wants to take to court the 35-year-old urologist who performed the amputation.
Ordeal ‘as painful as it is embarrassing’
The unusual case, and the demand for compensation, will be heard by a judge, Claudio Lara, in a preliminary hearing in a court in Arezzo next month. He will decide whether it should proceed to a trial.
The patient said that he has suffered “very serious damage” and that he deserves to be compensated for the physical loss of his penis as well as the psychological trauma he went through.
The man has asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the case.
His ordeal was “as painful as it is embarrassing”, according to the Corriere di Arezzo, a local newspaper.
The surgeon who performed the operation, who is said to be highly regarded, no longer works at the hospital in Tuscany, but in a hospital in Milan.
Source: telegraph.co.uk