health

He went in for routine scar-tissue removal. He left with an accidental vasectomy.

One man complaining about hospital wait times was given a vasectomy by accident, a tribunal has heard this week.

Seeking the removal of some scar tissue, the patient, who has been identified as Patient A, attended Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital in February 2014. But due to a series of administrative failings, it was not until after the vasectomy was carried out that the mistake was picked up.

Problems for the hospital began early in the day. Many patients who had arrived at 11am were being seen before those who had arrived at 7.30am and patients began to complain to administration.

The day’s patient ordering was described by Dr Vaswani as “poor listing”.

Following the patient complaints, a decision was made by the administration team to change the order of surgery and ensure the early-arrival patients were seen sooner than originally scheduled. However according to Dr Vaswani, this decision was not then communicated to the operating team.

Because Patient A was waiting with a number of patients who were due to have vasectomies that had also arrived at 7.30am, he was taken into surgery by accident.

Following his admission to the operating room, surgery was carried out on Patient A without Dr Vaswani confirming his identity, checking his medical notes or completing the World Health Organisation’s surgical checklist.

It was only after completing the surgery that Dr Vaswani consulted the patient’s record and realised his mistake.

Dr Vaswani, who is an associate specialist in urology, admitted that following the mistake he failed to inform or consult a senior member of the hospital’s staff on how to proceed.

He also failed to keep a record of his mistake and the discussions he had with Patient A following the surgery.

The tribunal heard that Patient A left Broadgreen Hospital “physically and emotionally traumatised.”

Dr Vaswani admitted to four allegations of misconduct. The panel will not considering he will be allowed to continue practicing medicine.

Want to see what getting a vasectomy looks like? We’ve got all the gory details here