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Man awarded $870K after surgeon removes wrong testicle

Error happened at Pennsylvania hospital in 2013
Man awarded $870K after surgeon removes wrong testicle
Posted at 1:05 PM, Jun 17, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-17 13:05:19-04

A Pennsylvania man was awarded $870,000 after an unfortunate error during surgery.

In 2013, 54-year-old Steven Hanes went to J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital for surgery to remove a testicle that was giving him chronic pain. But the surgeon, Dr. Valley Long, removed the wrong testicle.

In the years since, Hanes has experienced "more frequent pain" in the testicle he still has and now has a "debilitating fear" of having another surgery, according to what his attorney told PennLive.com.

This week, a jury in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania awarded damages of $870,000 to Hanes in his lawsuit against Long and the hospital. The trial took a little more than two days to settle.

The jury decided that Long showed "reckless indifference" during the surgery.

Long, 77, is no longer performing surgeries, according to PennLive.com.

Clint Davis covers entertainment and trending news topics for the Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @MrClintDavis.