Man circumcised in hospital mix-up awarded £20,000
A man who went into hospital for a routine bladder operation has described the moment medics told him he'd been accidentally circumcised.
Terry Brazier was meant to be having botox injected in his bladder, a routine procedure he'd had three times before, at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.
After the surgery, the 70-year-old grandad of two said he had a feeling something was wrong.
"I'd been sat for longer than normal and the staff said the sister wanted to see me.
"I didn't think anything of it at first but as time went on, it got to two hours, I was worrying about what might be wrong.
"In the end they came in and said to me 'We're very sorry, but we've circumcised you' and I just said 'Oh, have you?'
"What else could I say? I was stunned, I couldn't believe what they were telling me."
Mr Brazier has since been awarded £20,000 in compensation.
The error, recorded as a never event - a serious, largely preventable safety incident that should not occur if the available preventative measures are implemented - was one of eight made by Leicester's Hospitals in 2018.
He said: "I was away with my wife when it was on the front page of the Leicester Mercury.
"My daughter rang me up and said I was famous and that I was in the paper, then we found out it had been everywhere, all over the world.
"People were talking on the internet about it in America and Australia.
"What I couldn't believe though was that I wasn't the only person that had been victim to a mistake in Leicester. I was shocked."
The dad-of-two said he decided to take legal action after he received a letter from Leicester's Hospitals, admitting that the necessary checks had not been carried out before the procedure took place.
Mr Brazier said: "There's been the jokes but there is a serious side to all of this.
"They carried out an operation like that on someone without knowing it was the right person."
He added: "I didn't want to go to court or anything but this shouldn't have happened and more importantly I don't want it to happen again.
"You just don't know what might happen next.
"You go into hospital and put your trust in these people, you don't expect mistakes to be made, especially not one like this."
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