Man given a vasectomy by mistake

Doctors at Royal Liverpool Hospital have tried to reverse the blunder, but the victim now faces an anxious wait to see if he will be able to have children.Health chiefs described the incident as a “never event” – a medical mistake that should never happen – and a case of “wrong site surgery". The hospital today “apologised unreservedly” to the patient and said the surgeon has been suspended from carrying out operations during an internal investigation, the Liverpool Echo reports.The man has not been identified and the NHS trust refused to disclose his age. Dr Peter Williams, medical director, said: “We can confirm a patient who was scheduled to have a different minor urological procedure was wrongly given a vasectomy. “We have apologised unreservedly to the patient and we are offering him our full support. We greatly regret the distress this has caused him. “It is our duty, in the best interests of the patient to uphold their confidentiality; therefore we cannot provide any further detail without their agreement. “This is a serious incident and we are investigating this fully to understand why it occurred and how we can ensure it does not happen again.”