Imagine you are a renowned surgeon that performed a routine operation to remove a testicular cyst, and you accidentally remove your patients right testicle. Do you come clean on the spot, or do you try to spin a tall tale and hope for the best?
Dr. Marwan Farouk of Baghdad, Iraq found himself in that exact predicament, and decided to lie his way out of it. Dr. Farouk was supposed to carry out a procedure at The Chiltern Hospital in Buckinghamshire,UK, to remove a cyst from a patient’s right testicle. During the procedure, he allegedly made a mistake and removed the entire right testicle instead. Ouch! After the patient noticed that one of his testicles was missing, Dr. Farouk told the patient not to worry, it just shrunk and it would work normally. Understandably, the patient didn’t believe his story, and charges have been filed against Dr. Farouk.
Express.co.uk has more details:
Dr Marwan FAROUK is alleged to have removed the unnamed patient’s right testicle during a private operation he performed to remove just a cist.
A hearing before a panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal will hear claims that Dr Farouk performed a “laparoscopic repair of a bilateral hernia” on a man referred to only as Patient A.
Dr Farouk is a Consultant Surgeon at Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, working at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe General hospitals, according to his website.
But the private procedure in question was carried out at the private The Chiltern Hospital, run by BMI Healthcare, in Great Missendon, Buckinghamshire, in April 2014.
According to charges before the panel, he was also supposed to carry out an “excision of a right epididymal cyst” on the man’s right testicle, but removed it completely, it is alleged.
Details of the charges Dr Farouk faces state: “It is alleged that he removed Patient A’s entire right testicle, did not attempt to remove Patient A’s right epididymal cyst separately, and intended to cover up the fact that he had removed Patient A’s testicle.”
The allegations continue that Baghdad-born Dr Farouk did not reveal to the man that he had removed his whole right testicle during a post-operation consultation, and, instead said it was now smaller but would still function.
The charges continue: “It is further alleged that during a post-operative consultation with Patient A, Dr Farouk failed to inform Patient A that his testicle had been removed during the surgery and advised Patient A that ‘you have a small right testicle but it won’t give you any problems’, or words to that effect.”
The hearing will also centre around claims Dr Farouk wrote to the man’s GP without disclosing the severity of the operation, by claiming there had been some “tissue damage”.
The charges state: “It is also alleged that Dr Farouk wrote to Patient A’s GP and failed to advise them that the testicle had been removed, and advised the GP that ‘some testicular tissue was damaged during the operation and was removed – this was confirmed on histology’, or words to that effect.
Let me be the first to say that this doctor has a lot of balls to make a mistake like that then lie to his patient. Shame.