A jury has awarded $1.8 million to an Illinois man after a surgeon mistakenly removed his loan remaining testicle during a routine hernia procedure.

According to court documents — which do not name the man or the surgeon — the then 35-year-old patient had previously had his right testicle removed due to testicular torsion. Several years later, while undergoing an inguinal hernia repair surgery, the surgeon named as a defendant in the suit mistakenly removed the man's only remaining testicle. After the removal, the man says he was left unable to have children and with a testosterone deficiency that resulted in increased fatigue and sweating, and a decrease in his libido.

In court, the man claimed that the surgeon was negligent and that there was no legitimate medical reason to perform the removal without the patient's consent. He also says that the surgeon failed to perform an adequate physical exam before the procedure, contributing to the doc's negligence.

The surgeon maintained in court that he acted in a "reasonably careful manner" and that the injury occurred because he was given the wrong patient history. The doctor also claimed that the testicle he found was small and in an abnormal location and that it was at risk for testicular cancer. He told the jury he was acting in accordance with the patient's consent form, which allowed for an extension of the original procedure if it was for the well-being of the patient.

The jury didn't buy the doc's argument. In a recent verdict, the jury awarded the man $1.8 million, which included $175,000 for disfigurement, $1.25 million for disability and $385,000 for pain and suffering.

Kendal Gapinski