Man circumcised in hospital mix-up gets £20k payout

Terry Brazier had gone into Leicester Royal Infirmary for a routine botox injection in his bladder

A man who was mistakenly circumcised when he went to hospital for a routine bladder procedure has been awarded £20,000 in compensation.

Terry Brazier was meant to be having botox injected in his bladder when he went in for treatment at the Leicester Royal Infirmary last summer.

However, there was a mix-up and afterwards Mr Brazier said he was told "sorry, but we've circumcised you".

The hospital said it was "deeply and genuinely sorry".

The 70-year-old said after the procedure he was left waiting for two hours until they broke the news and he just replied "Oh, have you?"

"What else could I say? I was stunned, I couldn't believe what they were telling me," he said.

'Never event'

The error was recorded as a "never event", which is a serious, largely preventable safety incident that should not occur if the available preventative measures are implemented.

It was one of eight made by Leicester's Hospitals in 2018, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The grandfather of two said he decided to take legal action after Leicester's Hospitals admitted in a letter the necessary checks had not been carried out. 

Mr Brazier, of Hinckley, said: "There's been the jokes but there is a serious side to all of this. 

"It could have been even worse for someone else, someone could end up having the wrong body part amputated.

"This shouldn't have happened and more importantly I don't want it to happen again.

"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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Andrew Furlong, medical director at University Hospitals of Leicester, said: "We take events like this very seriously and carried out a thorough investigation at the time to ensure that we learnt from this incident and do all we can to avoid it happening again.

"Whilst money can never undo what happened, we hope this payment provides some compensation."