4-year-old boy given unintended vasectomy during hernia surgery

Doctors were removing a hernia from his groin area.

A 4-year-old boy has been given an accidental vasectomy during a hernia operation. The incident happened at a hospital in Houston, Texas. The boy's family is planning on suing the hospital for the major error. The doctor cut the vas deferens during hernia removal surgery. "The vas deferens carries reproductive semen in it," the family's lawyer said. He said the young boy will face fertility issues when he is older. He will also need to have further surgery. The operation took place in Houston last August. The doctor was operating on the boy because he needed to remove a hernia from his groin area. However, he accidentally cut one of the tubes during the procedure. The boy's attorney said: "It could affect this young man for the rest of his life." His family is worried about how this mistake will affect him in the future. Their biggest worry is how it will impact his ability to have children in the future. He told Fox4: "It’s not a common mistake at all." The family is very concerned about how this will affect their son physically, as well as mentally. The doctor who was operating on the young boy has no history of malpractice. He has also never made an error during surgery like this before. A doctor must identify the part of the anatomy before making an incision. Unfortunately, this doctor failed to do this during the boy's operation.