REVEALED: Six of the most HORRIFYING surgical disasters in the US – including the doctor who removed the WRONG testicle

It is inevitable that doctors will make a mistake among the thousands of patients they treat every year.

There are also thousands of malpractice cases filed each year due to incorrect or untimely diagnoses, botched surgeries, or prescribing mishaps.

In some cases, however, doctors have removed completely the wrong organs, exchanged the wrong kind of life-saving blood, or performed operations that were completely unnecessary.

Here are six of the worst surgical blunders in American medical history.

The man who had the wrong testicle removed

In 2006, 47-year-old Air Force veteran Benjamin Houghton went to a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital to have his possibly cancerous left testicle removed.

The father-of-four had previously had testicular cancer – a disease that affects one in 250 men – and sought help at a hospital in Los Angeles.

However, according to records and a claim filed by Mr Houghton's wife, the surgeon accidentally removed his right testicle after the team failed to mark the correct part of his body.

Because the healthy testicle produced testosterone, this made Mr. Houghton vulnerable to low testosterone, which has been linked to complications such as erectile dysfunction, fatigue, weight gain, depression, memory problems and osteoporosis.

“I thought it was a joke,” Mr. Houghton told the newspaper LA times. 'Then I was shocked. I said to them, 'What should I do now?'

Mr. Houghton and his family sued the VA alleging the sexual dysfunction, depression and osteoporosis that occurred as a result of the error. They received a $200,000 settlement.

The teenager who suffered brain damage after receiving the wrong blood

Jesica Satillan was 17 years old when she received a heart and double lung transplant in 2003.

Both lungs were weakened due to cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens, thickens and stiffens the myocardium of the heart muscle. This makes it harder to pump blood through the rest of the body, which can lead to multiple organ failure.

When she received the transplant at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, she received organs with the wrong blood type. Her body then rejects these organs, shutting down the rest of her body.

The doctors did not realize the mistake until the operation was almost complete.

Although she received a new set of organs with the right blood, Ms Satillan suffered irreversible brain damage. She died two days after being taken off life support.

The family reached a confidential settlement in 2004.

The woman whose breast was unnecessarily removed

In 2005, then 49-year-old Eduvigis Rodriguez was diagnosed with breast cancer – which affects 300,000 American women annually – after doctors discovered a lump in her breast.

However, doctors at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York City misinterpreted the results as cancer, when it was not.

Instead, she had sclerosing adenosis, a benign condition that causes extra breast tissue.

Ms Rodriguez was sent to neighboring Lennox Hill Hospital where she underwent a mastectomy – complete removal of her left breast. Doctors at Lennox Hill had not checked the pathology report to confirm she had cancer.

The surgery led to Ms. Rodriguez suffering a pulmonary embolism – a blockage of the pulmonary arteries, which send blood to the lungs – blood clots, and a hernia.

She sued the hospital for costs, pain and suffering.

'I want justice, and I want an explanation. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. “I had faith in the surgeon and the hospitals, but I can't believe the mistakes that were made,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

The elderly patient who had undergone unnecessary brain surgery

Bilma Nayyar, then 81, had to undergo surgery in 2012 to repair her dislocated jaw.

When she sought care at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan, just outside Detroit, doctors performed a craniotomy instead. This involves removing part of the bone from the skull to reach the brain.

The doctors claimed that the problem was due to a mix-up of medical records, which occurred when another patient's records were placed in Ms. Nayyar's file.

The team expected her to have a brain hemorrhage, but when she didn't, they realized she didn't need brain surgery.

Ms Nayyar developed complications and died two months later. Although a jury initially awarded her family $20 million, the verdict was overturned on a technicality.

The man who had his leg amputated after receiving the wrong biopsy

In 2010, Peter Sfameni's doctors suspected he might have had lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, the body's germ-fighting network.

It affects nearly 90,000 Americans every year and kills about 20,000.

The 55-year-old went to the emergency room of a Rhode Island hospital complaining of lower back pain, fatigue and weight loss. He was taking medication for a blood clotting disorder.

Doctors took Mr. Stameni off his blood thinners to prepare him for a colonoscopy and lymph node biopsy. However, they performed a bone marrow biopsy instead.

He developed blood clots in his legs and lungs, which led to the formation of gangrene (the death of body tissue) in his right leg. The leg had to be amputated.

In 2017, Mr. Sfameni received a $61.6 million settlement.

The man who had the wrong foot amputated

Willie King of Florida would have his right leg amputated in 1995 due to complications from diabetes, which he had been diagnosed with twenty years earlier.

Mr. King went to University Community Hospital in Tampa for the procedure, where doctors cut off the wrong foot.

When he woke up, he said to the doctor, “That's the wrong leg.”

“When I came to and realized I had lost the good one, it was a shock, a real shock,” King told the newspaper Tampa Bay Times.

“I really wanted someone to come to me and say there had been a mistake.”

Mr. King was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where the medical team attempted to save his right foot. He opted to have the rest of the foot cut off at the calf to avoid more painful procedures.

Doctors claimed that both legs were diseased, but King filed a lawsuit against the hospital. He received a $1.15 settlement and had the diseased foot removed elsewhere.