Patient awarded $870,000 after doctor removes wrong testicle during surgery

A jury has awarded $870,000 to a Pennsylvania man whose doctor mistakenly removed the wrong testicle during a surgical procedure.

Local news station Fox 43 reports that 54-year-old Steven Hanes filed a lawsuit against the surgeon who removed his left testicle -- even though he was in surgery to have his chronically painful right testicle removed.

The lawsuit alleged that the surgeon should have been able to easily identify the correct testicle because "medical imaging and records showed that the testicle was about half the size of its counterpart."

Hanes will receive $620,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages. Dr. Valley Spencer Long, the surgeon who removed the wrong testicle in 2013, was found by the jury to be "recklessly indifferent" in his treatment of Hanes.