Talk about surgical blunders, and this one seems to top the list. Daniel Metzgar, a 44 year old truck driver, underwent a surgical procedure that turned horribly wrong, leaving him with an 8 month long erection.
Metzgar had expected an improvement in his condition after the penile implant surgery in 2009, but instead, he had to go through an 8 month long erection and a scrotum the size of volleyball.
The penile implant surgery, which was carried out in December 2009 by Dr. Thomas J Desperito, was done using a three-piece inflatable cylinder, which was inserted into the shaft of the penis. The urologist also fitted a pump inside Metzgar's scrotum, and a fluid reservoir under his abdominal wall.
The inflatable cylinders work by pushing fluid up the cylinders which are fitted inside, by means of the mechanical pump. Once the cylinders get full, they cause the penis to become rigid. This process takes approximately 5-10 seconds.
Penile implant surgeries are often used a long-term solution for people suffering from erectile dysfunction, occurring due after a prostate cancer surgery, or due to age-related vascular diseases or diabetes.
Metzgar has sued his doctor for medical malpractice, to which Desperito's attorneys claim that such conditions could happen occasionally without anyone's fault. They also suggest that Metzgar ought to have realized something was wrong when he noticed a swelling in his scrotum after his surgery in December; but he didn't bring the problem to anyone's notice until April, and he himself could be responsible for the worsening of the condition.
As for Metzgar, during his 8 month long erection, he faced immense difficulty in carrying out day to day activities like riding his motorbike or bringing in his newspaper.
"I could hardly dance, with an erection poking my partner," he claimed.
Eventually, he had to resort to wearing long shirts and baggy pants to hide his embarrassing situation.
"It's not something you want to bring out at parties and show to friends," he added.
Currently, Metzgar and his wife are seeking unspecified damages from their urologist and his medical team who carried out the surgery. Metzgar has also got his replacement prosthesis done from another urologist, after which, he doesn't have any issue, except for the scar tissue from the first surgery.
