Earache patient ends up with vasectomy

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 21 Aug 2003 - 0:00 PDT

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A Brazilian man who went to the doctor with earache, ended up having a slightly different treatment than he had expected.

The confusion arose when Valdemar Lopes de Moraes, 39, suffering from muffled hearing, thought that his name had been called out by the nurse in the waiting room at a clinic in the town of Montes Claros in south-eastern Minas Gerais state.

Thinking he had been called, he went to the consulting room - where a doctor was performing vasectomies.

The nurse had actually called out the name Aldemar, not Vlademar. However they say they called out the full name, Aldemar Aparecido Rodrigues, of the man who was scheduled for the snip.

'The strangest thing is that he asked no questions when the doctor started preparations in the area which had so little to do with his ear,' said clinic manager, Vanessa Guimaraes.

Mr de Moraes, a farmer by trade, later told staff he thought his ear inflammation had spread down to his testicles. Having had the vasectomy last week, he turned up again on Wednesday to receive the ear examination he failed to get the first time. However he made no request for a reversal of the vasectomy.