Damage only if op was done badly

SHRUNKEN-TESTICLES CASE , 
THE STRAITS TIMES: Sunday, August 26, 2000

SEVERE damage to both testicles could take place after surgery only if the operation
was done inappropriately or extremely badly, an expert witness from East Malaysia
said yesterday.
Dr Clarence Lei Chang Moh, 43, a consultant urologist who runs a specialist clinic in
Kuching, Sarawak, was testifying for the defence in the suit brought by American
cocoa trader Denis Matthew Harte, 36, against a Singapore consultant urologist and
Gleneagles Hospital.
Mr Harte is suing Dr Tan Hun Hoe, 46, and Gleneagles for medical negligence over
an alleged botched-up operation on April 28, 1997, which left him with shrunken
testicles.
Shortly after the operation, Mr Harte had a fall in the toilet and hit his head. The
next day, he complained of severe pain and a swollen scrotum. He saw Dr Tan again
only four days later, on May 2.
Dr Lei had said in his affidavit that varicocele ligation, the operation carried out, was
an accepted treatment to improve the general outcome for sub-fertility in men. He
felt that delay in diagnosing trauma to the testicles could cause them to shrink.
He added that it was his opinion that Dr Tan had done what a normal urologist would
have done in this region. He also found Dr Tan's standard of care to be adequate and
safe, he said.
He told the High Court yesterday that a man could experience swelling, significant
pain and collection of blood in the scrotum after such an operation.
Mr Edmund Kronenburg, one of the lawyers acting for Mr Harte, asked if a competent
surgeon should advise a patient of the risk of testicular atrophy. Dr Lei replied: "It is
exceedingly rare."
The lawyer suggested that it would be possible to get bilateral-testicular atrophy if
the surgery was inappropriately done. Dr Lei said: "It has to be a very, very
inappropriately-done surgery. You got to tie up all the arteries, all the veins. It has
to be a very, very bad surgery."
A Gleneagles staff nurse, Ms Looi Chai Hong, 57, and former nurse Tan Sang Eng,
45, who were on duty on the day of Mr Harte's operation, both testified they had not
found any injury on the site of Mr Harte's operation or any bruising to his scrotum
after his fall that day.
The hearing continues on Monday.