I saw this in Metro and it made me think I was lucky...
A father-of-four is to demand £1 million damages after a vasectomy went wrong.
Daniel Stalker was forced to have his testicles removed and has been in pain ever since the operation 12 years ago.
The 51-year-old yesterday won his case against Lothian Health Board at the Court of Session in Edinburgh and a judge will now set damages.
Mr Stalker, of Dunbar, East Lothian, is reportedly seeking £1 million in damages.
He went for the operation in May 1996 at an Edinburgh family planning clinic after his wife fell pregnant with their fourth child.
He claimed Dr Paul Dewart tried to perform the procedure despite his protests that he was in pain and the anaesthetic was not working.
But the operation had to be abandoned after Mr Stalker doubled over in pain and vomited.
One of his testicles then turned black and swelled to double the size, he claimed.
Two years later he had his testicles removed in an attempt to end his misery - but this has failed to alleviate the pain.
Lord Uist yesterday ruled in favour of Mr Stalker.
He said: "On a consideration of the whole evidence on this point, I find that the pursuer suffered neuropathic pain...when Dr Dewart inserted an instrument into an unanaesthetised part of his scrotum in the course of blunt dissection during the attempted vasectomy procedure."
Dr Dewart claimed he could not remember the operation, but the judge said this "lacked credibility".
Lord Uist said: "The procedure here had been abandoned, he [Dr Dewart] had written a misleading letter to the GP and had not completed the operation note: he could not have forgotten what happened in this case.
"His assertion that he could not remember what had happened lacked credibility."
Mr Stalker said today that he had gone through "pure hell".
The former soldier told how he had tried to commit suicide several times and depended entirely on his family to care for him.
He said: "About 20 hours a day I'm in bed, doubled up in pain. I've tried to commit suicide five or six times because the pain is that bad.
"It is manageable one minute - I could be sitting there talking - then the next second I'm doubled over in pain and I'm screaming the house down. It happens about five times a day."
He said it was difficult for his wife, Elizabeth, 47, and his four children, Gayle, 25, Michael, 23, John, 15, and Aimee, 12.
Gayle had to come back from Australia, where she was working as a nanny, to help his wife look after him, he said.
Mr Stalker was in the Royal Scots Regiment for 12 years until 1984, and then worked as a joiner.
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