Man initially went in for bladder surgery

A mechanic is suing a clinic and two doctors, claiming they removed his penis and testicles without consulting him after they mistakenly thought he had cancer.

Hurshell Ralls, 67, seeks an unspecified amount in his negligence lawsuit filed against the Clinics of North Texas in Wichita Falls, Dr. John Stephen Dryden and Dr. Farid G. Khoury. The civil case is set for trial Aug. 25.

Ralls, who said he had a normal sex life with his wife before the 1999 amputation, said he remains angry with his doctors.

"I don't think they should have played God, myself," Ralls said Wednesday.

The clinic and doctors declined to comment.

Ralls said Dryden started treating him 15 years ago for kidney infections caused by lifelong bladder problems. Since he was in his mid-20s, Ralls said, he has urinated into a bag through a catheter attached to his ureters, the tubes carrying urine from the kidneys to the bladder.

Ralls said he went in for surgery in November 1999 after Dryden said a biopsy showed he had bladder cancer. Dryden and Khoury, who assisted in the surgery, never mentioned that the cancer could be spreading and that they might have to remove other organs, Ralls said.

In a February deposition, Dryden told Ralls' attorneys that while removing Ralls' bladder, he determined the cancer had spread to the penis.

"I was the one looking at it, and I've seen it. I mean, it was cancer," Dryden testified.

He said he did not take tissue samples to test for cancer because "I did not feel, in my medical judgment, that they were worthwhile."

Steve Briley, Ralls' attorney, said tests could have been done in 30 minutes in the same clinic.

Briley said a doctor looking at cell slides later found Ralls did not have penile cancer.