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NJ Man Sues After Surgery Gives Him an 8-Month Erection

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Jun 12, 2013 05:54 PM EDT

A 44-year-old man is suing his doctor after surgery left him with an eight-month erection.

Daniel Metzgar claims that his 2009 penile implant surgery left him with a permanent erection that wouldn't go away for eight months, according to a malpractice lawsuit being heart in a Delaware court.

The New Jersey truck driver said that said that his penis was always getting in the way after the surgery.

Metzgar's lawyer Michael C. Heyden said that his client's condition was so bad that simple things like getting the newspaper, riding his motorcycle and attending family events became a huge problem because he was "stuck in this position".

Metzgar had a three-piece inflatable penile implant fitted by surgeon Dr. Thomas J. Desperito. The urologist had fitted Meztgar with an inflatable cylinder implant inside the shaft of the penis, a fluid reservoir under the abdominal wall and a pump inside the scrotum, according to Delaware Online.

The Newark truck driver said he had the December 2009 operation after trying other measures unsuccessfully. However, he said that his botched surgery did just the opposite and made him feel like less of a man.

"I could hardly dance, with an erection poking my partner," Metzgar told jurors Monday when he took the witness stand, according to the Daily News.

Metzgar said he that he had to resort to wearing long baggy sweatpants and a long shirt to hide his embarrassing situation.

However, attorneys for Desperito said that Metzgar should have known there was a problem when, by his own claim, his scrotum swelled to the size of a volleyball. They said that Metzgar failed to alert Desperito that something was wrong until four months after the surgery in April 2010.

By that time, Desperito told Metzgar the prosthesis had to be removed after the patient complained of an infection and that the erection wasn't going down, according to the urologist's lawyer Colleen D. Shields. However, Metzgar didn't do anything for months following the April visit, Shields said.

Metzgar finally had the prosthesis removed by another doctor in August 2010 after tubing from the prosthesis pierced his scrotum. He even had his old prosthesis replaced and fitted with a new one.

But even though the current prosthesis works correctly, Metzgar is still not satisfied. He said that scar tissue from the first surgery left his penis significantly less sensitive and 50 percent smaller than it used to be.

Metzgar and his wife are now seeking unspecified damages from Desperito and his medical group.

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