How much is a human testicle worth?

A Pennsylvania jury this week ballparked its value at nearly $900,000.

That's how much the Huntingdon County panel decided Steven Hanes, a 54-year-old Mount Union man, should receive in damages because a doctor removed the wrong testicle during an operation in June 2013.

The jury of 11 women and one man reached that verdict against Dr. Valley Spencer Long and the J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntingdon on Wednesday at the end of a 2 1/2-day civil trial.

Braden R. Lepisto, Hanes' lawyer, said Thursday that the verdict appears to be the first monetary award to be granted by a jury in a medical malpractice case in Huntingdon County in more than 25 years.

The big question here is: How could something like this happen?

"That was my thought when we first got this case," said Lepisto, of the Philadelphia law firm Kline & Specter. "We just felt the evidence was so obvious."

Hanes claimed in his suit that he went to Long, a urologist, because he was experiencing chronic pain in his right testicle. Although other, less invasive procedures were options, Long recommended surgery, Lepisto said.

In the operating room, Long removed Hanes' healthy left testicle while leaving the damaged right one in place, Hanes' suit states. Hanes claimed the doctor was "reckless" in failing to properly identify the testicle that was supposed to be removed.

Court filings show Long wrote in a post-operative report that "it appeared that the left testicle and cord may actually have been removed instead of the right one." Hanes claimed Long told him as much during a follow-up visit.

"The conduct of the doctor during the surgery indicated he had no idea which testicle he was removing," Lepisto said.

"Steve had the right testicle pain for 15 years before he went to see Dr. Long. He wanted to relieve the pain," Lepisto added. "Four years later Steve continues to have the pain. He's had more frequent pain."

He added that Hanes now has a "debilitating fear" of having the ailment treated because of what happened. Lepisto said that if the problem right testicle does eventually have to be removed, Hanes would have to undergo testosterone replacement therapy for the rest of his life.

He noted that his firm is pursuing another pending malpractice case over a patient who died under Long's care. The doctor, now 77, is no longer performing surgeries, Lepisto said.

In rendering its verdict against Long and the hospital, the jury awarded Hanes $620,000 in damages for pain and suffering and $250,000 in punitive damages against Long for "reckless indifference."

The verdict can be appealed.