A surgeon who cut off a patient’s testicle by mistake before ‘chucking it’ away in a medical bin and later telling the alarmed man that it has just shrunk has now been struck off.

Dr Marwan Farouk accidentally removed the man’s right testicle during routine surgery at a private hospital, known as the ‘Chiltern Hilton’, which charges thousands of pounds per operation.

The unnamed patient, understood to be aged 60 at the time, was going under-the-knife for keyhole surgery to repair a hernia and remove a cyst at BMI The Chiltern Hospital, in Great Missenden, two years ago.

Dr Farouk, who did not tell the patient of the error after allegedly discarding the testicle in a ‘sharps’ bin, has now been struck off following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal.

He claimed during the hearing that he did not realise that he had removed the testicle.

The Baghdad-born doctor currently lives in Wendover and has worked for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, The Shelburne Hospital and The Paddocks Clinic, as well as The Chiltern Hospital.

During the hearing, an account from the patient was read out where he claimed to be told later by the doctor that he had a small right testicle – at no point was he told it has been removed completely.

The patient said: “It took me aback as it was not something I had ever been aware of and I remember thinking that I must speak to my GP about it.

“It was memorable for a 60-year-old man to be told he had a small testicle. Mr Farouk was not suggesting there was a major disparity or major disfigurement.”

According to the tribunal report, the testicle was removed and placed upon the operating table, but after the operation was completed Dr Farouk picked it up and disposed of it into a sharps bin, despite nurses asking if it should be sent off for testing.

He later went back to retrieve it, but the nurses had already collected it having recognised that it should not have happened.

After being hauled in front of the tribunal, the experienced doctor claimed he did not recognise the specimen to be a testicle and therefore did not record it.

The report said: “The tribunal rejects your evidence on the basis that as an experienced surgeon, even on a cursory examination, you must have recognised the specimen for what it was.

“The tribunal heard evidence that you picked up the specimen from the table and examined it visually and manually before disposing of it in the sharps bin.

“The tribunal considers it highly improbable that you did not recognise it as a testicle.”

Following a hearing which lasted more than two weeks, Dr Farouk’s name has now been taken off the Medical Register.