Patients sue noted former Mass. General surgeon over gender surgeries they say he botched

[CassOle]

A Gender affirming surgeon is being sued in the US.

"Surgeon Curtis Cetrulo became a leading light of a cutting-edge program at Massachusetts General Hospital soon after it opened in 2018, crafting penises for transgender men — and helping plant a flag in Boston amid intensifying national competition for such procedures.
By then, Cetrulo was already well known in plastic surgery circles. He had led a Mass. General team two years earlier that completed the country’s first successful transplant of a penis, involving a 64-year-old man who had lost his penis to cancer.
For transgender patients, the surgeries he offered included a procedure called abdominal phalloplasty — using skin grafts from the abdomen to form a penis.
But now, two of his former patients are suing Cetrulo and Mass. General for medical malpractice, alleging the gender-reassignment operations he performed were experimental and unsupported by medical research. The lawsuits said he used an untested approach to abdominal phalloplasty that caused them severe pain, disfigurement, infections, and other complications — and led to even more surgery to correct the mistakes.
The patients also allege that Cetrulo did not adequately inform them of the risks of his approach."

Continues in the article linked below.

https://archive.is/OvYrM

That is tragic and enraging in equal measures.

This is what will finally dismantle this lunacy, as soon as the lawsuits start rolling in the big pharmaceutical companies will stop offering these hideous, untested procedures.

The article argues for RFF sugery. This was the life ruining surgery that Scott Newgent had.

"The generally accepted gold standard for a phalloplasty involves taking tissue from the forearm, not the abdomen, and that is how most are done. Surgeons interviewed by the Globe said most transgender men rank being able to urinate standing up as their No. 1 goal of surgery, and forearm skin is thin enough to build both a penis and a urethra inside it. The arm tissue also provides the best sensation, another top goal, and the lowest infection and complication rate."

I would be far happier if the article pointed out that all the techniques are experimental on women, have high levels of complications and that any phallus created is not a functioning penis.

Surgeons interviewed by the Globe said most transgender men rank being able to urinate standing up as their No. 1 goal of surgery

Just so that they can wee standing up. Why is anyone going through all this pain and trauma just for that? Why? Just why?

I have never understood it.

Creating a longer urethra when you don't have any further tissue of the correct type to graft makes it a huge problem with no good solution (apart from 'don't do it').

No one's life is improved by gaining incontinence issues.

Doctors should be sued not merely for 'botched' surgery, but for any surgery at all. If I believe I can 'transition' myself into being a chicken I need mental health treatment, not a surgeon who will collude with my delusion by implanting a plastic beak on my face, and plastic claws on my feet.

hope they get substantial damages

Here we go.
I imagine that this trickle will become a flood of litigation and surgeons will be unable to get insurance to continue with their malpractice.

Why indeed. Peeing standing up is really not all that. And the idea that losing sexual, and probably urinal function, and risking life-long serious health issues, is somehow worth it, it just beggars belief.

Unless they do as Sidhbh "Yeet the Teats" Gallagher has done and opt out of medical malpractice insurance to avoid being sued.

Someone should tell these mentally ill women that not all men urinate standing up and that in some countries the majority of men urinate sitting down. I knew about Germany but I wondered what Grok could tell me about other countries:

Q. How common is it in different countries or societies for men to urinate sitting down or squatting rather than standing up at a urinal or toilet?

Sitting (Western-style toilets):

• Germany: 62% of men sit every/most times (40% every).
• Sweden: ~50% every/most (22% every).
• Japan: 70% sit (increasing from 51% in 2015).
• Australia: 3 9 % every/most (25% every).
• Denmark: 44% every/most (19% every).
• France: 35% every/most (19% every).
• Italy: 34% every/most (13% every).
• Canada: 35% every/most.
• US: 23% every/most (10% every); 31% never.
• UK: 24% every/most (9% every): 33% never.
• Poland: 27% every/most (10% every): 33% never.
• Mexico: 21% every/most (6% every); 36% never.
• Singapore: Low (5% every).

Squatting (squat toilets):

Common in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan partially), Africa (sub- Saharan countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria; Egypt), Middle East (Turkey, Morocco), and Muslim societies (encouraged to avoid urine contact). High prevalence in rural areas; decreasing with modernization. No precise global %; estimates vary.

Uncertainties:

Data mostly self-reported surveys (e.g., YouGov 2023, n=7,024 men in 13 countries; Japanese polls). Limited to select nations; anecdotal for others. Cultural shifts ongoing (e.g., rising in Japan, younger Australians).

Cited sources:

1. https://today.yougov.com/society/articles/45713-where-world-are-men-most-likely-sit-down-wee
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/05/27/survey-many-men-always-sit-when-urinating-40-of-germans-10-americans
3. https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-pissing-siting-down-become-a-thing-for-men-456
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet
5. https://www.euronews.com/health/2023/05/18/sitzpinklers-where-in-europe-do-men-sit-down-or-stand-up-to-pee
6. https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/sitzpinkler-german-men-pee-sitting-down
7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/the-health-benefits-of-sitting-down-to-pee
8. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/20/the-splashback-scandal-should-all-men-sit-down-to-urinate
9. https://theconversation.com/does-it-matter-if-you-sit-or-stand-to-pee-and-what-about-peeing-in-the-shower-206869
10. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/when-it-comes-to-peeing-are-australian-men-sitters-or-standers-heres-the-answer/417he8o4b
11. https://medium.com/kaalam-collective/why-women-sit-and-men-stand-how-war-clothing-and-culture-shaped-the-way-we-pee-4e9f306ae900
12. https://forum.susana.org/141-other-types-of-toilets-and-sanitation-systems/12901-please-help-me-with-a-global-survey-how-common-are-squatting-toilets-in-your-country?start=36
13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4106761

This.

If the goal of a woman is to pee standing up which involves major and invasive surgery using a rolled up piece of skin stapled to her groin, surely to god the answer is mental health therapy.

Being able to pee standing is not all it's made out to be. It's useful in certain emergency situations, but can be erratic at best, and certainly seems less worth bothering with as you get older.

First off, "big pharmaceutical companies will stop offering these hideous, untested procedures have no say in any medical surgeries" has NOTHING to do regarding surgeries in the U.S. They only focus on capitalizing on the medications dispensed to fill their coffers. Secondly, ftm in the U.S. deem peeing standing up as a rite of passage for achieving a machismo persona, despite the percentage of men in other countries who do it sitting down. The likely reason he promoted himself as being a star in this type of surgery, was likely for money. This is how the U.S. is different because the healthcare system is out-of-control as it's not nationally subsidized and why "top surgery" is up to $18k without the help of insurance, and "bottom surgery" is up to $75k without insurance for everything. Not to mention the medications, bed rest with not working, follow up medical appointments, etc. so for someone willing to go through all of this hardship is no different than people obsessed with plastic surgery for both in-patient and out-patient procedures. This is all about their own happiness, so instead of anyone here judging these people to seek mental health, then quit the makeup, the skims shapers, botox treatment, eye lifts, mommy makeovers, etc. and get mental health therapy instead. Glass house v brick (brick always wins btw).

I don’t think one type of surgery being risky necessarily invalidates a different type of much more risky surgery. Commentators should be able to condemn an elective, experimental and very risky intervention on its own merits. But if it will relieve your mind, I have never had plastic surgery, nor has it ever occurred to me to do so. HTH.

Big difference between an expensive haircut or some new clothes, and major surgery. I agree that happiness is better found through other measures than invasive surgery with life long consequences.

Comparing botox injections with a phalloplasty is quite the stretch.

Having a haircut and fashioning a fake penis from skin stripped from your thigh are absolutely exactly the same thing mate. You got us banged to rights there.

Absolutely. I also noticed

Doctors eventually had to remove “a severely deformed, scarred and nonfunctional structure that was intended to serve as phallus,” the suit alleges.

In what way was this appendage ever going to be “functional”, other than to allow urination standing up?

This is all about their own happiness, so instead of anyone here judging these people to seek mental health, then quit the makeup, the skims shapers, botox treatment, eye lifts, mommy makeovers, etc. and get mental health therapy instead. Glass house v brick (brick always wins btw).

The above are in no way equivalent to phalloplasty, which is major surgery with a high complication rate. Plus, not all women wear makeup (I don’t), fewer have Botox, even fewer have eye lifts or know what a skim shaper is (I assume it’s a corset or some sort of Lycra underwear).

Mommy Makeover. Totally normal on Terf Island that.

All these surgeries that are done on fully functioning human beings, but have a risk of causing incontinence, should be taken far, far more seriously than they are. The bottom line (as has been stated before) is that no one's life is made better by being incontinent.

I'm very pro plastic surgery (for example, helping someone with terrible injuries) that is done to fix an actual problem.

Cosmetic surgery and other surgeries done on healthy, normal (physically) patients where there isn't a problem to fix, no, I'm much more cautious about that.

I wonder if Numbers includes Botox used for actual medical issues (such as the aforementioned incontinence or muscle spasticity in strokepatients) in his 'Botox treatments' mention? In my opinion, there is a world of difference between using Botox for wrinkles and using it to help a victim of a stroke.

crafting penises you say? What Frankenstein hell is that?

The thing with mental issues is that they originate in the mind, and so tend to shift their focus once the initial surgery or cosmetic procedure has been completed. That is why people who get involved with plastic surgery and 'tweakments' for cosmetic reasons tend to get addicted to procedures. The feelings always return - because that is the nature of feelings.

Same for people with 'gender' dysphoria.....the disatisfaction and distress simply shifts to another body part or component.

I think most people agree that mental issues cannot be resolved by cosmetic procedures, 'tweakments' etc. They may temporarily quieten a distressing feeling, but the same feelings will always return, compelling the person to keep repeating the procedure to keep the feelings at bay.

This is why so many people end up looking like Frankenstein's monster - thoroughly inhuman, freakish and frozen. Madonna being a perfect case study, or Katie Price.