US soldier who had his testicles blown off will now be able to have kids thanks to radican treatment

Sgt Thai Lee was serving as an Army medic in Afghanistan in 2014 when the unthinkable happened.

After breakfast at his base, he heard explosions and ran to the scene of the attack.

But soon, he felt an excruciating heat between his legs, collapsed and passed out.

After he regained consciousness, he had a friend hovering over him.

With pain emanating from his groin and stomach, he asked his friend how his ‘boys’ were doing.

His friend responded by telling him that he would not be able to have kids. 

It was three days later at Walter Reed National Military Center in Maryland that Sgt Lee learned just what had happened, according to NBC News.

He had a stroke and neck wound that partially paralyzed the left side of his body, and he was hit in the stomach and lost part of his intestines.

Furthermore, Sgt Lee’s penis had been severely cut – with one testicle ‘blown off’ and the other crushed.

Sgt Lee, of Grimes, Iowa, had been hoping to start a family with his wife after he completed his duty.

Together, the couple had dreams of settling down and becoming parents.

But now, it seemed like that dream was dashed.

However, Walter Reed urologist Col Robert Dean informed Sgt Lee of a development in fertility medicine that could help him father a child.

The new procedure entailed recovering sperm remaining in the seminal vesicle – which are glands found behind the bladder.

Sperm is stored in the seminal vesicle before ejaculation.

With this procedure, doctors could freeze the existing sperm and thaw it when the Sgt Lee and his wife wanted to get pregnant.

Sgt Lee agreed to the procedure, and using an ultrasound, Col Dean inserted a long thin needle through the rectal wall and into Sgt Lee’s seminal vesicle.

He suctioned out between 40,000 to 6.4 million sperm, which is sufficient for numerous IVF cycles.

Only six patients have undergone the procedure since it became available in 2012.

According to NBC, the procedure is ‘showing promise for men’ who have no other options to father biological children – particularly those in the military.

The Department of Defense Trauma Registry showed that more than 1,200 US military members in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered between 2003 and 2014.

Many of those injuries are the result of improvised explosive devices encountered during foot patrol.

Col Dean told NBC: ‘Those blasts go up and injure more of the pelvis and case more limb loss and penile and groin injuries.

‘Sometimes, men would come back with no testicles.

‘That means they’ll never have another chance to make sperm again.’

Sgt Lee, now 29, and his wife of eight years began IVF nearly a year ago – and she became pregnant on the second try.

She is now due in April. 

He told NBC: ‘I can’t wait to be a dad.

‘When she got pregnant, I finally felt complete.’ 

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