Man who had a two-day erection has to have the tip of his penis AMPUTATED after 'bungling doctors failed to remove a catheter from his urethra' and it developed GANGRENE

A man whose erection lasted two days developed gangrene and needed the tip of his penis amputated.

The extraordinary case of the unnamed 52-year-old, from India, has been published in an medical journal.

Doctors revealed the man first went to the hospital because he couldn't get rid of a 'painful and sustained' erection.

When medics drained the blood, however, they left a catheter in and he quickly developed a black gangrene on the head of his penis.

By the time he returned to hospital there was so much dead tissue surgeons were left with no option but to amputate.

The man was treated at King George's Medical University in Lucknow – around 310miles (500km) south east of New Delhi.

He first sought help for priapism, the medical term for a persistent and painful erection of the penis, according to an article in BMJ Case Reports.

He had been suffering from the painful condition for 48 hours before first going to a medical centre.

It is unsure what triggered his priapism. It is considered a medical emergency if an erection lasts for longer than two hours.

However, the NHS states it can be caused by sickle cell disease, illegal and legal drugs, or by taking Viagra or similar erection remedies.

Surgeons put a device called a shunt, which diverts blood flow, into his penis along with a urinary catheter, and wrapped it in a compressive bandage.

But just the day after his operation, the glans (head) of his penis – which became flaccid – began to turn black.

'We removed his urethral catheter,' Dr Saqib Mehdi, who treated the patient, wrote in the case report.

'But still the black colour of glans penis deepened over the next day and a clear line of demarcation became visible between it and the penile shaft.'

Doctors couldn't stop the gangrene, which is the irreversible death of skin and flesh, so decided the best option was to amputate the head of the penis.

Three weeks after the life-changing operation the man could urinate normally and had a 'healthy wound', the report said.

Dr Mehdi and his colleagues suggested the catheter and tight dressing put on after the procedure to treat the man's priapism may have triggered the gangrene.

Source: The Daily Mail

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