Gangrene rots away Lucknow man's penis until it drops off after cancer surgery

A man’s entire penis fell off after it had rotted away because of gangrene triggered during a surgery to treat cancer in his neck in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

The 65-year-old had cancer just two weeks earlier, and for 10 days, lived with a ‘blackish discolouration’ of the shaft of his penis.

On inspection, medics realised the unfortunate man had developed an infection in his penis after attempts to put in a catheter – a tube in the penis to drain urine – during the operation had been botched.

During the process, the inside of his penis had been damaged and he developed Fournier's gangrene, an infection which eats away at human flesh.

When two weeks after surgeons tried to cut away the infection, the man's penis 'autoamputated' – meaning the whole member fell off on its own.

The case is thought to be only the third of its kind – the man now urinates out of a tube and is said to be 'doing well' after recovering from his ordeal.

Admitted to King George's Medical University Hospital in Lucknow in India's northern Uttar Pradesh, the man was diagnosed with a condition called Fournier's gangrene.

The unnamed man had an operation to treat cancer in his thyroid – in the neck – two weeks before being diagnosed with the penis infection, according to BMJ Case Reports.

During that operation, medics had tried to put a catheter into his penis to drain urine from his bladder, but failed and damaged the tissue inside his urethra.

Post the procedure, the man’s penis turned black and, although surgeons tried to cut away the infected flesh to save the man's penis, it eventually became so destroyed it dropped off.