A father found himself in one of the most unfortunate settings during Friday’s earthquake: The operating table at his own vasectomy.
Justin Allen was getting ‘the snip’ at the Urology Health Surgery Center in Horsham, Pennsylvania, when the 4.8 quake rocked the tri-state area and beyond.
He said the doctor was forced to ‘put the tools down for a moment’ before resuming the delicate procedure that involves cutting tubes in the testicles and penis.
His wife Bridget said the freak event was a further ‘sign’ that ‘we should never ever ever have another child ever again…ever’.
Justin Allen, from Horsham, was getting ‘the snip’ at the Urology Health Surgery Center when the 4.8 quake rocked the tri-state area and beyond
Allen with wife Bridget
Mr Allen told the Guardian: ‘I thought maybe a train was passing by or it was just something that happens at that office, even when the doctor was like “I think this is an earthquake”.
‘I figured he was messing with me, but he had to stop because everything was shaking.’
The earthquake struck right in the middle of his procedure, while he was lying on the operating bench as the doctor snipped his tubes.
The physician paused for about a minute or two because of the earthquake, he said, before continuing.
‘I’m lying there. He’s in the middle of whatever he needs to do down there, and the whole building started shaking,’ he added to Wired.
‘I wasn’t sure what was happening, it definitely felt like an earthquake, but we don’t normally have those.’
He said his vasectomy started at around 10:10am, with the earthquake hitting around 10:24am. Vasectomies take about 20 minutes to complete.
Mr Allen is now back at home and said he will be spending the rest of the day icing the affected area and relaxing.
There were no complications with the procedure as a result of the earthquake, he said.
He first revealed the incident on X, with his wife Bridget adding online: ‘I need to add, as the wife of the patient, the only thing this was a “sign” of was the fact that we should never ever ever have another child ever again… ever.’
The couple had their second child Eleanor, or Ellie, on February 29 — or the leap day this year.
They had always planned to have the vasectomy after the birth, Mr Allen said, as long as everything went smoothly.
He scheduled the operation for around a month after the birth of his daughter.
