LONDON (CBSDC) — A British man is suing a hospital after surgeons removed the wrong testicle during cancer surgery.

The U.K. Metro reports doctors realized the mistake about 40 minutes after the initial surgery and tried to correct the mistake in an emergency procedure to no avail.

“The matter is in the hands of my solicitor,” the unnamed man said. “She is about to issue proceedings now.”

A patient watchdog group is calling for an investigation into the surgical mistake.

“This is a tragic thing to have happened,” Phil Matthews, chairman of the Wiltshire Involvement Network, told Metro. “With this type of operation men need confidence they can put their trust fully in the hospital.”

The Salisbury District Hospital has offered an apology to the 48-year-old man.

“We have received notification from solicitors of pending legal action,” the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust told the British publication. “This is a regrettable incident and the trust once again offers its sincere apologies to the patient.”

The man now fears that he will be unable to have children.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 360 men died from testicular cancer in the United States last year.