A 26-year-old has found himself unable to get an erection after one Viagra pill made him hard for an entire month.
Nat Thind took the performance enhancing pill this summer, after which he probably hoped to have a fun-filled night of action. Unfortunately, the medication, which increases blood flow to the penis, did its job a little bit too well and his dick stayed up for much, much longer than it was supposed to.
Though the 26-year-old had taken Viagra before without any problems, on June 18 he woke up to find he was still at ‘full mast’, a situation he ‘knew wasn’t normal’.
See Nat talk about his ordeal here:
Nat rushed himself to hospital where doctors diagnosed him with priapism, which is defined as ‘a long-lasting painful erection’. Medics then had to use needles in an attempt to drain the blood from his penis, as experts warn priapism can cause ‘permanent damage’ to the penis if not treated.
That in itself might sound like every guy’s worst nightmare, but it actually gets worse. When the needles proved unsuccessful, Nat had to undergo a ‘winter shunt’ surgery, which saw experts cutting into the patient’s penis to try to drain the excess blood through a small gap forged with a scalpel.
Are you cringing yet? If not, don’t worry, there’s more.
Not only did the operation fail in making Nat’s erection go away, but the 26-year-old claims he woke up to find his penis ‘mutilated’ and scarred.
Though his problem was very much still at large, Nat was discharged from hospital after three days. He had to live with the erection for four weeks, with no choice but to deal with the excruciating pain which came with it.
After a hard – in both senses of the word – month, Nat’s penis finally went soft, much to his relief. However, Nat’s happiness soon turned to concern when, within days, he realised he was unable to get an erection or achieve an orgasm.
Speaking about the awful ordeal, Nat said:
It’s very difficult to come to terms with the fact things aren’t working as they should. It’s particularly difficult to deal with as someone who’s only 26 years old and otherwise fit.
I had a healthy sex life before and obviously that’s impossible for me now – my penis can’t get hard and there’s almost no sensation in it.
My physical and mental health have definitely been affected.
Six weeks after taking the pill, Nat went to see a specialist in London about the issue but by that point he was told it was too late to have another surgery.
Nat feels the NHS let him down and that he should have been to see a specialist sooner.
He commented:
The problem was ongoing and I don’t feel like enough was being done to stop it. [The NHS] just kept telling me to sit tight.
Nat believes some of the problems he’s now dealing with, including numbness, random shooting pains and burning, may be a result of the surgery he had in the days after taking the Viagra. Medical professionals have reportedly informed him some nerves in his penis may have been damaged in the surgery.
He’s also critical of the aftercare provided by the NHS, saying officials have ‘fobbed him off’ time after time.
Nat explained:
[The doctors] did not really know what they were doing, they just had a go.
I was told the surgery had been successful but obviously it wasn’t.
With a lack of confidence in the health service, Nat hopes to visit specialists in Belgium and Germany within the next few months to see what help they can offer to get everything working as it should once again.
Another option is to take part in a clinical trial in which fat derived from stem cells is injected into the penis, allowing the body to regenerate the damaged areas.
Nat added:
I understand there’s no point in me being depressed about what’s happened, I have to try to do something about it.
I’m still assessing my options and I’m hopeful something can be done.
I have even got to the point where I can see the funny side of what’s happened.
He has since set up a GoFundMe page to help fund his search for treatment, explaining ‘I really want to be cured sooner rather than later’.
Hopefully Nat’s awful ordeal will be over soon!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.