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POLK COUNTY, Iowa — A Panora man was awarded more than $12 million by a Polk County jury on Friday after he underwent surgery by mistake.

The Iowa Clinic admitted a pathologist mixed up tissue samples for a patient with prostate cancer and the plaintiff, Rickie Huitt, who did not have cancer.

In a deposition filed in July 2018, Dr. Joy Trueblood, who was the Iowa Clinic’s anatomical laboratory director at the time, stated she was examining two separate prostate files when she mistakenly scanned 65-year-old Huitt’s as the cancerous file.

As a result, Huitt got the wrong diagnosis, underwent unnecessary surgery, and suffered nerve damage.

Huitt claimed the intense surgery has left him unable to control when he goes to the bathroom, and his relationship with his wife has also suffered because of side effects from the surgery.

According to the Des Moines Register, Huitt asked for $15 million in damages. He was awarded $12.25 million.