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
Mr Allen is pictured above with his wife Bridget. She said it was a sign they should never have another child ever again
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 at his tubes.
The physician paused for about a minute or two because of the shaking, 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.’
The stay-at-home father went in for the vasectomy around 10:10am, he said, with the earthquake striking the area around 10:24am.
A vasectomy involves cutting or blocking the vas deferens, the tube that carries sperm from the testicles to outside the body.
For the procedure, doctors first expose the tube by making an up to 0.4-inch incision in the scrotum before operating on the tube.
Men who have a vasectomy can still ejaculate, because part of the semen is made in the seminal vesicles inside the body, but they will now be ‘shooting blanks’ — with their semen no longer containing sperm.
Mr Allen is now back at home and said he will be spending the rest of the day relaxing after the procedure.
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.’
Mr Allen is pictured above with his wife Bridget and their two children
The couple had decided Mr Allen should get a vasectomy after the birth of their second child because they didn’t want to have any more children.
Mr Allen said they first made the appointment in November and booked for about a month after their daughter’s due date.
Eleanor, or Ellie, was born on February 29 — or the leap year day — with Mr Allen then going for his operation today.
He had the vasectomy at the Urology Health Surgery Center in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
The earthquake that struck the tri-state area was the first to hit the east coast in over a decade, with tremors felt as far away as Washington DC and up in Maine.
It was centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, near where there is a fault line — according to the US Geological Survey.
The last earthquake to hit the area was a 5.9-magnitude quake in 2011 which struck just outside Washington DC, with tremors felt as far as North Carolina.
Vasectomies are becoming increasingly popular in the US amid the erosion of access to abortions since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Nearly two dozen states have now banned or limited access to abortion, although Pennsylvania — where Mr Allen is based — is not one of them.
Some couples choose vasectomies if they do not want to have another child and in order to remove the onus of birth control from the woman.
About 500,000 American men get a vasectomy every year, estimates suggest.
