On Friday, a 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck parts of the East Coast of the United States. I was safe in my apartment, wondering if the violent shaking in my building was because my neighbors were running their washing machines, or if my building’s bad pipes were finally about to burst in spectacular fashion.
But Justin Allen, a stay-at-home dad from Pennsylvania, is probably the absolute last place you want to be during an earthquake. He was placed on an examination table while the doctor’s hands and pointed objects were snipping his testicles.
About an hour after Allen left the clinic and ran to the pharmacy, he called Wired to talk about the ridiculous timing of his vasectomy.
Meghna Kelly: Okay. First of all, are you okay?
Justin Allen: I am fine. Just got home. Now start to relax.
Were you nervous before the surgery began?
I already have white coat hypertension. So my blood pressure was pretty high when I went in and I was definitely nervous. The doctor guided me step by step and the whole process was calm, but I always get nervous about things like this.
At what stage of the procedure does this occur?
We may be almost at the halfway point.Basically, the process starts around 10:10 [am ET] The earthquake occurred at 10:24 or 10:25.
Can you draw me a picture of what that table looks like?
I lay there. He was down there doing what he needed to do, and the whole building started shaking. I’m not sure what happened. It did feel like an earthquake, but that doesn’t usually happen to us. Not sure if there was a train nearby or something that would cause the building to shake.
Then the doctor said, “Oh my God. That was an earthquake.” I thought he was kidding me. I thought he was just trying to be funny. But as that was happening, the front desk clerk outside the room started screaming about an earthquake, and I was like, “Oh, wow, this is really happening.” The doctor put down his tools and asked, “How long do earthquakes usually last?” Nurse Said, “I want a minute or two.” So we stopped and waited and he continued as soon as he was done.
So he stopped when the vibration happened?
I think so. Whatever he was doing at the time was almost over. But he did put down his tools temporarily to recalibrate.
How did you feel at that moment?
We laughed about it because we’d never really experienced it. So this doesn’t look like a dangerous earthquake. It’s just a rumble. Then the doctors, nurses and I all joked that we would never forget where we were at this moment. I will understand this whole story for the rest of my life. I had a vasectomy and the earthquake happened, but I don’t live in California or anything like that. On the East Coast, that doesn’t happen. This is indeed a surprise.