A magnitude 4.8 earthquake shook parts of the east coast on Friday. I sat safely in my apartment wondering if the violent shaking in my building was due to my neighbor running his washing machine, or if my building’s bad plumbing was finally about to fail in spectacular fashion. cracks.
But Justin Allen, a stay-at-home dad from Pennsylvania, was probably in the very last place you’d want to be during an earthquake. He was placed on an examination bed with a doctor’s hands and pointed objects cutting his testicles.
About an hour after Allen left the clinic and ran to the pharmacy, he called WIRED to talk about the absurd timing of his vasectomy.
Makena Kelly: Okay. First of all, are you guys okay?
Justin Allen: I am fine. Just got home. Start relaxing now.
Were you nervous before the procedure started?
I already have white coat hypertension. So my blood pressure was already super high when I came in and I was definitely nervous. The doctor walked me through it step by step, which was soothing the entire time, but I’m always nervous about things like that.
At what stage of the procedure did this happen?
We were probably almost halfway there. Essentially the proceedings started around 10:10 am (am ET) and it was 10:24 or 10:25 am that the earthquake struck.
Can you paint a picture for me of what it was like on that table?
I’m lying there. He was trying to figure out what to do down there and the whole building started shaking. I wasn’t sure what happened. It definitely felt like an earthquake, but we don’t normally have those. I didn’t know if there was a train nearby or something that would make the building shake.
And then the doctor said, “Oh my God. That’s an earthquake.” I thought he was messing with me. I thought he was just trying to be funny. But while this was happening, the desk staff outside the room started yelling about an earthquake and I thought, “Oh, wow, this is really happening.” And the doctor puts down the tools and asks, “How long does an earthquake normally last?” and the nurse said, “I’ll think about it for about a minute or two.” So we stopped and waited, and he continued as soon as it was done.
So it stopped right when the shaking happened?
I think so. He was almost at the end of the step he was currently taking. But he did put the tool down for a moment to recalibrate it.
And how did you feel at that moment?
We laughed about it because we’ve never really experienced it before. So it didn’t seem like a dangerous earthquake. It was just kind of a rumble. And then the doctor, the nurse and I all joked about how we’ll never forget where we were right now. I will carry this whole story with me for the rest of my life. That I had a vasectomy and the earthquake happened, and I don’t live in California or anything like that. It just doesn’t happen on the East Coast. It was certainly a surprise.