A Minnesota woman who decided to stop being a transgender man is suing the doctors who performed a double mastectomy on her when she was just 16 years old.
Luka Hein, now 21, says she went through an emotionally difficult time as a teenager, when her parents divorced and when she was harassed online by a man from another state.
As she struggled with her mental health during this time, she said she found influencers online extolling the virtues of breast surgery and hormones.
Hein then met with staff members at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, who she said forced her to undergo “superior” surgery and started her on hormonal treatments.
She says the surgery and treatments left her in constant pain and may have robbed her of the opportunity to become a mother.
“I was going through the darkest, most chaotic time of my life, and instead of getting the help I needed, these doctors made that chaos a reality,” she told the Daily Mail.
She added that she should not have been able to consent to the surgery and treatments as she was still a minor.
“I don’t think children can consent to having all their bodily functions taken away at a young age before they know what that means,” Hein said.
Luka Hein, now 21, sues the doctors who performed a double mastectomy on him when he was 16.X / Luka Hein
“I was talked into a medical intervention whose long-term impacts and consequences I could not fully understand.”
Hein is now seeking financial compensation from the medical center and “responsibility for the fact that these [doctors] “Put me through this,” he said.
The 28-page complaint, filed Wednesday in Douglas County, Nebraska, District Court, lists Dr. Nahia Amoura, an obstetrician and gynecologist; Megan Smith-Sallons, an “affirmative therapist” at the gender clinic, Dr. Perry Johnson, who performed the “top” surgery; and Dr. Stephan Barrientos, who assisted in the surgery, as defendants.
He claims that each of them was “negligent in not questioning Luka’s self-diagnosis, but rather ‘steering’ her toward irreversible chemical and surgical solutions.”
The University of Nebraska Medical Center declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Hein began identifying as a man after following transgender influencers online.
According to the lawsuit, Hein began experiencing mental health issues in 2015 when the 13-year-old girl’s parents were divorcing and she was forced to split her time between two homes.
He began having difficulty in school and suffered anxiety and panic attacks, the lawsuit states.
Hein soon lost his appetite, began self-harming, and talked about committing suicide.
She was diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder, and was hospitalized several times for her mental health in the years that followed.
In 2017, Hein sought solace online, where she was allegedly groomed by an unidentified older man who lived out of state.
Hein then met with staff members at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, who she said forced her to undergo “superior” surgery and started her on hormonal treatments.
He persuaded her to send him sexually explicit photos, the lawsuit says, and when she refused to send him more, he threatened her.
Fearing for her safety, Hein contacted local police and was repeatedly questioned about the incident.
Meanwhile, as she began going through puberty, Hein became extremely uncomfortable with her breast development and her period.
Traumatized by her online encounter, the lawsuit says, Hein began to wonder if it would be better not to have breasts.
She then began exploring gender identity issues online and followed trans influencers until she became convinced she was the wrong gender.
Hein had been struggling as a teenager, in the midst of her parents’ divorce and after meeting an older man online who asked her for sexually explicit photos.X / Luka Hein
Hein began identifying as a man, ordered a chest binder, transferred from an all-girls school, and changed her name.
Because of what he read online, the lawsuit claims, Hein thought removing her breasts might help her mental state and met with doctors at the clinic, who, the lawsuit claims, made a “rapid” diagnosis of identity disorder. gender after just 55 minutes of their initial session in July 2017.
This “does not meet the standard of care for proper evaluation of gender identity disorder,” the lawsuit argues, saying the speed of diagnosis created a “feedback system that manipulates patients like Luka to [undergo] deeper and more damaging levels of transgender medical intervention.”
In October of that year, Smith-Sallons referred Hein to the gender clinic for a double mastectomy.
The therapist recorded in her notes that Hein felt overwhelmed by the ongoing custody issues she faced, felt lonely at her new school and had “anxiety about the start of her period, as well as chest dysphoria,” the lawsuit says.
Hein, pictured with an unidentified woman, now argues that she was too young to consent to the surgery.X / Luka Hein
“Instead of counseling Luka through these difficulties, Megan Smith-Sallons referred her to the gender clinic for ‘top surgery,'” it reads.
Hein then met with Dr. Johnson and Dr. Amoura to discuss the option, but in the official medical record, according to the lawsuit, Amoura wrote that he was meeting with Hein for an “endocrine disorder.”
“This was false. “Luka’s endocrine system was functioning perfectly,” the lawsuit says.
“Defendant Amoura’s plan to disrupt the healthy functioning of Luka’s endocrine system to ‘treat’ a mental health disorder was unreasonable and fell below the standard of care for an OB-GYN physician,” the lawsuit states.
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He also argues that doctors should have noted that there were several red flags about Hein’s claims of gender dysphoria, including her previous hospitalizations for mental health reasons, her online encounter with an older man and the family pressures she faced.
“This litany of psychosocial factors should have prevented a reasonably prudent plastic surgeon from performing a double mastectomy on a troubled teenage patient,” the lawsuit argues.
Instead, she says, Dr. Johnson told Hein’s parents that she would likely commit suicide if she did not undergo the procedure, even though she had not had suicidal ideations in nearly a year before the surgery.
“Doctors should not behave this way toward vulnerable children or families, period,” attorney Harmeet Dhillon of the Center for American Freedom told the Daily Mail.
“Doctors should not permanently mutilate and disfigure children, period, without some medical need, which was not present in this case.”
The Post has contacted Dr. Amoura, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Barrientos and Smith-Sallons.
Hein finally underwent the irreversible procedure on July 26, 2018, when she was just 16 years old and “incapable of giving consent,” the lawsuit says.
She then took testosterone for four years and Dr. Amoura even recommended that she have a hysterectomy at one point, but her parents objected and she never underwent the procedure.
Still, the suit says, Hein suffered pain in his joints, lumbar spine, hands, wrists, elbows and pelvic area, and has “heart irregularities” as a result of the hormone therapy.
“By the time he stopped, Luka had deteriorated physically and mentally to the point that on many days he could not function or even get out of bed,” the lawsuit says.
Hein finally told Dr. Amoura in January that she was transitioning, but Amoura allegedly told her that she should simply seek mental health counseling.
She reportedly told the now young adult, “I guess this is just part of your gender journey.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn