A hospital and doctors in California are facing a new lawsuit for removing the breasts of a 13-year-old girl after she claimed she was a boy.
The defendants carried out “ideological and profit-driven medical abuse” when they prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones and, later, performed a double mastectomy, Charles LiMandri, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, Layla Jane, said in a statement.
Jane, now 18, was influenced by people online when she was just 11 and told her parents that she was a boy, prompting them to ask for guidance from doctors.
While three doctors said Jane was too young for cross-sex hormones, she was eventually referred to several other doctors who prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones. Within six months, they removed her breasts.
“Defendants did not question, elicit, or attempt to understand the psychological events that led Kayla to the mistaken belief that she was transgender, nor did they evaluate, appreciate, or treat her multi-faceted presentation of co-morbid symptoms,” the suit reads.
“Instead, Defendants assumed that Kayla, a twelve-year-old emotionally troubled girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad. There is no other area of medicine where doctors will surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally induce a diseased state of the pituitary gland misfunction based simply on the young adolescent patient’s wishes.”
Doreen Samelson, a psychologist not named as a defendant, by contrast, told Jane and her parents that she couldn’t receive puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones due to factors such as her age.
Jane, whose given name is Kayla Lovdahl, has since “detransitioned,” or resumed identifying as a girl.
She’s currently receiving psychotherapy for mental health issues such as social anxiety disorder. That kind of treatment should have been offered instead of the drastic steps the defendants took, the suit states, noting that, per a number of studies, youth who experience gender dysphoria often ultimately become comfortable with their birth sex.
The lack of therapy and outlining of possible side effects from the surgery means the doctors didn’t provide Jane with informed consent, according to the suit. Instead, the defendants claimed that the dysphoria wouldn’t resolve unless she underwent the procedure.
At one point, one allegedly told her parents, “Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?”
Jane said she didn’t feel better after her surgery. She suffered nerve damage and other issues. She says she’s happier since she detransitioned.
“The law says children aren’t mature enough to make serious decisions that could have long lasting consequences like getting a tattoo, driving with friends, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or even voting,” Jane said in a statement. “So why is it acceptable for 13-year-olds to decide to mutilate their body?”
The defendants are Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Permanente Medical groups, both part of the nonprofit Kaiser Permanente; Watson; and doctors who work for or are affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser Permanente and Watson didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The suit was filed in the Superior Court of the state of California.
Jane is seeking damages for her pain and suffering, additional money for medical expenses, and costs of the suit covered.
“Kaiser continues to engage in the quackery of subjecting innocent children to irreversible sex mimicry treatment, including drugs and surgery, without informed consent,” Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which is also representing Jane, said in a statement.
“The medical providers responsible for Layla’s case, along with countless others, have substituted woke ideology for medically accepted standards of care, including lying to and manipulating vulnerable patients and families.
“We are committed to holding them accountable for the harm inflicted upon Layla, and together we intend to strongly deter Kaiser’s factory-line approach that permanently mutilates an unknown number of American children, subjecting them to a lifetime of harm, regret, and medical consequences.”
A similar lawsuit was filed by Chloe Cole, whose breasts were removed when she was 15, earlier this year.
