A woman who claims she was rushed into transgender surgery is suing the doctors who gave her a double mastectomy as a child.
Luka Hein was given the irreversible operation at 16 and says the surgery has left her with daily pain, while the hormone drugs may have robbed her of the chance of becoming a mother.
The Minnesotan, now 21, suffered a traumatizing few years as a teenager when her parents went through a bitter divorce and she was groomed by a man she met on the internet.
She became increasingly withdrawn and spent more time online, where she began following trans influencers and became convinced she was born the wrong gender.
The diagnosis
Luka claims she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a therapist within an hour during her first session and was referred for ‘top’ surgery after her second appointment.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘I was going through the darkest and most chaotic time in my life, and instead of being given the help I needed, these doctors affirmed that chaos into reality.’
She added: ‘I don’t think kids can ever consent to having essentially full bodily functions taken away at a young age before they even know what that means.’
‘I was talked into medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long-term impacts and of.
The lawsuit
A lawsuit Ms Hein filed Wednesday in Nebraska accuses the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) gender clinic of malpractice and seeks financial damages.
Luka said she is suing for financial compensation and ‘accountability for the fact that these [doctors] put me through this.’
In her 28-page complaint, she said when she went back to the doctors to tell them she regretted the operation, she was told to seek mental health counseling.
The suit claims her doctor then said: ‘I guess this is just part of your gender journey. I was essentially just brushed aside.’
She has since decided to ‘detransition’ and live as a woman.
Her daily pains and regrets
But the treatments have allegedly left her with permanent scars, a deep voice and erratic hormones.
She also claims she has pain in her joints, lumbar spine, hands, wrists, elbows and pelvic area as a result of hormone therapy, adding she will not be able to breastfeed and may be infertile.
Harmeet Dhillon, Luka’s lawyer from the Center for American Liberty said: ‘This is really shocking malpractice.’
She said: ‘Coercive methods were used to coerce the family into agreeing to it, such as a false representation about the mental health fallout from not doing it.
‘Your daughter will commit suicide if you don’t agree to this,’ was communicated to her parents.
‘Doctors should not behave to vulnerable children or families in this manner, period. Doctors should not be mutilating and permanently disfiguring children, period, without some medical necessity, which did not present itself in this case.’
