A hospital where doctors are alleged to have removed the breasts of a 13-year-old girl under the “erroneous belief” that she was transgender is being sued by the woman five years on.
Kayla Lovdahl, now 18, says she underwent the invasive surgery after her doctors pushed her into the procedure when she was just 11 years old. A lawsuit filed by Kayla against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and four doctors claims they “handed Kayla the prescription pad, and allowed her naïve, emotional, childish, rollercoaster of feelings to dictate the so-called ‘treatment’ that she would receive”.
The litigation comes amid a growing number of young people now de-transitioning, many of whom say they were subjected to death threats and intimidation after turning their backs on a transgender community in the US that was growing increasingly “cult-like”.
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Kayla has alleged that she was exposed to “online transgender influencers” who encouraged her to believe that she was transgender when she was just 11 years old. With her parents unsure how best to support her, she sought medical help, rapidly sending her down a path of risky treatments in a for-profit medical system.
At the age of 12 she was on puberty blockers and testosterone despite never receiving a proper psychological evaluation, it was alleged. Amid concerns over potential operations, it is alleged Kayla’s physicians told her parents: “It is better to have a live son than a dead daughter”.
It was claimed that her entire transition evaluation lasted just over one hour in a process Kayla now alleges was “ideological and profit-driven medical abuse”.
At the age of 13, Kayla underwent a double mastectomy — a decision she now regrets after de-transitioning a year ago.
Her lawsuit condemned the system that allowed her to undergo the surgery at such a young age, stating: “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.”
After de-transitioning, she says she began regular psychotherapy sessions to help her mental health — “the care she should have been receiving all along”, the lawsuit added.
“The vast majority of cross-gender identified children, if medically treated in early adolescence, risk regretting the decision after they are old enough to realize their losses,” Kayla said, adding the ordeal left her with “deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regrets”.
She also claims the hospital and doctors failed to provide her and her parents with the proper routines for “informed consent”, which would have meant therapy sessions — something she says was never offered.
In a statement, her lawyers criticized the procedures as “an insane form of child abuse”.
Attorney Charles Limandri said: “We believe cases like this are the best way to stop them, especially in liberal states like California, where reckless ideologues are pushing this radical agenda.”
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals has been contacted for comment.
