A woman from Minnesota, Luka Hein, is suing the medical professionals who performed her double mastectomy when she was 16. Hein claims she was emotionally struggling as a teen due to her parent’s divorce and the fact that she was being groomed online by a man who claimed to be much older than her and lived in another state.
She says that officials at the University of Nebraska Medical Center pressured her to have “top” surgery and begin hormone therapies after meeting with them and discussing the benefits of breast surgery and hormones.
Hein argues that, as a minor, she should not have been allowed to give informed permission for the procedures. She thinks that young children don’t have the cognitive capacity to provide informed consent regarding having significant body functions removed.
She wants accountability for the fact that these doctors “put me through this,” as well as financial compensation from the hospital. On Wednesday, the defendants in the 28-page complaint filed in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska, were identified as affirming therapist Megan Smith-Sallons, OB-GYN Dr. Nahia Amoura, Dr. Perry Johnson (the surgeon), and his assistant Dr. Stephan Barrientos.
According to the lawsuit, Hein’s mental health issues started in 2015, when her parents split up, and she had to spend time between two homes. She had trouble concentrating in class, had panic attacks, and even considered ending her life. In the following years, she received diagnoses of depression and generalized anxiety disorder and was hospitalized multiple times for her mental health. By 2017, Hein was looking for solace online, and it is believed that an older, out-of-state guy was grooming her.
Hein was sent to the gender clinic for a double mastectomy in October, but the therapist noted that Hein was stressed by her continuous custody troubles, lonely at her new school, anxious about the onset of her period, and dysphoric about her chest. According to the lawsuit, Hein’s previous hospitalizations for mental health, her online meeting with an older guy, and the demands from her family should have tipped off the doctors that something was amiss with her claims of gender dysphoria.
