The Center for American Liberty is representing 21-year-old Luka Hein, who explains in the legal complaint that when she was 16 and healthy, doctors at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) gave her a double mastectomy as the first step in “gender affirming care.” Hein’s medical team also put her on high doses of testosterone. According to the lawsuit, the procedures “constitute negligence and are violative of Nebraska’s Consumer Protection Act.” The filing states that the surgery, which amputated Hein’s breasts, has left her “physically and psychologically scarred.” There are still concerns she may have also suffered a loss of fertility, leaving her unable to have children. If she is able to have children, the complaint explains, the surgery has left her unable to breastfeed, “thereby depriving her of the maternal benefits of nursing. Luka’s future children will be deprived of the natural bonding effects and nutritional benefits of breastfeeding.” Doctors also put her on testosterone for four years, which, according to the lawsuit, “caused the disruption of her endocrine system, heart damage, deepening of her voice, pain in her vocal cords, joints, lumbar spine, hands, wrists, elbows and pelvic area, as well as permanent dysregulation of her reproductive organs.” The filing alleges that doctors at UNMC manipulate impressionable patients and their parents into damaging and experimental procedures, knowing, as detailed in the document, that transitioning from male to female and vice versa “is not medically or biologically possible.” Hein, who had already struggled with mental health issues, began questioning if she’d be better off without breasts after she was groomed online and preyed upon by an older out-of-state man who coerced her into sending sexually explicit photos, then threatened her after she refused to send more. Shortly after the experience, she ordered a chest binder, transferred from an all-girls school, and identified as transgender. Hein’s lawyers say her gender affirming therapist and the medical team at UNMC worked in tandem to create a closed feedback system that “manipulates patients like [Hein] to deeper—and more damaging—levels of transgender medical intervention.” Hein’s legal team says that the clinicians at UNMC engaged in “deceptive acts and practices” that violated Nebraska’s Consumer Protection Act. “Luka relied upon the misrepresentations of the [medical team],” which the lawsuit says has left her a medical orphan with doctors now having “no idea how to help her.” As stated in the filing, Hein is seeking a jury trial and compensation for damages, attorney fees, and court costs.A fifth lawsuit involving a child taking action against medical providers who performed gender reassignment surgeries to minors has been filed.
