Lawsuit photo Kayla Lovdahl
Kayla Lovdahl is an 18-year-old woman who is accusing a California hospital and doctors of medical negligence for performing a mastectomy on her at age 13 when she thought she was transgender, according to a lawsuit she filed.
Lovdahl filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Lisa Kristine Taylor M.D., Winnie Mao Yiu Tong M.D., Susanne E. Watson PhD, and Mirna Escalante, M.D., accusing them of “medical negligence.” The lawsuit was filed in Califoria Superior Court on June 14, 2023, by the Center for American Liberty and attorneys with two law firms, including Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican Party official. Dhillon is the center’s founder.
Tong is a plastic surgeon based in San Francisco, according to WebMD. Watson is the clinic director of a Transgender Center in Oakland, according to LinkedIn. Escalante is a specialist in pediatric endocrinology, according to Kaiser’s website. The website says Taylor holds the same specialty.
Lovdahl was previously given the pseudonym “Layla Jane” but has since been named in multiple news reports and in the lawsuit.
“This case is about a team of doctors (i.e., the Defendants) who decided to perform a damaging, imitation sex change experiment on Kayla, then a twelve-year-old vulnerable girl struggling with complex mental health co-morbidities, who needed care, attention, and psychotherapy, not cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgery,” the lawsuit says.
Heavy has reached out to Kaiser for comment and also asked Kaiser whether any of the named doctors wish to offer comment. The hospital did not respond to a request from the New York Post for comment.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Kayla Lovdahl Is a Biological Female Who Suffered Complex Mental Health Symptoms, the Lawsuit Says
Lawsuit photoKayla Lovdahl,
According to the lawsuit, Lovdahl “is a biological female who suffered from a complex, multi-faceted array of mental health symptoms as a child and adolescent.”
The lawsuit says that her symptoms and concerns included:
. . . recurrent intense anxiety and panic, extreme mood fluctuations, self- harm, problems at school resulting in suspensions, oppositional behavior, defiant behavior, interpersonal peer relationship problems, anger, depression, crying spells, significant appetite changes, irritability, agitation, decreased energy, panic with hyperventilation, confusion, nausea, nightmares, explosive temper outbursts, poor concentration, and gender dysphoria.
The lawsuit continues:
Many of these symptoms are compatible with undiagnosed and untreated bipolar disorder, a diagnosis Kayla’s mother repeatedly brought to the Defendant’s attention because of her own diagnosis with this condition. Kayla and her parents struggled consistently with Kayla’s mental health issues, regularly seeking assistance, but never received adequate treatment for her mental health issues.
2. The Lawsuit Says Kayla Lovdahl Erroneously Believed She Was Transgender After Being Exposed to Online Influencers
According to the lawsuit, in early adolescence around age 11, Lovdahl “was exposed to online transgender influencers who prompted Kayla to entertain the erroneous belief that she was transgender. As a result, Kayla informed her parents that she was a boy. Prior to being exposed to online influences, Kayla never had expressed to anyone that she was transgender. Her parents didn’t know what to do.”
Lovdahl’s parents “promptly sought guidance from various doctors and eventually the Defendants,” the lawsuit says.
“Three Kaiser doctors, including Defendant Dr. Escalante, advised Kayla and her parents that Kayla was too young for cross-sex hormones. But Kayla and her parents eventually were referred to Defendants Dr. Watson, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Tong, who immediately, and negligently, affirmed Kayla’s self- diagnosed transgenderism without adequate psychological evaluation,” the lawsuit alleges.
“They instead promptly placed her on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 12, and performed a double mastectomy within six months at age 13. This all occurred after Dr. Watson determined in a single, 75-minute transition evaluation that Kayla was transgender.”
The lawsuit alleges that “defendant Watson told them that there were no age limits on cross-sex hormones or a mastectomy in Kaiser’s policies and counseled them to proceed with physical transition.”
It continues, “On May 1, 2017, at 12 years old, Kayla consulted with Winnie Tong M.D., a plastic surgeon, who concluded after 30 minutes that Kayla is a good candidate for surgery. On the same date, Watson formally approved and recommended Kayla for bilateral mastectomies (so called ‘top surgery’).”
It says, “On September 22, 2017, after Kayla just turned age 13, Dr. Tong performed a double mastectomy on her. Kayla had no sexual relationships prior to this time, and had no concept of being a parent, and had no idea what it might mean to lose her ability to breastfeed a baby in the future.”
3. Kayla Lovdahl ‘Detransitioned’ When She Was 17, the Lawsuit Says
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of not questioning, eliciting, or attempting “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.”
Instead, it says, they “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.”
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants “were horribly, and inexcusably wrong, as Kayla was not transgender and was not a person that any reasonable physician could ascertain would permanently maintain a transgender identity. Consequently, she detransitioned when she was 17 years old, and she eventually started regular psychotherapy sessions for her mental health symptoms, which is the care she should have been receiving all along.”
The lawsuit concludes, “at age 17 years old, Kayla began a period of detransition and no longer identifies as a male. Unfortunately, as a result of the so-called transgender “treatment” that Defendants performed on Kayla, she now has deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regrets. Kayla has suffered physically, socially, neurologically, and psychologically. Among other harms, she has suffered mutilation to her body, fertility risks, health risks, and lost opportunities for social and physical development along with her peers, and at key developmental milestones that can never be regained.”
The lawsuit says:
Eventually, Kayla started to realize that her mental health issues were not related to being transgender or being ‘born in the wrong body.’ She realized that she just had anxiety and mood disorder issues that needed to be addressed with proper mental health treatment. Kayla stopped injecting testosterone around the middle of 2021, while beginning a period of detransition.
A statement on the center’s website says:
Layla’s doctors falsely stated that she presented an increased suicide risk if she did not transition, contrary to important and reliable clinical research demonstrating the poor mental health outcomes with transition; and further failed to inform her of the drastically increased suicide risk that would follow with the completed transition. Furthermore, they coerced Layla and her parents to undergo this treatment regimen by indicating that ‘it is better to have a live son than a dead daughter.’
4. The Center for American Liberty Represents Another Girl, Chloe Cole, Who Regrets Her Transition to Male, Court Documents Say
The Center has also represented Chloe Cole, “who testified publicly against gender-affirming healthcare before the California Assembly in June,” according to Southern California Record.
That site says that Cole’s breasts “were removed when she was 15, she was prescribed puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones that facilitated her transition to male, however today she regrets the decision.”
A notice of intent to sue against Kaiser and several doctors on the Center’s website says, “Unfortunately, as a result of the so-called transgender ‘treatment’ that Defendants performed on Chloe, she now has deep emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust for the medical system.”
In a video interview with Lovdahl, Chloe Cole called her a personal hero and friend.
5. Kayla Lovdahl Says She Was Home Schooled After Undergoing Bullying
In the interview with Cole, Lovdahl said she was bullied and then ended up being home-schooled.
She said in the interview that she missed out on prom and graduation. “It does actually make you kind of sad,” Lovdahl told Cole.
Lovdahl said her isolation from friend groups contributed to her decision to go on puberty blockers. At that time, she said she didn’t really have any friends who were girls. She said that the friends she had at that time were “toxic” and “catty,” and contributed to her not wanting to be a girl.
Lovdahl has a Twitter page under the name Layla Jane.
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