A female college student who "detransitioned" after years of so-called "gender affirming care" allegedly left her in a downward mental and physical "spiral" and with lasting trauma and irreversible physical damage has filed suit against doctors and hospitals in L.A. and San Francisco who she accuses of misleading her and her parents into years of "medical abuse trauma."
On Dec. 5, Kaya Clementine Breen filed her complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Breen is represented in the action by attorneys Charles S. Limandri, Paul M. Jonna and Robert E. Weisenburger, with the firm if LiMandri & Jonna, of Rancho Santa Fe; and Jordan Campbell and Daniel Sepulveda, of Campbell Miller Payne, of Dallas.
Charles S. LiMandri
| LiMandri & Jonna
Defendants named in the action include: Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a doctor who heads the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles; Dr. Scott Mosser, of San Francisco; Susanne P. Landon, a licensed therapist, in Los Angeles; as well as Children's Hospital Los Angeles; and St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.
According to the complaint, at the age of 11, Breen allegedly told a school counselor she was gay and was struggling with the idea of entering puberty and becoming an adult woman.
According to the complaint, Breen has since allegedly realized those thoughts arose as a result of a post-trauma response to being sexually abused when she was a child.
However, at the time Breen allegedly shared her concerns with her school counselor, that counselor immediately told her and her parents that Breen was now to be considered a transgender boy.
The school counselor then allegedly referred Breen and her parents to Olson-Kennedy and the Transyouth Health and Development Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
According to the complaint, after just a few minutes into her very first consultation with Breen, Olson-Kennedy allegedly diagnosed Breen as having gender dysphoria and directed her to receive so-called puberty blocking drugs and later, increasing doses of testosterone to forestall natural female puberty and direct her body to begin becoming more masculine.
Olson-Kennedy further had Breen's female breasts surgically removed at the age of 13, allegedly telling Breen it was needed to allow her to have a chance of having a "'natural' 'cis male-looking chest.'"
According to the complaint, Olson-Kennedy allegedly persuaded Breen's parents to follow her guidance by allegedly telling them on more than one occasion that, if they did not, their child would most likely commit suicide.
"She bluntly asked them if they would rather have a living son or a dead daughter," the complaint said. "... Upon information and belief, threatening that a child will commit suicide unless undergoing cross-sex medicalization is a common tactic Dr. Olson-Kennedy and others at LA Children's engage in to convince uninformed parents who are averse to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery to treat their gender-confused children."
The complaint further alleges Olson-Kennedy allegedly did not fully advise Breen or her parents concerning the risks and adverse effects of following such supposed "gender-affirming care." Allegedly, Olson-Kennedy notably falsely told them the effects of the cross-sex hormones and "puberty blockers" were "completely reversible" and allegedly did not explain the treatments would most likely leave her infertile.
Informed consent, they wrote in the complaint, "involves extensive discussion of the known and unknown risks of the proposed treatments and ensuring that the patient and parents understand and fully appreciate the long-term consequences and effects, such as the loss of the ability to ever conceive a child or breastfeed one should the patient.
"It requires discussion of alternative methods of treatment. It should additionally entail discussion of the evidence base, or lack thereof, to support the off-label use of the proposed 'treatments.' None of the above was discussed or explained in Clementine’s case.
"In fact, the opposite occurred. Defendants obscured and concealed important information and failed to disclose the significant health risks associated with a female taking high doses of harmful male hormone drugs and puberty blockers."
According to the complaint, actual medical procedures on Breen were carried out at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, while consultations and other discussions occurred through LA Children's.
According to the complaint, Breen continued her gender transitioning treatments until she was 19 years old.
In the latter years of those treatments, according to the complaint, Breen reported worsening mental health, including hallucinations, self-harm and "for the first time" actual thoughts of suicide.
According to the complaint, hallucinations included "hearing voices telling her to 'hurt other people' and that 'there's someone behind you," as well as seeing "shadows," "bugs," "a corpse lying next to [her] in bed," and "a shadowy black figure that was almost as tall as the ceiling."
According to the complaint, Breen also reported being sexually assaulted again over a period of months, shortly before her breast removal procedure.
According to the complaint, doctors providing the treatments, however, allegedly "continued to push her father down the path of transition."
According to the complaint, Breen and her parents eventually pushed back against the medical and psychiatric team treating Breen, particularly when Olson-Kennedy allegedly recommended Breen receive a "gender-affirming" hysterectomy when Breen was 17.
According to the complaint, at the end of high school, Breen began receiving different mental health care from other providers, and at that point, "realized she was not 'trans.'"
"She was a vulnerable child suffering from untreated PTSD from traumatic events in her childhood," the complaint said. "Consequently, she detransitioned and no longer identifies as a male. But the damage has been done, and it is profound."
According to the complaint, Breen is now a college student at UCLA.
Breen is seeking unspecified damages from the various defendants, including general damages; "special damages for medical and related expenses;" damages for "pain and suffering, past and future, and mental anguish;" and attorney fees.
In a statement published by the San Francisco Chronicle in response to that publication's questions about the lawsuit, a spokesperson for LA Children's declined to comment on the allegations directly.
The spokesperson said the Transyouth Center “has provided high-quality, age-appropriate, medically necessary care for more than 30 years.”
“Treatment is patient- and family-centered, following guidelines from professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and Endocrine Society," the spokesperson said.