A Nebraska woman who underwent a double mastectomy when she was just 16 years old is suing the medical facility, doctors, and nurses who helped perform the operation. Luka Hein, Now 21, was born female but underwent a double mastectomy during her transition into a transgender male.

Luka Hein, Now 21, has publicly shared her experience of growing up female, transitioning at an early age, and undergoing major surgery to complete her transition. However, unlike many individuals who undergo gender-reaffirming surgery, Hein does not hold back on her feelings of regret that followed shortly after.

Hein has been an outspoken individual in the growing movement of transgender individuals who have “de-transitioned.” Hein explains that she grew up with conflicting feelings about her gender identity and instead of receiving appropriate care, her struggles were addressed with extreme measures that led her to the path of transitioning both mentally and physically.

In the lawsuit, Hein shares that In 2015, at age 13, her parents divorced, forcing her to split her time between two households. The sudden life change negatively impacted her school work and overall mental health, causing her to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. Her mental health issues would then lead her to struggle with her appetite, causing her to engage in self-harm, and entertain suicidal ideations.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Hein shares, “I was going through the darkest and most chaotic time in my life, and instead of being given the help I needed, these doctors affirmed that chaos into reality.”

In her 28-page lawsuit, Hein describes that the first step in her “gender-affirming care” was to have her breasts surgically amputated. Her lawsuit asserts that the gender-affirming model the medical professionals abided by subjects vulnerable individuals like Hein to “Medical harm with deceptive euphemisms and false promises.” The lawsuit explains, “Rather than treating gender dysphoria, the affirming model conditions children toward transgender identification by encouraging social transition, chest binding, opposite sex pronouns, cross-sex hormones, and surgery.”

When speaking to media outlets on the topic of de-transitioning, Hein maintains that instead of providing sound medical care to her and her family, her parents were repeatedly told “Do you want a dead daughter or a living son?”

In Nebraska, a patient has to be 18 years or older in order to consent to their own medical treatment, as outlined by Nebraska Revised Statute 43-2101. Hein’s lawsuit maintains that children, even those at age 16, do not have the mental capacity to consent to such life-changing medical procedures.

The lawsuit dives into the details of adolescent brain development, explaining, “By damaging the thinking and planning processes of teenagers with chemicals, defendants impair their young patients’ ability to fully understand and consent to the very transgender procedures they advocate. Rather than “pausing” puberty to give a teenager time to think, puberty blockers damage their ability to think.”

Hein shared with the Daily Mail, “I don’t think kids can ever consent to having full bodily functions taken away at a young age before they even know what that means,” adding, “I was talked into medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long-term impacts and consequences of.”

Hein filed her lawsuit last Wednesday in the District Court of Douglas County and names several medical professionals at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who helped in her double mastectomy. They include Dr. Nahia Amoura, an OB-GYN physician; Megan Smith-Sallons, an “affirming therapist”; Dr. Perry Johnson, who performed the “top” surgery; and Dr. Stephan Barrientos, who assisted in the surgery.

The defendants are accused of negligence “in failing to question Luka’s self-diagnosis, instead ‘affirming’ her toward irreversible chemical and surgical solutions.”