By In another court case that will strike a blow to the liberal obsession with changing the gender of children, a 36-year-old Oregon woman who underwent a double mastectomy after identifying as nonbinary has reached a confidential settlement in a malpractice lawsuit against the mental health professionals who approved the procedure after brief telemedicine appointments.
Camille Kiefel filed the lawsuit in 2022 against two Oregon therapists, alleging they cleared her for gender-related surgery despite a documented history of trauma, depression, suicidal thoughts, and ADHD. The case was settled just days before it was scheduled to go to trial, with reports placing the settlement at $3.5 million, according to The New York Post.
Kiefel received referral letters for the August 2020 surgery from Amy Ruff, a licensed clinical social worker, and Mara Burmeister, a licensed professional counselor. According to the lawsuit, the approvals followed two Zoom sessions, each lasting roughly an hour or less. The complaint also named their employers at the time, Brave Space and the Quest Center for Integrative Health.
The lawsuit accused the providers of professional malpractice, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud. Kiefel argued that she was not given proper informed consent and that providers failed to adequately evaluate whether her distress stemmed from underlying psychological or physical conditions rather than gender identity.
“I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to other vulnerable girls and women. And I wasn’t given true informed consent. And that’s something that everyone deserves to have for any medical procedure,” Kiefel told Fox News Digital.
Kiefel has said the surgery did not resolve her gender-related distress. She detransitioned within two years and has since reported continuing physical complications, along with significant emotional and psychological effects.
Her case centers on a broader dispute over the standard of care in gender medicine, particularly when patients seeking irreversible procedures also have histories of trauma or mental health struggles. Kiefel has described childhood trauma, including the rape of her best friend in fifth grade, as a major factor in her discomfort with her body. She said that experience contributed to her decision to adopt more masculine clothing as a form of self-protection.
While in college, Kiefel said a women’s studies class introduced her to the concept of being nonbinary, which she initially believed explained her distress. Years later, she sought and obtained approval for a double mastectomy.
After the surgery, Kiefel experienced health problems including vertigo, tinnitus, and Raynaud’s syndrome. She said her condition later improved substantially after working with a naturopath and focusing on nutrition and the gut-brain connection. That improvement led her to reconsider whether the surgery had addressed the underlying causes of her suffering.
“So while I’m addressing all my physical health issues, I start to question whether or not the surgery was helpful for me. And then about a year and a half later, I de-transitioned,” she told Fox News Digital.
Kiefel said the consequences of the procedure remain unavoidable even as her mental health has improved.
“It’s difficult because now I’m the most mentally healthy and most mentally stable I’ve been in my entire life, but I now no longer have my breasts,” she added. “And it is difficult because there’s like little reminders like, I’ll be looking in a mirror after taking a shower and those ugly scars are still there. Dresses don’t fit me the same way … I’d like to have kids, but I would never be able to nurse them, and I’ll never have that connection with them, and then they won’t get the benefits of breast milk. So it’s been difficult.”
Kiefel is one of at least 30 detransitioners who have filed lawsuits against healthcare providers in the past four years.
In February, another detransitioner, Fox Varian, was awarded $2 million in a similar case involving a mastectomy performed at age 16.
In Texas, Texas Children’s Hospital was ordered to create the country’s first “detransition clinic” under legal settlement with state for illegally “treating” kids who wanted to have life-altering surgeries and hormone therapies. The Biden administration had previously sent the Department of Justice to arrest a whistleblower from the hospital, Ethan Haim, but he has since seen his charges dropped by the Trump administration.
HHS recently proposed regulations to protect children from “chemical and surgical mutilation.” The move was supported by Chloe Cole, a detransitioner who went through the process of medical transition from female to male between the ages of 12 and 16.
Afterward, she told Fox News Digital the puberty blockers, testosterone injections and double mastectomy she endured have irreversibly and permanently affected her health.
For Kiefel, the lawsuit was not only about her own injuries, but about forcing greater scrutiny of the medical and mental health systems that approve gender-related procedures.
“It’s incredibly important that these lawsuits are brought forward,” she said. “So for many, I think for a lot of this is going to be the lawsuits that are actually going to create change.”
Brave Space has since closed permanently.
[Read More: The Crazy Pick From Israel To Take Over Iran]
