Melbourne,
Australia — A Melbourne woman who tried to sue
doctors she said rushed her into a sex change faces
bankruptcy after her case was thrown out of court for
being outside the deadline for personal injury
claims.
Medical insurers are
threatening to bankrupt the woman who had a double
mastectomy and took male hormones in preparation for life
as a man.
In documents lodged with
the County Court, the woman, now 36, said psychiatrists
at the Monash Medical Centre Gender Dysphoria unit put
her on male hormones at her second consultation in 1990,
in breach of accepted standards of care.
Her statement of claim
said her doctors disregarded psychological testing that
indicated psychotherapy was the more appropriate
treatment.
She also said the
physicians knew she did not meet the condition of living
in the chosen gender role for two years before
surgery.
Three years after having
her breasts removed, she said the clinic turned her away
when she said she wanted to reverse her sex change. She
said she incurred thousands of dollars in costs for
breast implants and treatment to remove a beard and body
hair.
The woman has since
married and had two children.
Her husband said that
since her claim was disallowed because it fell outside
the six-year deadline for personal injury claims, the
Medical Defence Association of Victoria
<http://www.mdav.org/>
had threatened bankruptcy proceedings to recover $40,000
in legal expenses to defend doctors against her
claim.
The woman's lawyer, Anne
Shortall of Arnold Thomas & Becker, said she was
surprised that the MDAV, which is representing
psychiatrists Trudy Kennedy and Herbert Bower, was so
aggressive in seeking costs.
"A young family with
children, who have been through a large trauma are going
to be traumatised further," she said.
Ms Shortall said the
question of when the six-year period began was subject to
argument.
In this case, however,
the court ruled that the time to seek compensation for
the breast surgery expired in 1998. It also found the
period for seeking compensation for the hormone treatment
expired in March 2001 - six years after she decided to
revert to her female identity.
In ruling her claim "out
of time", Judge Ross Howie noted that she had not acted
on initial legal advice obtained in 1995.
John Snowden, corporate
counsel for Southern Health - operator of the Monash
Medical Centre - said the claims had been dealt with and
the hospital would not respond further.
Ms Shortall said attempts
to negotiate a settlement had failed.
A Melbourne man who
consulted the clinic and had his genitals surgically
removed in a sex-change bid also has lodged a
compensation claim with the County Court.
He
too faces the legal hurdle of his claim being "out of
time".
Solicitors for the
Medical Defence Association, John Ball and Sons,
did not respond to phone calls.
