A jury has awarded a 22-year-old woman $2 million in what attorneys described as a landmark malpractice verdict against New York medical providers accused of steering her toward a double mastectomy while she was a minor.
The case is believed to be the first detransitioner malpractice lawsuit to reach a U.S. jury trial and to end in a plaintiff's verdict with monetary damages.
Fox Varian underwent a mastectomy in 2019 at age 16, when she identified as a boy.
Her mother, Claire Decon, testified that she initially opposed the operation but ultimately consented after being warned her daughter could take her own life without it.
"This man was just so emphatic, and pushing and pushing, that I felt like there was no good decision," Decon said, according to an Epoch Times report.
"I think it was a scare tactic… but he was very, very wrong."
On Jan. 30 in White Plains, New York, jurors found that surgeon Simon Chin and psychologist Kenneth Einhorn failed to follow key steps in evaluating whether Varian should proceed and did not adequately communicate with each other, lapses the jury said amounted to a "departure from the standard of care."
Varian was awarded $1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering, plus $400,000 for future medical expenses.
"A jury of everyday Americans sent a clear message: Justice will be served for vulnerable individuals who were misled into gender-transition procedures without appropriate safeguards," attorney Josh Payne of Campbell Miller Payne, who observed the trial but was not involved in the case, told the Epoch Times.
His firm was founded three years ago to represent plaintiffs in similar cases.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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