A distraught father begged in vain for a leading plastic surgeon not to remove his 20-year-old daughter’s breasts in a transgender operation, telling him in an excoriating letter that he was about to destroy her life.
The father told consultant Mohsen El Gammal that his daughter suffered from depression and, as a way through ongoing mental health problems, had previously turned to self-harm and then starving herself before embracing the ‘trans cult’.
In the heartbreaking letter, he tells Mr El Gammal, who boasts of carrying out 1,000 such operations, ‘Ultimately, my daughter is a depressive.
‘She sought the highs that came from cutting herself, from starving herself, from being taken for a boy, from taking testosterone, and now from having her breasts removed.
‘She needs to learn that life is not one long adrenaline buzz. That happiness is a more moderate feeling, comes from within and derives from finding a place and purpose in life.
‘You are fueling her problem. Not helping to resolve it.
‘Please do not remove my daughter’s breasts.
‘You will, in one day—a day you will quickly forget—ruin her life forever.
‘You will take from her the opportunity to breastfeed her child; you will take from her the opportunity to have a normal, wide-ranging pool of people from whom to choose her partner in life; you will irreparably harm her.’
The father, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his daughter’s privacy, released the letter to The Mail on Sunday to highlight his powerlessness to protect her.
He says he has never received acknowledgement of the letter, sent in May to the private Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea, west London.
Last month, his daughter underwent a double mastectomy.
The father told Mr El Gammal, ‘She is 20 years old.
‘Which of us knew at 20 what we would know or think at 30?
‘Which of us understood ourselves in the way we do at 60?
‘Which of us did not do things we almost immediately regretted, never mind things which we look on in disbelief but a few years later?
‘How can you possibly believe that she is truly able to give informed consent to what you are going to do to her?
‘She cannot see round the corner, never mind beyond the horizon.
‘You know this and yet are prepared to rely on a piece of paper on which she signs away her future well-being.
‘If you do choose to operate, perhaps you will take the time while she is anaesthetized to look at the extensive scarring on her arms and legs.
‘These are the scars of the self-harming craze she participated in during her mid-teens.
‘This was before she got into starving herself. All this before she started participating in the trans cult.
‘Perhaps you will reflect on the mere two appointments with a GP that were necessary for her to get a private prescription for testosterone.
‘Perhaps you will reflect on the professional capture within the therapy industry, which leads every therapist she has spoken to to affirm her decision as real rather than question its reality.’
He added that ‘instead of attempting to reconcile the confusion of the mind with the body, the futile attempt is made to reconcile the body to the confused mind’.
He told the surgeon: ‘When you go home after you have destroyed my daughter’s life and well-being, long after you have forgotten her name and her operation, long after you have spent the money you were paid for this butchery, long after you have retired, she and those who love her will have to live with the consequences of your actions.
‘But I hope you will still be alive when this malpractice is revealed for what it is: the enabling by the medical profession of pseudo-science in the same way as surgeons in 1930s Germany, the USA and elsewhere sterilised the ‘feeble-minded’ in the name of eugenics.’
Following concerns about the quality of care expressed by whistleblower personnel, NHS England is planning a review of adult gender clinics; however, there is no indication that the study would include private clinics.
Comments and remarks may well offend many. However, if the father’s report of his daughter having a depressive illness is true, then this is a very sad story. However, people with mental health issues can be very adept at hiding their mental issues because of the stigma that’s associated with the condition.
Her surgery should have been delayed until after a more thorough mental health evaluation by a mental health specialist; only then should a decision have been made. There is always a chance that a patient may not be in their right mind or functioning at their best.
Mental health issues and other illnesses are what drive this industry. It’s all about making money, and the oath that medical students take is worth nothing to them.
In the UK, the Hippocratic Oath is not in place. A variation of the Hippocratic Oath is spoken at graduation by most UK medical schools, and some even require it at the beginning of the student’s studies. However, once a doctor, the recitation of this oath becomes meaningless.
A number of these adolescents require professional counselling due to severe mental health issues. If it turns out that they would benefit from the surgery, that is great, but skipping out on counselling before and even after the procedure is something they can come to regret later or even right away. They might even go so far as to accuse the person who carried out the surgery; as a result, their mental state would deteriorate to the point where they might experience a psychotic episode and end up killing or gravely hurting someone, primarily the person they are accusing.
Hopefully, someday, these surgeons will face the full force of the legal system. Even though they may feel unstoppable and at ease right now, they are not keeping their word to “Do No Harm.”
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 