Luka Hein is a young woman who knows what it means to survive the web of deception, physical mutilation, and non-FDA-approved hormonal abuse known as “gender affirming care.”

Here we share with you how Luka Hein fell into the gender affirming care trap: what it did to her, how she is informing other young women of its grave dangers and the irreparable harm it does, and how you can help put an end to this fake medical quackery that is shattering the lives of young women across America every day.

Who Is Luka Hein?

Luka Hein, a detransitioner from Nebraska, has become one of the most visible faces of the growing movement to hold so-called “gender affirming care” providers accountable for what they did to children.

Luka Hein’s life-altering challenges began in 2015 when she was 13 years old, and her parents divorced.

This event was the start of a confusing and increasingly troubled adolescent journey that took her through spending time in split households, chronic anxiety, social isolation, and struggling in school, a path that eventually led to panic attacks, cutting behaviors, and contemplating suicide.

During this period, like so many adolescent girls today, Luka Hein sought to make sense of her life by turning to the Internet. It was at this time that she began encountering so-called “trans influencers” online. And they had a “solution” that sounded like the answer to all her worries: change her sex.

On July 18, 2017, at just 15 years old, Luka Hein sat down for her first session with Megan Smith-Sallans, a UNMC-affiliated therapist. Fifty-five minutes later, Smith-Sallans diagnosed Luka with gender identity disorder — a life-altering diagnosis reached in less time than an average doctor’s appointment.

What Happened at UNMC

On her first visit to the gender clinic in January 2018, within an hour, Luka Hein came away with a diagnosis that she was suffering from “gender identity disorder.” On July 3 of that year, she was evaluated for a transgender mastectomy. 

Doctors at UNMC removed Luka’s breasts on July 26, 2018. Four months later, in November 2018, Dr. Nahia J. Amoura started Luka on testosterone — her first hormonal treatment, prescribed only after the irreversible surgery was already complete.

Between her January 2018 intake and the double mastectomy UNMC performed on July 26, 2018, Luka Hein was seen at the gender clinic only twice: the initial January visit and a single pre-operative consultation. 

UNMC never tried the less-invasive steps that even proponents of “gender affirming care” claim to follow — no sustained counseling, no puberty blockers, and no hormone therapy preceded the irreversible removal of her breasts. The hormones came after the surgery, not before.

How the UNMC’s Gender Affirming Care Ruins Children’s Lives

Turning the Practice of Sound Medicine on Its Head

Medical professionals owe a duty to patients to independently examine and assess their symptoms, using objective diagnostic tests to rule out other potential causes of their medical problems.

This standard practice is known as differential diagnosis, and its rationale is simple: without the right diagnosis, a physician cannot provide the right care to the patient.

Gender affirming care rejects this tried-and-true approach. Instead of using differential diagnosis, doctors at UNMC’s Gender Clinic reflexively “affirm” a prospective patient’s chosen gender and then run with it by subjecting children like Luka Hein to practices like chest binding, social transitioning, cross-sex hormones, and radical cosmetic surgery.

Relying on Junk Science to Justify Irreversible Procedures

Doctors who practice gender affirming care rely on the “Dutch Protocol” as justification for immediate resort to surgery and hormones. This protocol is based on a study so poorly conducted that it rates the lowest possible rating of standard medical study evaluation:

• The Dutch Protocol study was funded by a pharmaceutical company that manufactures puberty-blocking drugs.
• The study used no control group.
• Study subjects were selectively chosen to exclude any patients who did not respond well to puberty-blocker treatment, and one patient was left out because the patient died as a result of a vaginoplasty procedure.
• The study used an exceedingly small patient sample of 55 individuals, of whom only 40 completed the study.

Because of these defects, the Dutch Protocol is rated “very low quality” in the academic literature, meaning its true effect is “probably markedly different from the estimated effect.”

Using Deceptive Terms and Claims to Mislead Patients and Parents

The central tenet of this dangerous practice is the claim that it is possible to turn biological females into males, and vice versa. It is not treatment; it is a denial of reality.

In Luka Hein’s case, UNMC doctors used fear-inducing claims on her parents, like telling them with no scientific justification that if they did not go along with her mastectomy, she was at risk of suicide.

“These are not the words of a medical professional, but the words of an activist,” Luka recalled later. At the same time, these doctors concealed scientific studies that do not support surgical “transitions” for minors, including showing how transgender surgeries can actually increase suicidality and psychiatric morbidity.

Using Dangerous Dosages of Hazardous Hormones and Drugs

Under gender affirming care like that performed by the UNMC, testosterone is prescribed in massive doses to impair and disrupt the natural development of girls’ reproductive systems.

Girls placed on testosterone by gender affirming practitioners might have testosterone levels more than 15 times the natural level. 

The FDA has never approved the use of testosterone on teen girls. Serious adverse outcomes from testosterone usage include heart attack, heart failure, stroke, depression, hostility, aggression, liver toxicity, depression, fatigue, irritability, loss of appetite, decreased libido, and insomnia.

The doctors at the UNMC never told Luka Hein or her parents of many health risks associated with long-term use of testosterone. They also never mentioned that there were no long-term studies of females on high-dose testosterone.

What Gender Affirming Care Did to Luka Hein

Luka began to experience the negative consequences of gender affirming care soon after her mastectomy. The treatments left her with chronic pain in her joints, lumbar spine, hands, wrists, elbows, and pelvic area.

She also began experiencing heart irregularities due to the hormone therapy, which continued for four years after her breasts were removed.

“I was going through the darkest and most chaotic time in my life,” Luka recalls. “And instead of being given the help I needed, these doctors affirmed that chaos into reality.”

During this time, Dr. Nahia J. Amoura recommended the surgical removal of Luka’s uterus.

On January 10, 2023, Luka Hein told one of the physicians at the UNMC that she was de-transitioning. In a telling revelation of callousness masquerading as care, the doctor simply replied:

“I guess this is just part of your gender journey,” and recommended that Luka seek mental health counseling.

The Lawsuit

Today, Luka Hein is a 24-year-old detransitioner who is not only comfortable with the reality that she is a woman; she is also fighting back against the fraudulent system of gender-affirming care, like that the UNMC still engages in.

Luka has filed a lawsuit against the UNMC and its doctors as a detransitioner. She also filed a $2,250,000 administrative tort claim against the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

She has also asked that the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s gender clinic be permanently closed.

Case Timeline & Status

The Initial Complaint

Luka Hein’s attorneys filed her detransitioner lawsuit on September 13, 2023, in the Douglas County District Court in Nebraska. The suit alleges medical negligence, lack of informed consent, and violation of the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act. Here are the defendants: 

• UNMC Physicians
• The Nebraska Medical Center
• Nebraska Medicine
• Dr. Nahia J. Amoura
• Dr. Perry Johnson
• Dr. Stephan Barrientos
• Therapist Megan Smith-Sallans

Dismissal of the Tort Claim Against the Board of Regents

In June of 2024, the court granted the Board of Regents’ motion to dismiss the administrative tort claim against it.

Other Pretrial Developments

Pretrial discovery by plaintiffs and defendants took place in 2024 and 2025.

As of April 2026, the case remains in active and pending status with no trial date yet set. Luka Hein’s attorneys believe that the case is on track for a jury trial in early 2027.

Related Cases

Other gender-related cases the Center for American Liberty is involved with include:

• Chloe Cole v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals: This is another detransitioner lawsuit in California involving several circumstances similar to those of Luka Hein’s (double mastectomy and the use of testosterone hormones and puberty blockers)
• Aurora Regino v. Superintendent Kelly Staley: This case involves a school policy that hides its gender-related policies from parental scrutiny.

How to Support the Case

Luka Hein’s detransitioner story is one of courage in the aftermath of travesty and tragedy. And it is still ongoing.

Aside from seeking legal redress for the actions of the UNMC and the individual named defendants, Luka has also been active in promoting legislation to prevent what was done to her in the name of gender affirming care from being done to other minors.

Notably, she testified in favor of Nebraska Legislative Bill 574. This bill aims to prevent minors in the future from accessing the kind of “care” that Luka was subjected to. The Nebraska legislature gave final approval to the bill in May of 2023.

The Center for American Liberty is at the forefront of the struggle to stop the systematized child abuse that is still taking place in the United States in the guise of care and treatment.

If you can afford to help us continue to support victims of gender affirming care like Luka Hein or Chloe Cole in their efforts to inform state legislatures and the public of the dangers of this practice and to promote legislation to stop it, then we encourage you to donate to us.