A transgender laird is suing the NHS after it refused to carry out a third sex change surgery.
Lady Samantha Kane, who was born male and now styles herself as Lady Carbisdale after buying a £5 million Scottish castle, is thought to be the only person in Britain to have changed gender three times.
Ms Kane, who was born male, had surgery in 1997 to become Samantha, before having it reversed and taking on the identity of Charles Kane in 2004.
She claims doctors at University College London Hospital (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust then refused a request for a third surgery to revert to a woman in 2017, leading Ms Kane to have a private procedure in Serbia in 2018, which was allegedly “botched”.
Ms Kane, a trained engineer, barrister and business tycoon, alleges that the NHS then refused treatment again after the Serbian procedure allegedly resulted in “infected” surgical devices being left inside her body, which she said caused agony lasting three years.
UCLH medics finally agreed to help in 2021, Ms Kane said.
In the legal claim, the 64-year-old said the refusal to provide treatment relating to the third gender reassignment amounted to negligence, discrimination and a breach of human rights.
‘Unnecessary pain’
Representing herself at a short pre-trial hearing last week, Ms Kane told High Court judge Deputy Master Ruth Fine that she was suing UCLH partly for the “negligence of causing me to seek surgery in Serbia rather than here”.
Criticising the NHS trust as in effect responsible for the “botched Serbian op,” she told the judge: “The negligence of them not treating me has caused the botched surgery.
“It was negligent of the defendant not to treat me in 2017. The defendants are the only people who are qualified to provide this treatment in the UK.
“They treat everybody else, then discriminated against me.”
The second part of the claim relates to an allegation that UCLH medics refused to help correct the “botched op,” telling Ms Kane to return to Serbia to get help there instead.
She added: “They left me in pain for three years before offering me treatment. They subjected me to unnecessary pain for three years.”
Ms Kane had complained of “chronic left groin and genital area pain,” the court heard.
“They were the people qualified to treat me and they refused. This was discrimination against me because I had made a [previous] complaint,” she claimed, telling the judge that it was “foreseeable” that she would go to Serbia after being refused an NHS operation.
The court heard that Ms Kane is claiming £162,000, according to the schedule of loss, but told the judge the case was not so much about the money, “but more about achieving justice”.
Sam Burrett, for the NHS trust, told the judge that it would fight the claim.
A full trial is set to take place at a later date.
Castle plans
In 2000, Ms Kane, then Sam Hashimi, spearheaded a Saudi attempt to buy Sheffield United Football Club.
She dubbed herself Lady Carbisdale in 2022 after buying Carbisdale Castle, a 19-bedroom clifftop Scottish castle near Ardgay in Sutherland. In 2024, the property was valued at £5 million.
Earlier this year, Ms Kane announced plans to sell the castle, claiming the rural community was “not ready” to accept someone who had changed their gender.
She said in September: “I really have been quite hurt by comments on my gender identity, so now I think it just needs someone, for a better word, ‘normal’ to take over.”
“It is such a special place but I did suffer some prejudice and I think probably the Highlands is not ready for a transgender owner of the castle. It needs someone else to protect its future.”
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