A multimillionaire transgender women who has changed gender three times is suing the NHS after having a ‘botched’ realignment operation which left her in ‘constant pain’.
Self-styled ‘lady of the manor’ Samantha Kane is thought to be the only person in Britain to have changed gender three times.
Born in Iraq as a man named Sam Hashimi, she had surgery in 1997 to become Samantha, before a second op in 2004 when she changed her name to Charles Kane and then a third surgery to become Samantha again in 2018.
Now the wealthy trans pioneer, 64, is suing University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust claiming its refusal to give her treatment relating to her third op amounted to negligence, discrimination and a breach of her human rights.
She is a trained engineer, barrister and business tycoon, who as Sam Hashimi spearheaded a Saudi bid to buy Sheffield United Football Club in 2000.
Ms Kane says she has been battling constant pain since undergoing what she has labelled a ‘botched operation’ in Serbia in March 2018.
She claims doctors at the London NHS trust refused to treat her twice, in 2017 when she went to them asking for a third gender reassignment op, and again after undergoing the procedure in Serbia.
She says the op left her with ‘infected’ surgical devices inside her body, causing her agony which she had to endure for three years until UCLH medics agreed to help her in 2021.
Lady Samantha Kane is thought to be the only person in Britain to have changed gender three times
the wealthy trans pioneer, 64, is suing University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust claiming its refusal to give her treatment relating to her third op amounted to negligence, discrimination and a breach of her human rights
Representing herself at a short pre-trial hearing last week, she told High Court judge Deputy Master Ruth Fine that she is suing the trust partly for the ‘negligence of causing me to seek surgery in Serbia rather than here’. Picture: Ms Kane following her first op
She called herself Lady Carbisdale after buying Carbisdale Castle, a dilapidated 19-bedroom clifftop castle near Ardgay in Sutherland, Scotland, valued at £5million.
She renovated it with plans including eco-lodges an exclusive members’ club and even a recreation of the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon on the property’s sloping grounds.
She has since described it as her ‘fairy-tale princess castle’ and keeps her luxury cars including a red Bentley, red Mercedes sports car, red 4×4 and even her own Carbisdale Castle fire engine.
Representing herself at a short pre-trial hearing last week, she told High Court judge Deputy Master Ruth Fine that she is suing the trust partly for the ‘negligence of causing me to seek surgery in Serbia rather than here’.
She criticised the NHS trust and she claims it was 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.
She told the judge: ‘The negligence of them not treating me has caused the botched surgery’
Carbisdale Castle was built in 1907 for Mary Caroline, the Duchess of Sutherland, on a hill across the Kyle of Sutherland from Invershin in the Scottish Highlands
It was a war-time sanctuary for members of the Norwegian royal family and for 60 years from 1945 the castle was a youth hostel
‘They treat everybody else, then discriminated against me.’
Concerning the allegation that UCLH medics refused to help her to correct the ‘botched op,’ she claims they told her to return to Serbia to get the help she needed.
She said: ‘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 op.
Ms Kane is claiming £162,000 according to her schedule of loss, but she told the judge her claim is not so much about the money, ‘but more about achieving justice’.
Sam Burrett, for the NHS trust, told the judge that they are fighting the claim.
Judge Fine, summing up, said: ‘The claim under the Human Rights Act is because they didn’t treat you and you went to Serbia.’
In regard to the second part of her claim, she added: ‘The question the court will have to determine is whether the decision not to treat on 5th April 2018 had a causative link to the pain, until you got treatment in 2021.’
A full trial is set to take place in 2026.
Carbisdale Castle was built in 1907 for Mary Caroline, the Duchess of Sutherland, on a hill across the Kyle of Sutherland from Invershin in the Scottish Highlands.
At the time, the duchess was embroiled in a feud with her in-laws, which led to it being dubbed the ‘Castle of Spite’.
She selected a hillside plot opposite her in-laws’ Sutherland Estate and, when the castle was built, ordered a clock tower with only three faces, with the side facing the estate blank, because she did not want to give her former in-laws the time of day.
It was a war-time sanctuary for members of the Norwegian royal family and for 60 years from 1945 the castle was a youth hostel.
It is also said to be haunted by a ghost called Betty.
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