A multimillionaire trans lady of the manor is suing the NHS after a « botched » overseas gender realignment op which she says has left her in constant pain.
Lady Samantha Kane, born in Iraq as a man named Sam Hashimi, is thought to be the only person in Britain to have changed gender three times, having surgery in 1997 to become Samantha, changing back to a man named Charles Kane in 2004 then having a third surgery to become Samantha once more in 2018.
Now the wealthy high-profile trans pioneer, 64, is suing a London NHS trust, claiming its refusal to give her treatment relating to her third gender reassignment amounted to negligence, discrimination and a breach of her human rights.
Ms Kane – a trained engineer, barrister and business tycoon, who as Sam Hashimi spearheaded a Saudi bid to buy Sheffield United Football Club in 2000 – dubbed herself Lady Carbisdale in 2022 after buying Carbisdale Castle, a stunning 19-bedroom clifftop Scottish castle near Ardgay in Sutherland, valued this year at £5m.
After her purchase of the then dilapidated castle, she set about renovating it, with stated 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 described it as her « fairytale princess castle, » where she keeps a matching set of high-end cars, including a red Bentley, red Mercedes sports car, red 4×4 and even her own Carbisdale Castle fire engine.
But underneath the glamour, Ms Kane says she has been battling constant pain since undergoing what she says was a « botched operation » in Serbia in March 2018, to change her from Charles Kane back into Samantha.
Ms Kane says that doctors at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust refused to treat her twice, once in 2017 when she went to them asking for the groundbreaking third gender reassignment op, and again after undergoing the procedure in Serbia.
She says that the Serbian operation was « botched » and 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.
Representing herself at a short pre-trial hearing last week, she told High Court judge Deputy Master Ruth Fine that she is 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. »
Moving on to the second part of her claim, the allegation that UCLH medics refused to help her to correct the « botched op, » telling her to return to Serbia to get the help she needed, she added: « They left me in pain for three years before offering me treatment. They subjected me to unnecessary pain for three years. »
In her particulars of claim, 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.
The court heard that 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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