The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a detransitioner may proceed with her medical malpractice lawsuit against her former therapist after lower courts found the case was filed too late.
In a unanimous opinion issued Monday, the court ruled that Soren Aldaco, a 23-year-old Texas detransitioner, can move forward with her medical malpractice lawsuit against her former therapist, who she alleges helped facilitate her gender transition by recommending she receive gender reassignment surgery.
According to Aldaco’s lawsuit, therapist Barbara Rose Wood and Three Oaks Counseling Group LLC wrote a letter of recommendation that allowed her to obtain a double mastectomy at age 19. The lawsuit claims the procedure left her with permanent physical injuries, emotional trauma, and lifelong regret.
About two years after undergoing surgery, Aldaco sued Wood and the counseling practice for negligence and fraud, arguing that the recommendation letter represented a “severe departure from any recognized standard of care.”
She also alleges that Wood’s letter misrepresented the extent to which she had treated Aldaco for gender dysphoria.
A trial court and the Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruled that Aldaco’s claims were barred under the Texas Medical Liability Act, which generally requires health care liability claims to be filed within two years.
However, the Texas Supreme Court reversed those rulings, concluding that “Aldaco’s claims against Wood are not time-barred under Section 74.251(a)” because Aldaco could not have discovered her alleged bodily injury until after the double mastectomy was performed on June 11, 2021.
Aldaco filed her lawsuit on May 9, 2023, within two years of the surgery.
“It always astonishes me to find myself at the center of a moment this big, because I do this work for the people who come after me—and that means I sometimes lose myself in the weight of it,” Aldaco told Independent Women’s Forum. “Today the Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that my case deserves to be heard, and that providers implicated in harming vulnerable patients can’t twist the statute of limitations to escape accountability. This ruling is a watershed moment.”
“The Court’s opinion is already sending shockwaves far beyond Texas. The direct impact will be felt here at home—but providers across the country, and federally, will now think twice about their responsibility to patients,” she continued. “And patients will see, through the model established here in Texas, that they deserve to be protected and taken seriously.”
Republican state Rep. Shelby Slawson, who represents Coryell, Erath, Hamilton, and Hood counties, celebrated the ruling, saying she plans to file legislation to extend the statute of limitations for injured Texans.
