On Monday, a North Carolina appeals court will confront a question far larger than one case, one plaintiff or even one state. It will decide whether those harmed by ideology under the guise of medical care are entitled to justice.
We believe the answer must be yes.
As an emotionally distressed teenager, I, Prisha Mosley, found myself turning to dark places on the internet. Sucked in by chat rooms and subreddits, the addictive, alluring culture of inclusivity captivated my young, impressionable mind. While I struggled with multiple mental-health diagnoses and an eating disorder, I began to believe that what was truly wrong with me was that I was born into the wrong body.
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I was told that instead of embracing my biological sex, I could turn myself into a boy. This seemed like the only way forward at the time, especially at the behest of my doctors, who swiftly agreed that this was what was wrong with me. They pressured me into believing that since I was already struggling with suicidal thoughts, I needed to complete the transition as soon as possible, since my life could be in danger. I was told that there was an easy and acceptable solution to my distress: testosterone injections and the surgical removal of my healthy breasts.
My doctor even told me that by taking testosterone, I would go through puberty as a boy. This was a lie. This was medical fraud.
The system that should have been designed to protect me instead threw me to the wolves. Rather than looking at my personal traumas and carefully considering the best way to resolve them, my doctors and therapists signed off on the complete mutilation of my body before I’d even gotten a driver’s license.
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I received deceptive affirmation, not medicine. My psychological suffering grew even worse than it was prior to my transition, compounded by the loss of my healthy, functioning body and body parts. And these consequences will never be reversible.
For this reason, I contacted attorneys at Campbell Miller Payne to sue on the basis of medical malpractice.
As her counsel, I, Josh Payne, have spent years examining the ins and outs of Prisha’s case — the first of its kind in the nation to proceed in court — and now others like it. Prisha’s case, sadly, isn’t unique. Around the country, vulnerable minors and young adults presenting with complex mental health conditions are directed toward life-altering medical interventions without the rigor, skepticism or informed consent that our legal and medical systems demand.
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When Prisha sought care, she was entitled to the most basic protections embedded in both law and medicine: evidence-based treatment grounded in transparency and the core medical principle of “do no harm.” But instead, her doctors sold her a false story that she could change sexes, and they mutilated her body in service of that lie.
In 2023, Prisha filed suit against the medical providers who facilitated her transition, alleging fraud, negligence and malpractice. But her case has yet to be decided by a jury of her peers. It was dismissed on a procedural technicality: time.
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The trial court ruled that her claims came too late. But this is precisely the injustice at the heart of this appeal. Prisha was completely unaware that the testosterone and surgery the defendants pushed on her as “treatment” could possibly harm her. Cases like Prisha’s are ill-suited to rigid statutes of limitation because the patient trusts her medical professionals to care for her honestly. When that trust is broken through deception, the harm is not immediately apparent. In fact, it is often obscured by the very authority and ideology that drive these decisions.
Recognizing this, North Carolina lawmakers extended the statute of limitations for these cases, acknowledging that justice must account for delayed understanding in matters of profound medical consequence. Yet despite this legislative win, Prisha’s claims were dismissed with prejudice, barring her from ever presenting her case before a jury.
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Courts exist to examine disputed facts, not to foreclose them. In Prisha’s case, there are legitimate questions that demand examination. What did her doctors know? What did they disclose? And did they meet the standard of care owed to a vulnerable patient? Those questions deserve answers and are precisely why we filed an appeal.
That appeal is what we will be arguing on Monday, April 13, in our written submission to the court.
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This is first and foremost about principles. It is about whether the law will recognize that vulnerable patients cannot meaningfully consent to interventions whose consequences they cannot comprehend. It is about whether medical professionals may advance unproven treatments without accountability. We are told that cases like Prisha’s are rare. But whether or not they are, rarity is not a defense to negligence. The law does not exist to protect negligent and fraudulent conduct. The law exists to protect people from harm.
Our case is not only about justice for one individual, but also about setting a precedent for other such cases nationwide. It stands at the intersection of medicine, ethics and accountability in an era where all three, at times, come into conflict. If our appeal is successful, it will not guarantee victory, but it will guarantee something far more fundamental: the right for detransitioners to be heard.
A successful appeal will prove that accountability does not end when the medical procedure does. On the heels of the Fox Varian $2 million verdict this year, it would prove that justice for detransitioners nationwide is coming.
Monday, the court will consider our arguments and determine whether justice can be advanced in our case. We believe this should not be a difficult decision.
Joshua Payne is an attorney representing Prisha Mosley and co-founder of Campbell Miller Payne, a law firm dedicated to representing detransitioners and others harmed through medical transition procedures.
