A landmark Texas ruling breathes new life into one detransitioner's quest for justice
Detransitioner Soren Aldaco called a Texas Supreme Court ruling a "huge" win that sets precedent for medical malpractice statute of limitations cases.
Texas detransitioner Soren Aldaco is speaking out after receiving a big win in a landmark Texas Supreme Court case on June 26 that could reshape how medical malpractice timelines are calculated.
The Texas Supreme Court decided that Aldaco did not file her 2023 claims too late to take her healthcare providers to court, reversing a lower court's finding that her lawsuit was "time-barred" due to the state's strict statute of limitations laws.
Aldaco shared her reaction to the ruling, that she described as a "huge" win, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
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"It sets precedent that in this unique area of law, providers can't skirt accountability by playing with the dates and the statute of limitations."
Under Texas medical malpractice law, a patient generally has a strict two-year window (statute of limitations) to file a lawsuit. The core battle in Aldaco's case was determining exactly when that two-year countdown began.
The therapist's letter is crucial to Aldaco's case because the medical group that conducted her double mastectomy advised her to obtain one. Because Aldaco filed her lawsuit more than two years after that letter was written, the lower court ruled she was too late.
The Texas Supreme Court's unanimous opinion delivered by Justice James Sullivan, reversed the lower court's finding that her claims were time-barred. The court concluded that the statute of limitations began when the injury occurred, but not when her therapist referred her for the procedure.
The opinion stated, "The court of appeals rejected Aldaco’s arguments and held that the clock began ticking on February 22, 2021, when Wood ‘penned and provided the allegedly tortious recommendation letter’ without which the double mastectomy couldn’t have occurred... We disagree."
Aldaco said she plans to continue "moving forward" in her case.
"Our goal is to seek every avenue possible to get justice against these providers who took advantage of my vulnerable mental state."
The case heard in the Texas Supreme Court only involves her former therapist and the associated counseling group who wrote a letter recommending surgery for Aldaco in February 2021.
The office of the attorney representing the physicians who conducted Aldaco's double mastectomy and their medical practice told Fox News Digital when asked about Aldaco's plans to move forward with her case: "The Crane Center Parties were parties to a separate appeal, and Ms. Aldaco’s claims were dismissed pursuant to a separate order entered on grounds unrelated to those at issue in the Texas Supreme Court’s decision."
According to Aldaco, "I had two years to sue from the date of harm. And that's what the Texas Supreme Court explored is whether the date of harm started when the letter was written or when I actually had the surgery, or even when I stopped seeing the provider a month before the surgery happened."
She thinks this decision will make healthcare providers "think twice" and "dig deeper" into what patients are experiencing before jumping to invasive medical interventions.
"I think in modern medicine, generally, it's really easy to slap a medication, you know, or a diagnosis onto a patient," Aldaco added.
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Aldaco said the case had a lot of complexities and described the treatments recommended as "bandage treatments" that didn't address underlying wounds.
"The thing about cases having to do with trans-related medical malpractice is there's these developmental factors at play that are unique compared to other areas of medicine," she added.
Aldaco believes her case will inspire others in similar situations.
"I just hope that this win that we experienced this week, both in my own case and at the federal, U.S. Supreme Court level, I hope that that encourages other people to seek justice."
Aldaco is taking her fight to the Texas Legislature.
"In our upcoming 90th legislative session, I intend to do everything I can to pass comprehensive legislation that'll open the statute of limitations for other people who have experienced similar harm."
Texas lawmakers expressed interest in addressing this issue.
Texas State Rep. Shelby Slawson told The Texan, "As soon as bill filing opens for the 90th Legislative Session, I will be refiling HB888/HB1088, and I am grateful to the sixty colleagues who signed the February statement — and more since then — who are committed to passing an extension of the statute of limitations for injured Texans like Soren."
Texas State Rep. Jeff Leach posted on X, "This Supreme Court Opinion, expertly written by the esteemed Justice James Sullivan, is just the next step in this important battle — with much more left to do in the next[Texas Legislative] session."
In a February Fox News Digital op-ed, Aldaco wrote, "On Feb. 11, the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in part of my case against the providers who facilitated my medical transition. One of my attorneys, John Ramer, articulated what has felt obvious to me for years: Accountability for doctors does not vanish because a patient "wanted it." During arguments, it was difficult to miss that even the defense doesn’t believe its own words."
Aldaco alleges that her transition was facilitated by medical professionals who ignored her underlying trauma and coached her to navigate insurance hurdles. According to Aldaco, her therapist showed no interest in exploring her history of being groomed, despite Aldaco’s explicit requests to discuss it.
Instead, she claims the therapist fast-tracked her medical transition by drafting a surgical recommendation letter that contained a significant falsehood: It stated Aldaco had been living as a male for at least 12 months — a standard clinical milestone Aldaco says she had not actually reached.
After the win, Aldaco said, "We need more voices telling their stories because it isn't just the few of us who have gone public, the many of us have gone in public. There's many people who are out there who need to be seen and recognized too."
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Aldaco's transition journey began at the age of 11.
"I discovered the darkest corners of the internet. In these chatrooms, I was sexually groomed by adult strangers who used my love for art against me," Aldaco wrote in the Fox News op-ed. "I made friends with other little girls on art forums around the same time, many of whom had similar experiences. One such girl began identifying as transgender. She told me she felt like "a boy trapped in a girl’s body."
Aldaco told Fox News Digital in a previous interview published in March when the Texas Supreme Court was hearing her case, "I was role-playing in these art forums, just like boyfriend, girlfriend role plays, cutesy, like innocent kid things. I mean, the most that we got into that was mature was kissing, right? But online, in those adult chat rooms, obviously I wasn't aware that there was more mature content that adults would end up leading me into," she said.
"I ended up having this psychiatric episode and my family took me to a hospital where the psychiatrist that was responsible for my care pressured me to essentially come out to him as trans," she added.
Aldaco claimed she didn't have intentions of doing so.
"This was something I never intended to do. I saw it as the role-play identity, and he insisted that it was safe to tell him, even though it was something I wasn't going to deal with 'til I was an adult," she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the attorney representing Barbara Rose Wood and Three Oaks Counseling.
Fox News' Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi contributed to this report.
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