Asheville, North Carolina | One of the most notorious plastic surgeons is appearing on trial this week, after mistakenly performing a sex change operation on a wrong patient.
Dr. Andrew J. Carlson is accused of inverting the files of two of his female patients, a mistake which led him to perform the wrong surgeries on both women.
Apparently, 57-year old Kelly Norton, went into surgery at the Buncombe County Plastic Surgery Center in January 2016, to have a facelift and minor liposuction. Instead, Dr. Carlson performed a complete sex change operation, including the removal of her breast and a complete genital reconstructive procedure.
“I wanted to look good for my husband, but he turned me into a man!” she told CBS in an exclusive interview. “I’m a good Christian and I wanted to stay the way God had created me. I’ve never wanted a sex change, and I have no desire to live the rest of my life as a man. I just want to go back to the way I was.”
Ms Norton is suing the surgeon for $10 million, to pay for the corrective surgery and the “emotional distress” generated by his mistake.
According to an employee of Dr. Carlson’s clinic, the fact that two patients had very similar names could be at the origin of the mistake.
Indeed, the clinic has settled a malpractice lawsuit earlier this month, with a patient named Kelly Morton, concerning a “mistake in medical procedures”. Unfortunately, the settlement includes a confidentiality clause, meaning that little information is available on the case.
This case is already drawing a lot of attention from the public, in a state where sex changes and transgenders are already at the center of a controversy concerning a new “bathroom law”.
