by Worriedmom
Third in a series. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.
4thWaveNow contributor Worriedmom has practiced civil litigation for many years in federal and state courts.
Since our last coverage of medical malpractice litigation against renowned phalloplasty surgeon Curtis Crane, M.D., we’ve received frequent inquiries about the current status of the lawsuits and his practice. Research has revealed some interesting facts and circumstances about Dr. Crane.
First, as of this writing, there no longer appear to be any open civil cases against Dr. Crane in the state of California. All eight of the malpractice cases that had previously been pending in the San Francisco Superior Court have now been “dismissed with prejudice” (read on to understand the meaning of “with prejudice” in the settlement context, since this doesn’t mean what some folks may assume it does).
Specifically:
Doe v. Crane, CGC-16-550630 was dismissed April 5, 2017.
Carter v. Crane, CGC-16-554254 was dismissed December 10, 2018.
Raynor v. Crane, CGC-17-556713 was dismissed November 8, 2018.
Carson v. Crane, CGC-17-556743 was dismissed October 10, 2018.
Doe v. Crane, CGC-17-557327 was dismissed November 8, 2018.
Davis v. Crane, CGC-17-557363 was dismissed December 10, 2018.
Shepherd v. Crane, CGC-17-559294, dismissed October 3, 2018.
Doe v. Crane, CGC-17-560690 was dismissed March 15, 2019.[1]
A ninth malpractice case, Hansen v. Crane (CGC-18-571442), brought in November of last year, was also dismissed on January 14, 2019. As with the other actions listed above, this lawsuit also alleged malpractice in connection with genital surgery:
Interestingly, the plaintiff in that case alleged that at the time he consulted Dr. Crane, Dr. Crane told him that “none of his patients had ever had a serious complication from phalloplasty, that it was a safe procedure, and that only 5% of his patients have needed surgical repairs.”
As of the writing of this article, however, all of the malpractice litigation filed against Dr. Crane in San Francisco has now been dismissed. What does this mean? It’s impossible to know.
What we do know is that none of these dismissals appear to have been the result of a jury or other type of fact-finding proceeding that evaluated Dr. Crane’s conduct and made any findings about negligence or malpractice. In other words, it does not appear that an independent arbiter has reviewed the facts of these cases and ruled on whether the care provided either complied, or did not comply, with established “standards of care.” This is not surprising, since over 90% of all medical malpractice cases never go to trial.
One might reasonably conclude, then, that all of these actions have been settled out of court. For what amount of damages? We can’t know. It could be zero, it could be $10 million. The amount paid in settlement of such a claim is confidential virtually 100% of the time. The medical liability insurance carrier is, in most cases these days, the party that decides whether or not to settle a case, and this is a “business decision” on the carrier’s part.
From interrogatory answers filed in the Raynor case, cited above, we do know something about Dr. Crane’s professional liability and medical malpractice coverage in 2016, the date the malpractice alleged in that case was claimed to have occurred (see Motion for Relief from Waiver of Discovery Objections dated April 16, 2018, Declaration of Corban J. Porter and Exhibit D thereto):
Private settlement agreements also typically include “NDA” (or non-disclosure agreement) provisions, in which the parties agree to keep all terms of the settlement confidential, and further agree to the payment of damages in the event of a breach. These NDA provisions have, of course, come under public scrutiny as part of the “MeToo” movement and the Stormy Daniels affairs. Some commentators argue that keeping medical malpractice settlement amounts confidential hurts the public:
Secret nondisclosure agreements also affect patient safety by allowing bad doctors and other dangerous medical providers to continue to harm patients because their incompetency is hidden from their present and future patients and employers.
Finally, these litigations were also dismissed “with prejudice,” which means that the plaintiff cannot bring another lawsuit based on the same facts. This makes sense, because otherwise no defendant would ever pay money in settlement of a litigation if he or she knew that the plaintiff could simply re-file the same lawsuit another day. So, it’s important to understand: When dismissal “with prejudice” is entered as part of a settlement, it does not indicate that anyone has ruled on the merits of the case.
That’s it for our legal update, but for those of us who are interested in Dr. Crane and his business model, there have been some additional developments.
Most important, it appears that Dr. Crane may no longer be performing surgery in the state of California (although his medical license is still current in that state). His prior practice, Brownstein & Crane Surgical Services, seems to be out of business. Any internet searches for brownsteincrane.com result in a re-direct to “Crane Center for Transgender Surgery,” a practice operating in California and Texas.
In and of itself, this is not surprising. According to the Crane Center’s Facebook page, Dr. Brownstein retired in 2013, after having performed “thousands of FTM chest surgeries” and passing this extensive knowledge along to Dr. Crane.
What is notable is that, as of the time of our earlier article in 2018, Brownstein-Crane was a thriving California transgender medical practice. According to the Wayback Machine, which is the only source for information on the practice, back in March of 2018, Brownstein-Crane, in addition to Dr. Crane, employed:
- Thomas Satterwhite, M.D. (plastic surgeon);
- Heidi Wittenberg, M.D. (OB/GYN, surgeon);
- Michael Safir, M.D. (uro-genital reconstructive surgeon);
- Ashley DeLeon, M.D. (uro-genital surgeon);
- Charles Lee, M.D. (micro-surgeon);
- David Chang, M.D. (surgeon);
- Gabriel Kind, M.D. (plastic surgeon); and
- Michael Parrett, M.D. (plastic surgeon).
A photograph that appeared on Brownstein-Crane’s now-defunct website.
Of all those doctors, today only Drs. DeLeon and Safir remain affiliated with Dr. Crane. Dr. Crane now appears to practice in Austin, Texas, and has been joined there by Dr. Richard Santucci (together with Dr. DeLeon); Dr. Safir holds down the fort in San Francisco and has been joined by Dr. Angela Rodriguez. Dr. Crane’s website indicates that information about the Crane Center’s doctors is “coming soon.”
It’s not clear when Dr. Santucci joined Dr. Crane’s practice, but he does not appear to have been part of the earlier Brownstein-Crane incarnation:
Not to worry, though: Dr. Safir remains busy in San Francisco.
The Crane Center has wasted no time in accessing potential new patients, sending attractive representatives to attend such conferences as Gender Odyssey in San Diego and the Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference, and sponsoring art festivals and pride events.
For an added bonus, prospective patients may even be able to receive a free initial surgery consultation, right there at the conference!
What is the story behind Dr. Crane’s relocation to Texas?
It’s impossible to know. Perhaps some of his current or former patients will enlighten us.
[1] Interestingly, on March 7, 2019, Crane’s defense counsel in this case was ordered to pay a $1,800 sanction for “misuse of the discovery process.”
cayden carter is still active on instagram and is buying a house after more than 5 years of chronic surgeries and hospital visits. It is safe to assume that at least that case was settled (for quite a lot of money to cover the medical debt from all the surgeries and have enough left overto buy a house in the markets he is looking in).
I’m very happy that Cayden has been able to move on and build a new life.
Excellent investigative journalism, worriedmom.
Why is this practitioner still in practice?
Why is this experimental surgery even allowed?
Losing faith in the medical community.
Thank you to those who continue to speak out.
I would like to remain anonymous. But I did have phalloplasty with Dr Curtis Crane. I had many, MANY complications and to be honest, I wouldn’t wish this on any enemy… ever. No one deserves to go through what I and many of us have gone through.
Many of us are silenced because 1. Signing NDA agreements or 2. Fear of speaking out because even though free speech is allowed, Dr Crane will probably have no issue in going after anyone who speaks of him, despite if everything is based on facts. Further, backlash from the trans community in general. People are oddly protective of these surgeons. I too, at one point, thought of him as a savior.
In my experience, his representing lawyers are cruel and demeaning-with zero regard that they are speaking to those who have experienced a tremendous amount of trauma by their client’s (Dr Crane) hand. If the trans community would wake up and see how he has his lawyers communicate with those who had to deal with complications one couldn’t even dream about… they may realize who he really is.
I will say, there is momentum moving and many of us will soon be coming forward-large media coverage-you name it. We are seeking for better care and hopefully, no one will ever have to go under the knife of Dr. Crane. He is negligent and not honest.
In 2015, Dr Crane was in fact starting to procure a microsurgery team in Austin, Texas. It was actually a huge stressor for many patients who booked with him there and then the team fell through (and so those on his books had to reschedule either for a later date when they got a new team on board or have to come to California. Dr Crane would tell-all to patients and often it was like a game of telephone. There were and are a few trans men who are devout followers (no, really, I’m not kidding, it’s strange)… and so they gather up information from Dr Crane and then tell all in secret phalloplasty groups on facebook or yahoo etc.
Those of us who had surgery with Dr Crane from 2014-2016 can say without a shadow of a doubt, that he did in fact state he had a less than 5% complication rate. Clearly, many of the lawsuits state that. The fact that he insists that he never said that is a complete lie and it’s a slap to the face for many of us who believed in him, his confidence, his cool, calm, and collected demeanor as he would go through his spiel.
Personally, had I known the REAL percentage rate, had I known about Cayden’s or Raynor’s complications (which I asked what are some of the complications etc)… he was never forthright about those complications. Had I also been educated by him in regards to possible complications and how they resolve them (meaning, some take 2, 3 4, 5, 6 more surgeries to repair), I would have never have gotten the surgery to begin with. But that’s just it, Dr Crane wasn’t giving that information-even if asked and I myself had many consultations with him. He never and I mean, never alluded to anything. The only ones he said were some infections which would be fixed up or strictures and fistulas in the urethra. Literally.. that is it. The only time I saw anything else was when I signed the medical waiver before surgery and when I asked… he just shrugged it off as protocol.
In my communication with others, they too agreed, that when asked, the complications he listed were said in a very non-chalant way and that they were only simple ones like urethral strictures/fistulas. Also, please keep in mind that even if one has a complication… (and perhaps this is why he isn’t honest about them)… they could fix it after many surgeries… so I am assuming that under some medical legal jargon… that it doesn’t have to be reported if it can be resolved. Which is ridiculous.
Also, others who were trying to file a malpractice suit after all of those… it was told that he had reached his medical insurance payout and that the clients the lawyers were already representing, were their first priority. Meaning, anyone is shit out of luck.
Lastly… many people wonder why some of us didn’t come forward or waited SO LONG (past the California stipulation to file a medical malpractice suit)… the reason being was because he ruined us… he messed us up… but there weren’t many performing these surgeries around 2013-2016… so therefore… he was the only one “trained” (it’s sickening to say that) to “fix” what he did. So we were at his mercy… there was literally no one else to turn to.
Imagine being harmed by someone, like so beyond the point of return, and yet the only person who can help you is the person who did you harm. It’s your word against his and he clearly is being paid 100’s of thousands of dollars PER SURGERY.. How do you go up against someone like that? How?
It’s scary, it’s something that many of us will never be able to bounce back from. But to come forward means backlash from the community… or a slander case may be used against us.. EVEN IF… we have proof… even IF we have videos… pictures… ER reports.
But guess what? I didn’t sign and NDA agreement. I didn’t move further with a case (for a lot of reasons but mainly because I am so tired of fighting, the lawyer advised my being past the stipulation law for filing and oftentimes won’t win because of that and also his reaching the cap of his insurance payout).
Now? I am angry.. Now? Even though he ruined sacred parts of me… even though he stole much of my trust in people or damaged my spirit…he did not destroy me and I will do whatever it takes so that NO one has to go through what I and many others have gone through.
If there is anything I have learned in this process and from this experience… is I am resilient. I will do whatever it takes to make sure no one goes through what I went through ever again. The truth always.. ALWAYS prevails.
So sorry you went through all of that. Hope you’re doing better now!
Dear Anonymous, could I post your reply on my site, thetransgendertruth.com/mysite
Hey Scott! I was actually the one to email you when you posted. Not sure if you got? So, yes. I have been doing YouTube videos… I think I will go public with it all. It has graphic pics and videos and breakdowns of what I experienced.
I’m also going to do a video more in detail about my comment above.
Please let us know when you have your content ready so we can share it. Are there existing YouTube links? Thank you very much for commenting here, and let us know what else we can do to help. We’ll drop you an email.
I am so so sad to hear what you have been through . Let me say this – should you ever be in Montreal – you are welcome in my home anytime. To be judged by anyone for any reason is just so sad especially your own community because you want to speak out about a botched surgery . No one here is against anyone . For the love of whatever – we must treat each other with kindness and love ….this scenario is about nothing but greed . These surgeons are not about helping people with Gender issues – it is all about $$$$ .
What an unbelievably upsetting experience. I do hope things are going better for you now.
HEY MAN THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING OUT. In process of getting government coverage for meta w/ crane. heard some bad stories of him but after your story its the cherry ontop. strongly considering finding another surgon. iv been in this long b4 the transtrender movement, so i know what you mean about back around 2013 it being very limited to find a surgeon, but now there seems to be so many hoping on it for the $$ its hard to even know where to look. wondering if youd be willing to chat with me further? email me if so, reply and we can trade emails. God bless you and yours.
The smiling faces on the ‘Stepford Wife’ wannabees, hawking the ‘clinic’ of this quack, remind me of those lovely faces, of the attendants, in the ‘Home’ from ‘Soylent Green’. And we all know how things went there.
Scary, isn’t it?
very -all about $$$$
I am with you brother in every sense, email me scottnewgent@gmail.com I am not afraid of the tomatoes to be thrown and am and will take on this fight for us all! Hold on, I understand and I am here.
Can a phalloplasty be reversed at all? You’re attaching something to the body…can it be “unattached” if the patient decides they don’t like it?
Not entirely, you can have the Phallos or Penis removed, but you have a vagiasectomy to get this procedure done…No more Vagina..It’s a horrible surgery and should be illegal or this Surgeon should have his medical license removed. This guy in my opinion is a butcher. He charged me $254,000 for this surgery.
I see. Thank you for your answer. That sounds like a grim situation. I’m sorry you went through that.
These stories are absolutely heart-breaking.
So being young isn’t all fun & games, I know that. It’s full of uncertainty, worry about the future and decision-making, concern about one’s place in the world. Yet, one of the huge benefits to being young is that, by and large, a young person doesn’t have to worry about chronic health problems. That is mostly reserved for older folks like me, who have a lifetime of bad health decisions that are just now catching up to them. But young people, for the most part, have the wonderful luxury of taking their good health for granted.
This is one of the reasons I feel so sorry for the young people who are going through all this. You have just lost the next 30 or 40 years to worry about your health and at a very fundamental level that’s plain unfair.
It’s hard for me, personally, to understand wanting to have this surgery but regardless of my feelings, my heart truly goes out to all the young folks who have been so badly damaged here.
You deserve so much better.
Worriedmom, thank you for this comment. It is impossible to understand the turmoil, desires, wants and needs of others, I get that. But, to have compassion for something you don’t understand is incredible. Thank you.
sending love my friend …xox
Curtis Crane also does “nullo” procedures for men who want the smooth barbie doll look. That’s pretty out there; not really ethical medical practice. His first degree was in mechanical engineering, and he talked about really liking fluid dynamics when explaining why he went into urology. He seems to have the requisite level of detached sociopathy for doing experiments on people’s genitalia.
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I wonder how this doctor is able to continue his practice if he maxed out his liability insurance. Who would insure him now?
The reason why Dr. Crane has stayed in practice is because the majority of his patients were young transgender people that had been looking their entire lives to hear what Dr. Crane told them they could have. When mistakes arise it’s down played and the patient starts questioning themselves. If they reach out to others Doctors for help they are directed back to Dr. Crane because very few surgeons know how to perform a Phalloplasty. In fact each surgery is a trial surgery, it’s in my opinion experimental at best and should not be performed at all.
The reason why he continues to be in practice is because again these transgender patients are directed to Attorneys that only have the sole desire to win monetary settlements and not to stop the atrocity. When the main concern should be to stop obliterating these guys body’s and souls and not winning money to purchase a house. Sure monetary settlements are great, but at what cost, the cost of someone else going through what you went through?
How about we actually stop the problem? That’s what everyone should be focusing on. If you have had a phalloplasty and have a horror story or know someone who has please go to my website http://www.thetransgendertruth.wix.com/mysite
This needs to be stopped.
I dont like some of the language in the comments. All surgeries and procedures are experimental until its proven to work. This isnt Frankenweeiny guys. This surgery cures dysphoria and correct many mens bodies. It is heartbreaking that these men experienced such sever complications and it is gut-wrenching the misinformation given by the surgeon. There are many and way more than not, successful phalloplasty. I know you guys are angry and those with personal experiences are free to give their personal opinion about it freely. Others should stop though. Those personally effected can say it is a terrible thing that should never be performed because they are angry and rightfully so. The rest need to realize this is misinformation to say it’s a experimental surgery that shouldn’t be allowed. So many men experienced the complete opposite and have the body they seek to have. Some of yall think this is a place to say it’s just a botched mutilation surgery. This happened to a proven 9-10 guys out of hundreds of men who had surgery. There are naked passing men with functional phalloplasty; erotic and tactile sensations, urination standing, capable erections, penetrative intercourse because this surgery was successful for them. 9 known men had horrible circumstances but the amount of men with success exceeds those tenfold. This rubs me the wrong way. I went searching for results and this pops up top and to kids looking for answers or naysayers looking for stop trans agenda this is discouraging to those looking for the more common truth in being blessed enough to having phallo. I belong to those secret and private groups to avoid the s#it like this.
Noah,
I’m sorry but you are wrong, this surgery is still in the experimental stage and it has a 67% chance for complication. I have yet to speak with one trans man that had a Phalloplasty that worked properly or didn’t suffer from grave complication.
I’m not speaking about something I don’t know about, I had one with Dr. Crane.
This is the problem, people get up in arms if someone doesn’t cow down to any surgery or complications from blockers or hormones. So, these kind of replys hit the internet and it makes the people that are concerned stop being concerned. Your comments are much more dangerous than any one on this site that is concerned out the early stage of transitioning.
This type of transitioning does and has not been around long enough to determine a level of care and because of that it’s the wild wild west.
Your comments are far far far more dangerous than any of the others on this site. You have no idea what you are talking about and you are unaware how many people you are hurting. Let me tell you something Noah, you don’t want someone to get a Phallo because of something as ignorant as what you just stated.
Last, stop with all the BS about suicide. Yes, suicide is terrible, but stop holding people hostage with this because all rational discussion after that stops.. These kids that are transitioning will be a much much bigger ration of suicides once they realize how difficult it is to transition and they are 25 and begin to understand how invasive and hard it is to transition.
Your comments are so dangerous, if you have never had a phallo, you don’t have a right to say anything. Also, I see people daily talking about Phallo and how great it is on the internet and when I finally get to ask the if they even had the surgery, it’s always..No not yet, or they got something completely different than a phallo. This is dangerous. These comments are also the reason why Dr. Crane after 9 medical malpractices cases and new 1 in Texas is flying under the radar. It’s because of this type of ignorance.
Scott, I had a fully successful phalloplasty, in Canada, and know many many others who are in the same boat. It’s harmful saying that this surgery is experimental and dangerous.
Sorry, I don’t agree. I’ve had many people tell me they had it and I found their twitter announcing the dates for surgery or they were speaking of another type of bottom surgery.
Who’s your Surgeon in Canada. Didn’t know a surgeon in Canada is doing these.
This is a barbaric surgery and should be illegal. Try giving a call to an attorney for med mal, they would have to create a baseline for trans surgery because current they don’t have any.This surgery needs to have a baseline and procedure in place and they don’t. Any surgon can perorm them. No special education required.
I think that’s cool you like your phallo, but if u haven’t gotten one and you are saying this that’s dangerious.
I get gender dysphoria, but at some point we have to have an understanding that we were born woman, no two ways about it. At some point we have to face disphoria instead of butchering our bodies. A reality check shall we say.
Again it is harmful and dangerous, this surgery. Its harmful to minimize it.
PS Your the first person I know that didn’t have major complications, again I’m happy for you, that’s really cool. Not being sarcastic FYI, just glad it worked for someone without major complications.
One more thing. Phallo doesn’t cure disphoria, nothing does and a phallo is not life threatening if a trans doesn’t get it. That was the comment above not from you.
I am skeptical of ppl saying they had a fantastic phalloplasty. I do not want to be rude, but it´s just almost impossible for me to build a reasonable phallus from a piece of flesh.
As soon as I pressed him for the surgeon or where he got it done he vanished. I have yet to meet someone that didn’t have major life changing complications or failure at some level. It doesn’t exist. Phallo is for bottom feeding surgeons like Dr. Crane that aren’t good at anything to make a fortune.
Hi scott,
thanks you for speaking the truth, you are exactly right that these young people claiming your comments are harmfull, are doing more harm temselves.
you are exactly right this is the wild west and its more wild to see people so delusional.
i had top with garramone in 13. I have been looking into the bottom for a while, and since canada approved government funding a few years ago i decided to go forth with the application for lower.
I liked crane’s results initially as i researched him for a number of years. what i am just coming to learn now is this major malpractice record. my good friend had phallo with him a few years back, and now he is having minor complications.
I am ontrack to be scheduled with crane and now i am strongly reconsidering my choice of surgeon.
Please if you are able to i would be very interested in speaking with you further outside of this feed.
please let me know how i can reach you if you would be interested in speaking with me.
thank you and god bless.
Doctor Crane is back in business, looking for more victims. This guy obviously doesn’t understand who this monster really is. The softball approach that these men give to each other slays me, trying to humanize them when in fact, they are monsters. I wonder how much Crane payed him to air this? Planned Parenthood also got a big interview. There’s only 11 subscribers and I don’t expect that to grow.
Hi Rose, it looks Dr. Crane has hired a PR person, this latest video interviewed has 11 followere, but the kids won’t investigate information. In gathering people to google him and start writing reviews on medical sites. Each time a see new critical review a day or so later their is a raving A++ looks suspicious, I’ve had surgery with guy and I don’t believe ANYONE that surgery with him would be raving, I haven’t met one yet.
Having seen the photos of what Dr Curtis Crane has done to my friend’s arm, that arm will never recover, believe that Dr Curtis Crane should stop performing phalloplasty. By all accounts, this does not eliminate the dysphoria anyway in the end, and he is charging up to $0.25M for the privelege. With this amount of money flowing around, and a large number of malpractice suits with NDAs attached, the true scale of Dr Curtis’s malpractice seems to be well hidden below the surface. Dr Curtis meanwhile is laughing all the way to the bank, and is still advertising for business. Please stop Dr Curtis. Teach people to love their bodies the way they are rather than slicing away healthy tissue with your surgeon’s knife. Perhaps that doesn’t pay so well.
Another trans old school friend of mine attempted suicide after going trans. Twice, thankfully unsuccessful both times. So please don’t tell me that going trans is the perfect antidote to suicide: I won’t believe you.
I am 23 years old trans I had a breast augmentation with dr crane and it was the worst experience of my life I threw away 10k and I will be afraid to go back to do the breast augmentation although I know it was due to incompetence of such fear was that I came to think that I had put old implants in my body and one bigger than the other in different dimensions, I had some 4-year-old hormonal breasts and ended up flat because of Crane I couldn’t do anything because I also signed papers and By the way they wanted to make me feel like I was not sure I was transsexual just because of how horrid my breasts were that I had them removed. I was born trans and I will die trans is really a pity that meets people like crane on the way. careful girls don’t make a mistake don’t operate with crane
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