Chanelle McKenna was 11 when her mother, along with medical professionals and school staff, made the decision she should be involuntarily st
"My mother decided to organise the forced hysterectomy because it was convenient for her not to be able to deal with my menstrual periods, and unwanted grandchildren that she believed I wouldn't be able to care for," Chanelle says.
"I had no comprehension of what a hysterectomy was and what it meant. No-one bothered explaining anything to me."
Chanelle's mother never once explained why she was suddenly taken into hospital.
"When I was lying unconscious on the operating table, I experienced an astral projection — more commonly known as an out-of-body experience. I remember I looked at my body and felt extremely sad."
Chanelle emerged from the operation confused, scared and in severe pain. She had no idea why she was unexpectedly in hospital. It would take weeks before she could sit properly.
The enormity of this has caused Chanelle life-long emotional pain and physical trauma.
"The doctor was supposed to put dissolvable stitches in. However, he didn't," Chanelle, now 46, explains. "When the nurse removed the stitches after two weeks, it felt as if I was in a river full of piranhas and they nibbled at my skin, just for the fun of it.
"I thought I was being punished for a crime I'd never committed. The offence: being disabled."
A few weeks later, Chanelle remembers returning to school. Her mother never mentioned the operation, and pretended nothing had happened. It wasn't until two older girls at her school began teasing her that she realised what had actually happened.
"One of them said to the other, 'I feel so sorry for her because she will never be able to have children.' I don't know how they knew, because they were much older than me, and I'd never met them before," Chanelle says.
"When I think back now, although I felt sad at the time, I didn't grasp the seriousness of the true nature of what that meant for me, because I was still too young. I was only 11 years old."
