Weaponized DOJ ‘triples down’ on persecution of surgeon who exposed hospital for secret child medical mutilation 

In February 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared “gender-affirming care” a form of child abuse. He cited evidence that these procedures — such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgery — cause irreversible damage to children. Kids who undergo gender-affirming care, or what some doctors call medical mutilation, are known to suffer sterility, serious psychological harm, and a lifelong inability to experience sexual pleasure.

Immediately following Paxton’s opinion, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate “gender-affirming care” as child abuse.

Weeks later, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) announced it would be closing its gender clinic where children were being medically mutilated. Then-TCH CEO Mark Wallace called the move “heart-wrenching” but said the hospital wanted to avoid “potential criminal legal ramifications.”

Unbeknownst to outsiders, the hospital quietly reopened the clinic days later. 

A clinic from hell

Vanessa Sivadge, a whistleblower nurse who worked at TCH, said kids who came to the hospital struggling with anxiety, depression, abuse, puberty discomfort, addiction, and suicide ideation were automatically diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” regardless of the actual cause of their health problems.They were then placed on sex-change regimens that included puberty blockers, breast-removal surgery, and implanted hormone delivery devices. 

The clinic’s doctors were “manipulating” children into medical mutilation, Sivadge said, disregarding parental objections. She felt the hospital would call Child Protective Services on parents who objected to the procedures.

Sivadge further alleged that the hospital was fraudulently billing insurance companies for the procedures. Since insurers would no longer pay for “gender dysphoria,” the hospital started billing the interventions as “estrogen deficiency” because the male patients had low estrogen, as healthy males do.

Surgeon discovers the truth

The program’s resurgence was kept quiet enough that many within the hospital’s own staff were unaware of it at first. Dr. Eithan Haim, who had been a surgical resident at TCH since 2018, began hearing from colleagues in mid-2022 that the gender clinic had reopened. He didn’t believe it at first, but the reports grew more frequent. Eventually, Haim realized that not only had the clinic resumed operations, it had expanded into a multidisciplinary center for “gender-affirming care.”

“I reached this unavoidable conclusion that Texas Children’s Hospital is providing this outward appearance that they shut down the program, when in actuality, within the hospital, it’s a very high priority,” Haim later said.

Two events convinced him.

The first was in January 2023, when Baylor College of Medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Richard Roberts gave a presentation at the hospital’s “pediatric grand rounds” lecture series. Roberts, an endocrinologist, helped run the TCH gender clinic and performed several medical mutilation procedures on minors as young as 12. In his presentation, Roberts admitted to keeping pediatric patients’ “preferred names” and “pronouns” hidden from parents.

The second event was a Zoom conference titled “Gender Affirming Care in Minors,” attended by over 150 medical students from Baylor College of Medicine which is affiliated with TCH. A social worker from TCH named Roxanne Palmer told attendees how she hides evidence of the medical mutilation procedures from patients’ parents, knowing it is illegal to do so.

Dr. Haim blows the whistle

Dr. Haim decided to expose TCH’s abusive medical mutilation program and provided journalist Christopher Rufo with documented evidence. Patient names in the documents were redacted, making them “de-identified.” In May 2023, Rufo published the story, though he kept Haim’s name anonymous. 

The reaction was swift. Within 24 hours, the Texas legislature voted to ban medical mutilation procedures for children. Three days later, AG Paxton announced an investigation into TCH. After a week, TCH CEO Mark Wallace announced the program would (again) be shut down.

The empire strikes back

But the regime also moved swiftly. On June 23, 2023, just over a month after the story broke and on the day Haim was set to graduate from his residency, he was visited by two federal agents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The agents informed him he was being targeted in a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating HIPAA laws related to patient privacy, even though Haim had revealed no patient data.

In a letter to Congress in January, Haim’s legal team said this level of speed is unprecedented even for serious criminal investigations. The prosecutor, US District Attorney Tina Ansari, admitted she had not reviewed the evidence before launching the investigation and acknowledged that she was not familiar with HIPAA laws. She referred to the doctors who performed the medical mutilation procedures as “victims.”

In May, the DOJ indicted Haim with four felonies. He was released on a $10,000 bond and faces 10 years in federal prison. He has so far raised over $1.16 million for legal fees on GiveSendGo, $340,000 short of his goal.

“Although the whistleblower redacted all personal information and remained within the bounds of federal privacy laws, the Biden Administration wanted to make a point: those who challenge trans orthodoxy will be punished by the state,” wrote Rufo.

The trial is set for December.

DOJ triples down

On Sunday, Haim revealed that the DOJ admitted in court filings to submitting false information to the grand jury for the indictments. However, the government’s defense is that it did not do so “knowingly.”

“DOJ concedes they presented false information to the first Grand Jury,” Haim posted on X. “They just didn't do so ‘knowingly.’ Yet, they triple down on the same claim in their second indictment without explanation or evidence. Seems to be less about knowing the truth, more so punishing it.”

FBI targets other whistleblower

Vanessa Sivadge, the nurse whistleblower, was also targeted. After she spoke with Rufo, two FBI agents appeared at her door.

“They threatened me,” she said. “They promised they would make life difficult for me if I was trying to protect the leaker. They said I was ‘not safe’ at work and claimed that someone at my workplace had given my name to the FBI.”

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