A nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest children’s hospital, has claimed that FBI agents showed up to her home after she accused the facility of illegally billing taxpayers for “transgender medicine” for kids. Vanessa Sivadge, a whistleblower, said the alleged agents threatened her and warned her that she was not safe at work. She alleges that the hospital was billing this care to Medicaid; Texas law prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for such gender-affirming care for children. In response, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating Sivadge’s allegations, a spokesperson confirmed.
Sivadge told conservative journalist Chris Rufo that the hospital was billing gender-affirming care to Medicaid and accused the facility of “stealing from the federal government” by concealing its transgender medicine program from the public while billing taxpayers. After her accusations were made public, two men who identified themselves as FBI agents showed up at Sivadge’s door and accused her of breaking federal privacy laws. They threatened her with making life difficult for her if she continued to protect the whistleblower, stating that she was not safe at work and that someone from her workplace had given her name to the FBI.
In addition to allegations about billing practices, Sivadge claimed that one doctor she worked with took an uncritical approach to providing medical intervention for children who said they wanted to transition to another gender. She stated that this doctor was extremely supportive of their transition and would do whatever he could to make sure they were happy, even if it meant going against what is best for the child.
Previously, in 2023, Dr. Eithan Haim, a surgeon who completed his residency at the Texas Children’s Hospital, leaked documents that reportedly revealed the hospital was conducting gender-affirming surgeries on kids in secret to skirt state law. Texas Attorney General Paxton had issued an opinion declaring gender-affirming care for minors as a form of child abuse in 2022. However, just three days after the hospital’s announcement that they would stop these procedures, Haim alleged that they implanted a hormone device into an 11-year-old girl for gender dysphoria.
Haim also claimed that the hospital only increased the frequency of such procedures from that point on, while “potentially hundreds more children received hormone interventions for gender dysphoria” over the next year. In response to these allegations, the Texas legislature banned drug and surgical sex changes for minors. However, when Haim was supposed to graduate from his residency at the hospital, he received a knock at his door from authorities who handed him a letter identifying him as a “potential target” in a federal probe. He has since been indicted on four counts of violating HIPPA medical privacy laws.
State Rep. Brian Harrison is calling for the state legislature to hold hearings to investigate the whistleblowers’ claims and the Biden administration’s “unconstitutional tyranny.” He stated that “We need Republicans to be courageous in fighting back against the unconstitutional tyranny of the Biden administration.” Harrison demanded that the Texas House of Representatives act immediately to hold hearings, launch a formal investigation, and subpoena any federal official, DOJ, or HHS who may have been involved in this issue.
A spokesperson for Texas Children’s Hospital did not respond to The Post’s request for comment, and the Department of Justice also did not respond when reached for comment.
