In an interview for Freedom Forever, Vanessa Sivadge—a former nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH)—shared her experiences and disturbing allegations about the hospital’s secretive gender clinic, a clinic that operated within the hospital’s endocrine clinic. Among the illegal practices she observed were deceptive diagnostic practices and fraudulent Medicaid billing, toward the goal of medically transitioning vulnerable children ages 13-17. TCH denied wrongdoing in a press release here on July 22, 2024 and again on August 22, 2024.

Sivadge worked at Texas Children’s Hospital for six years starting in 2018, first accepting a position in pediatric cardiology, a dream job she never envisioned she would leave. In 2021, she was transferred to a multi-specialty clinic that included the hospital’s gender unit. It was there she began to witness what she describes as the slow erasure of children.

In her testimony before the before the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government in April 2025, Sivadge explained her role at the hospital,

“I was responsible for the care of patients in a variety of medical specialties. One of these areas was endocrinology, where children diagnosed with gender dysphoria were seen by Dr. Richard Roberts. I accepted this job not knowing that children confused about their biological sex were being prescribed cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers in a robust and lucrative transgender program at my workplace… I witnessed firsthand how doctors emotionally blackmailed parents by telling them that if they did not affirm their child’s false identity, their child would harm themselves.”

Needless to say, it became harder and harder for Sivadge to look the other way. Referencing practices she witnessed at the gender-affirming clinic, she shared the following with Freedom Forever:

“Week after week, I saw confused children come in for one visit and leave with prescriptions for puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. It was devastating. Over time, I watched girls grow facial hair and deepen their voices. I watched children start to erase themselves, essentially. It was so sad. I couldn’t keep participating in it.”

“I didn’t know what to do about it or who to tell.” Sivadge continued, “This is the number one pediatric hospital in America. The hospital has endless resources, over 20,000 employees, and an army of legal counsel. I felt outnumbered and it began to feel like no one shared my concerns. I eventually got to the point where I had a crisis of conscience. I was being asked to do things that were against my faith and my beliefs.”

“Then the article came out about who we now know is Dr. Haim. At the time he was anonymous. I had no idea who he was. I just knew someone within the walls of the hospital had shared my concerns that children were being harmed.”

A Secret Clinic and Fraudulent Records

Just as disturbing to Sivadge was the way the hospital hid its gender transition program from public view, the same allegation echoed in Dr. Ethan Haim’s experiences at the hospital, as reported by Freedom Forever in June, 2024.

“The hospital scrubbed all online references to the gender clinic. They had deleted it, erasing all references to it online. No parents or lawmakers on the outside knew what was going on. That was what Dr. Haim exposed in his testimony.”

She continued:

“Without knowing each other, Dr. Haim and I came forward to attest to the very same things. And, thankfully, days later the Texas legislature voted to pass SB14, which effectively ended gender transition care for minors. The passing of that law was in large part due to several Democrats flipping their votes after reading Dr. Haim’s testimony from Christopher Rufo’s article,” Sivadge added.

Notably, Biden’s Department of Justice sued Dr. Haim for allegedly illegally accessing, obtaining, and disclosing the protected health information of Texas Children’s pediatric patients. However, all charges were ultimately dropped in January, 2025 under the Trump administration.

Haim also testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government in April. During his testimony Haim stated, “The DOJ’s own evidence disproved every single one of the claims against us.” Notably, the primary component of DOJ’s case had nothing to do with transgender patients,” according to Haim. Instead, “it was about transplant patients.” Ultimately, Haim explained, “The DOJ never charged disclosure but they tried to in their first indictment.” “

Governor Abbott signed SB14 into law in the fall of 2023. The left-leaning Texas Freedom Network reported the bill’s signing as a “dark day in Texas,”  one that “aggressive[ly] bans essential healthcare for transgender health.” Their June 2, 2023 statement made use of the same language and scare tactics used by TCH doctors who had allegedly convinced vulnerable families that forgoing such treatments could be fatal.

According to Sivadge, the clinic falsified records to reflect a patient’s gender identity rather than biological sex—a practice she claims was used to manipulate insurance billing systems. She said the hospital was “using Texas Medicaid dollars to expand their radical program, using taxpayer dollars to go toward gender transitions for kids.” When I asked how a hospital could pull off this type of billing practice, she explained,

“There are many things in place that make it difficult for insurance companies to detect fraud when they receive billing from a hospital, said Sivadge. “If a girl was identifying as male, they’d list ‘male’ on the chart. They would falsify the record. That way, prescribing testosterone wouldn’t trigger insurance red flags. It is the most egregious form of state and federal fraud,” Sivadge added. “It was both a fraudulent billing and a fraudulent medical diagnosis.”

She also claims that doctors diagnosed transgender-identified minors with false hormone deficiencies to justify the use of cross-sex hormones—actions that, if proven true, would also constitute insurance fraud under state and federal law.

FBI Visit, Retaliation, and Whistleblower Protection Under Trump Administration

Shortly after the Texas Legislature passed SB14 in 2023, FBI agents appeared at Sivadge’s home. They accused her of being a “person of interest” in a leak of confidential patient data—a claim she adamantly denies. The FBI’s intimidation tactics were, according to Sivadge, both “terrifying and life-changing.” It was, she shared, “a pivotal moment that changed the direction of her life,” setting her on the trajectory of going public with the information a year later in the summer of 2024. Sivadge continued, “The FBI was trying to flip me—to get me to turn on Dr. Haim, who had anonymously come forward. It was pure intimidation,” she added.

Days after she went public in 2024, she was placed on leave and was then fired in August 2024. Texas Children’s Hospital claimed falsely that she “improperly accessed medical records.”  The hospital claimed Dr. Haim violated HIPAA, however, neither he nor Sivadge ever revealed the identity of a single patient at the hospital. Ironically, Sivadge points out that those same records are the very evidence of the hospital’s wrongdoing.

Sivadge is now working with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has opened an investigation into her termination under the Church Amendments—federal protections for employees who object to participating in activities that violate their religious beliefs. She says there has been a “complete 180 reversal” of policy when it comes to whistleblowers during the Trump administration versus the way they were handled during the Biden/Harris era.

“I was targeted, prosecuted and persecuted during the Biden administration. But now we’ve seen a complete 180 reversal, said Sivadge. “The Trump administration, however, has created a portal to report gender affirming care clinics. HHS and the Office of Civil Rights are encouraging medical professionals to come forward to share their concerns and knowledge of the ways children are being harmed through gender medicine. People can anonymously submit a tip,” according to Sivadge.  

“They’ve issued multiple press releases encouraging people who are working in medicine, who are working in clinics similar to the one that I was in––to inform the federal government of what what’s going on. President Trump signed an executive order in his first week of office as president to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” Sivadge stated.

“So, instead of weaponizing the full force and weight of the federal government against us,” she added, “The Trump administration is using all the levers that the federal government has at its disposal to protect children.”

Sivadge Launches Protecting Texas Children

In 2024, Sivadge founded a nonprofit organization, Protecting Texas Children, which works to safeguard minors from sexualization, ideological indoctrination, and gender medicalization. The group advocates for legislative reform, promotes ethical mental health treatment, and supports families navigating these issues.

“We want real mental health care that helps children embrace who they are—not encourages them to mutilate their bodies,” she said.

Protecting Texas Children is also launching a campaign to remove sexually explicit books from Texas school libraries—Sivadge says books like these are a part of a broader effort to desensitize and confuse children.

A Call for Courage

Sivadge acknowledges the personal cost of coming forward. She hopes her story will inspire other healthcare professionals to expose what they see and refuse to be complicit.

“Children are not experiments. They are not biological pawns. And we have a moral duty to protect them,” said Sivadge.

To contribute to her legal defense fund and hear more about her efforts on behalf of children, please see the GiveSendGo link provided here.

FreedomForever.us partners with a number of organizations such as the Paradox Institute, an organization that teaches about the differences in biological and psychological differences between males and females as well as the myths of gender affirming care. Freedom Forever also suggests the book, A Practical Response to Gender Distress written by Pamela Garfield-Jaeger.

Freedom Forever is an all-volunteer organization that focuses its energy and time on preserving the innocence and safety of children.

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