A registered nurse who blew the whistle on illegal gender treatments and alleged Medicaid fraud at Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) is viewing her firing on Aug. 16 as the latest salvo in what she says is ultimately a spiritual battle.

Vanessa Sivadge, who served as a clinic nurse in the endocrine clinic at TCH, worked closely with parents in helping with their children’s prescription refills and general care questions on behalf of the physicians in the unit. TCH is the nation’s largest children’s hospital.

“My faith in Jesus compels me to speak the truth about what I’ve seen while having the utmost compassion and love towards children confused about their sex,” Sivadge wrote on her GiveSendGo.com page to raise money for her legal defense.

Sivadge, who once served as an intern at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., told independent journalist Christopher Rufo that she had asked the hospital on May 31 for a transfer back to her “core competency” in the cardiology clinic because of a religious objection to the cross-sex hormone treatments that she was having to indirectly participate in. Her letter to the hospital specifically asked for a religious accommodation.

Sivadge, along with a former TCH resident surgeon named Eithan Haim, blew the whistle on TCH for what she and Haim allege were continued gender-altering treatments on minors after a new Texas law banned such practices in September 2023 and after an earlier opinion from the Texas attorney general that such treatments constituted child abuse. Sivadge also alleged the hospital engaged in Medicaid fraud to pay for the treatments.

In her statement to Rufo, Sivadge says her firing is unlawful, and added that she hopes to challenge it in court.

“It is retaliation for my coming forward with information on TCH’s egregious pattern of deception and Medicaid fraud,” Sivadge wrote, “and this action also illegally disregarded my request to transfer due to my belief that these procedures bring irreversible harm and lifelong regret to children confused about their sex.”

In an interview with The Christian Post, Sivadge said, “I am a Christian, and my faith is the foundation of everything. That’s the reason why I’ve spoken out as I have.”

After she blew the whistle on TCH in May 2023 in order to corroborate what Haim—whom she didn’t know—had reported, Sivadge and her husband received a visit at her home from two FBI agents who apparently were alerted to Sivadge because of her Christian views and suspected she might be a whistleblower.

“Soon after I anonymously came forward to corroborate Dr. Haim, two agents from the FBI came to my home and threatened me,” Sivadge wrote on her GiveSendGo.com page. “They told me they were aware of my strong views against ‘gender-affirming care’ and asked to recruit my help in order to expose Dr. Haim. They said they could make my life difficult, and said I was not safe unless I helped them. I felt scared, intimidated, and overwhelmed.”

She said the Biden-Harris Justice Department has been weaponized to punish people of faith who speak out against the administration’s social policies and goals.

“I never thought that [my identity] would come to light, and that I would be ultimately visited by the federal government, wanting to intimidate me into silence,” she told CP reporter Jon Brown.

“Ephesians 5 says to have nothing to do with the worthless deeds of evil and darkness,” Sivadge continued, “but instead expose them, and that everything exposed by the light becomes visible.
 
“So that was really the foundation and the motivation for me to do what I’ve done, to speak out like I have.”

Haim, who is now in private practice in the Dallas area and whose wife is a U.S. attorney whom Haim alleges was also threatened with her legal career if her husband continued his whistleblowing, was charged with four federal felony charges in June, claiming he illegally obtained TCH medical records with malicious intent. Haim could face 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. But Haim contends he redacted all private patient information in the documents he provided to Rufo.

“Dr. Haim exposed illegal experimental gender surgeries on children at a Texas hospital & was indicted by [U.S. Attorney General Merrick] Garland,” wrote House Speaker Mike Johnson. “Biden’s DOJ has silenced opponents, gone after whistleblowers, & spied on parents & churchgoers. We must restore our justice system.”

GiveSendGo.com / Vanessa Sivadge