The Daily Signal - Whistleblower Exposes Children's Hospital for Gender Treatments on Minors

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

Dr. Eithan Haim was completing his surgical training at Texas Children’s Hospital in the spring of 2023. On a Friday morning in June, just before graduation, a knock came on Haim's door.  “I open it, [and] standing outside there are two federal agents with [the Department of] Health and Human Services,” Haim recalls. The surgeon says he was told he was under investigation in a case involving medical records. Just one month earlier, Haim had worked with journalist Christopher Rufo to blow the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and its gender treatments for minors.  In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, took steps to ensure that hospitals in Texas weren't performing such procedures. As a result, the Texas Children’s Hospital announced that it had stopped doing the gender procedures on kids; inside the hospital, Haim says, he was seeing a different story.  The hospital “took away all the public-facing indications that the program was still active,” Haim says, adding that “the hospital is telling the public this program no longer exists, but within the hospital, they're prioritizing it to the highest level." "So the directors of the program that supposedly did not exist were speaking at the hospital's most prestigious lecture series seven months after that statement [in which] they said they were shutting it down," the surgeon says. Haim joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain why he is so passionate about defending minors from these dangerous medical procedures and standing against what he sees as the federal government's intimidation tactics.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, March 7th. I'm Virginia Allen. Back in 2022, Texas took steps to stop gender treatments on children. And Texas Children's Hospital in Houston told the public that they were not doing the treatments on minors anymore. But a whistleblower came forward and alerted the public that the Children's Hospital was, in fact, continuing the gender treatments. Dr. A. Tom Heim is that whistleblower. And while he said, he said, He was first anonymous. He made the choice to come forward and be public in his whistleblowing after he was threatened with an investigation from the federal government. He joins us on the show today to explain what exactly was happening within the four walls of the Texas Children's Hospital and why he chose to blow the whistle.

Stay tuned for our conversation after this. For over 35 years, the Heritage Foundation Job Bank has been helping conservatives as, all professional levels find employment in key positions in Washington, D.C., and across the country. We can help you connect with positions in the administration, on Capitol Hill, in public policy organizations, and in the private sector. To learn more about the Heritage Foundation Job Bank, go to heritage.org slash job-dash bank. It is my pleasure today to be joined by whistleblower and surgeon. Dr. Aiton Haim.

Dr. Heim, thanks for being with us. Yeah, thank you for having me. Well, if you would, as we start and get into the weeds of your story and the whistleblowing, I want to begin by just asking you to share a little bit of your background. What gave you the passion and the interest to become a surgeon? Yeah, well, I grew up in Florida. My dad, he's a doctor, and he's a lung. doctor. And I remember, you know, whenever we would go out around town and my dad would run into

his patients. And you would see their reaction when seeing him. And they would say these things that were so meaningful. Like they cared so much that he was their doctor. And I saw that connection he had with these people. And it was, it was kind of something different when you see your dad having this really strong connection with someone you've never met before. And it's almost like this person you know so well also know these other people so well. And that relationship comes from when you take care of someone during their scariest moment. So yeah, I wanted that same thing in my life. So that there was something special about medicine. And then, but surgery specifically because my first couple weeks in medical school, I was in the anatomy lab and they were just kind of, it just made sense to me.

me, you know, especially general surgery. It's just kind of like plumbing, like the food tube, you know, and you just got to make sure that it's open and you get to work with your hands. And I'm kind of like a simpleton. So like, yeah, it's kind of like it's general surgery is like the blue collar or specialty of surgical professions, you know, we're like the least sophisticated, but like the, you know, most down the earth, I would say. Okay.

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone referred to being a surgeon as blue collar. love that. Just it makes sense for you. That's amazing that your brain automatically is wired that way. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and talk about what has happened in your life over the past year, been a pretty wild year in your life. So you were completing a surgical residency at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. And to give a little bit of context and background as to the situation in Texas, In 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, he took steps to ensure that hospitals in Texas weren't performing gender treatments on minors. And he announced that the state would investigate so-called sex change procedures on minors as child abuse. So as a result, the Texas Children's Hospital, they said were stopping doing any of these procedures.

But while you were doing your residency at Texas Children's Hospital, you discovered that, no, these procedures. had not stopped. How did you learn that they were still going even after they told the public that they had stopped? You know, I think there's one more important point of detail to add. When Texas Children's released that statement, they said it was because of the legal risks. That was in their statement. So they acknowledged that they were shutting down these procedures, this program, because of legal risks that were defined by the AG's office a few weeks before. So it's an important part to the story, but it's so shocking because it was months after that, so about like mid-2020, that people in my surgical program, you know, we rotate at different hospitals, and they would tell

me that they had just implanted pew reblocking devices into 11, 12, 13-year-old kids, and that these kids believed they were transgender, but they had all these psychiatric issues. You know, there were some people who had multiple family members who were transgender. And I'm thinking to myself, like, this is crazy because I had just started waking up to all of this craziness that was happening. Because I really know about it before. It was really only after like lips of TikTok and these stories coming out of Massachusetts General and Vanderbilt where you had these bubbly young doctors talking about like gender affirming hysterectomies. I really woke up to it. So I couldn't I didn't believe that was happening in Texas because you think it's happening in like California or Washington, but not in Texas.

So then I started looking into it. And then I found that statement from March of 2022. And I thought to myself like, oh my God, like the hospital is continuing these procedures after they said they're not. They took away all the public facing indications that the program was still active. So no web page, no mention of it, nothing. And then you realize that the hospital is telling the public this program no longer exists, but within the hospital, they're prioritizing it to the highest level. So the directors of the program that supposedly did not exist were speaking at the hospital's most prestigious lecture series seven months after that statement they said they were shutting it down.

You know, the whole point was to teach the general pediatricians how to ask, you know, about gender identity behind the backs of their parents. You know, they had members of this transgender program having Zoom conferences with medical students. And she talked about how she didn't document consuls. She would call them. She wouldn't document, right, because of the risk of oversight to avoid scrutiny from governing medical bodies. Exactly. So as a doctor and a surgeon, right, you realize that you have the biggest children's hospital in the world lying to the public about a program that results in the

the manipulation, mutilation, and sterilization of these young confused kids. So I have a responsibility to do something about it. This might be naive, but why do you think that the hospital would tell the public one thing and then do something totally different? Why would they say we're closing this program and definitely not close it? And as you witnessed, continue performing gender treatments on minors? Yeah, it seems like a tough question. Why are like, why would we, like, why would would someone do something like that, right? Like the hospital administration, like all, I'm sure like the chief legal counsel knew that was happening and knew that there were risks. But I think the answer is because they wanted to conceal it from the public, because they knew it was controversial. And there should

be nothing a doctor or a hospital wants to hide from the public. If there is anything, they feel like a little anxious about the public knowing, it's likely they're doing something very wrong. So you saw what was happening behind the scenes. Tell us what you did with that information. Yeah. So I started reaching out to journalists. This was in January of 2023. Once I realized this was a hospital priority after seeing these Zoom conferences and these lectures. So it took months, like five months of just blasting emails, like dozens, dozens of times, just got ignored for a long time. I think people didn't believe the story because it was really crazy. But I finally got in touch with Chris for Rufo in mid-May. And this was like the best timing possible. I didn't know this, but the Texas

Senate was voting on a bill called SB 14, which was going to ban these interventions. So in a way, you know, make it more illegal, right? Like add additional legal risks. Because many would argue that it was always illegal. I would argue that too. So we get in touch. We go through a vetting process. And we release the story on May 16th. And the day the story comes out all over the news, But it does exactly what we thought it was going to do. The next day, the state of Texas voted to ban what we had exposed, the practice we had exposed. Within, so 24 hours, it was made illegal to become illegal. And a bill that was passed with bipartisan support.

And it was because our story came out that multiple Democrats decided to vote in favor of it. Because many people didn't even know that this was happening in their state, right? it's because it was they took the sign off the door. Yeah. And we exposed at the best possible time, which was like something I couldn't even believe. Wow. So more whistleblowers come out and then the aging announces an investigation to the hospital. And then the CEO says he's shutting down the program, you know, for the second time in 14 months.

And at this point, you're completely anonymous, right? Completely anonymous. Okay. Yeah. So I was just the anonymous whistleblower. And it was a month later that everything, you know, kind of got a little hairy from there. Yeah. Let's talk about that. You were told that you were being investigated by federal agents, correct? Yeah. One month after this story broke where your name wasn't attached to it.

Exactly. So it was, the story came out May 16th, 20203. This was my last year of surgical training. So I was getting ready to graduate, start a new job. So my graduate. So my graduate was a month later on June 23rd. And it was a Friday. My family was in town. You know, this is a really big day because, you know, you sacrifice so much during your training that the day you graduate is one of the most important days of your life. So around 11, 12 o'clock, I get an aggressive knock on the door. You know, I shuffle over, I open it, standing outside or two federal agents with health and human services. They show me their badges and tell me they're investigating a case regarding medical records. And, you know, we invite him in. And, you know, we end up telling them that we weren't going to talk to him without an attorney present. My wife and I, my wife's an

attorney, you know, we, you know, went to the side and she would both were like, this is a bad idea. Yeah. But they handed me a target letter telling me that, saying I was a potential target of a criminal investigation. You know, after they left, after that door closed, we had this choice to make. Do we try to, like, play their game? Because we knew they know no crime was committed. We know that no legal statute was violated. And both of us know that this investigation is being pursued because I'm a whistleblower. They want to shut up nurses and doctors like me. So, of course, we couldn't live with ourselves if we didn't fight against it. So we knew that from that day on, we'd have to be willing to sacrifice everything to push back.

make sure that like our kids don't grow up in the world where if you do the right thing and expose doctors farming kids in this way that the federal government is going to come after you to destroy your life. So what has that fight looked like for you when you've said you had to be all in, you knew it was going to cost everything. What does that look like? Yeah, I think you've discovered for the first time the really important things like you think like, you know, we spent hundreds thousands of dollars on legal bills, right? And I mean, we lost everything we've ever had, like we've ever saved all our investments, everything. But you realize, like, it's really not that important. Like, it's not giving up that much because you gain your dignity in return,

right? Like, you gain the opportunity to stand up against, like, these petty tyrants and neurotic bureaucrats who want to make you live like a subject. And, like, no, we're not going to do that. So it's like for the first time you have the ability to to fight back, but but also to answer a question a more granular way over the next couple of months, what was that like, right? We experienced firsthand the degree of corruption, right? Like what this really means. And it was after experiencing that, that I knew it was time to take this fight public because, you know, my attorneys had outlined this misconduct in a letter to Congress with Jim Jordan, Chip Roy, so that we can pursue an investigation into them. But, you know, that letter outlines that this investigation was initiated without this prosecutor ever reviewing the evidence, right, or any of the legal statutes that might be involved.

She had threatened my wife, right, because she was undergoing a federal background check. she said, Andrea won't have any problems if, unless she starts to become difficult, right? So her encouraging me to use my constitutional right to speak with an attorney, right, is her being difficult. You know, it's, you know, like the prosecutor in this letter, they outline that they were going to pursue me on a technicality just to make my name public so that other people can sue me. and I can suffer all the implications from that, right? So, you know, there's so many more points. It's like you can't even believe it. Yeah.

So, you know, we knew we had to do something about it. Where does the investigation, the federal investigation against you stand? Have they been updating you on anything? No, no. But, you know, at this point, it's like we know they have nothing. I don't care. I mean, they can investigate me on anything they want. It's like, it doesn't matter.

Like, but what's going to happen now? now is we're going to do everything we can, every fiber of my being to hold them accountable. Like, we're never going to stop until we succeed. So, like, they thought they were going to intimidate me. They thought I was going to bend the need to their evil ideology. Like, most doctors would have done. But as they're coming to find out, they had knocked on the wrong door. Would you do it again? Oh, I mean, of course. No, there's not, that's not even a question. I love the confidence. How is this affected or has it affected your professional career as a surgeon? It's affected my professional career in the sense that every week I get tons of thank you letters at my office.

Yeah. No, but I, you know, I'm still a practicing surgeon. I was operating this week. I'm like this week. I'm very busy. Like still a very busy surgeon at, you know, just a small county hospital and a small Texas town where, you know, you can still practice medicine because. the people around you are not, you know, consumed by this ideology. Before I let you go, what is your message to other folks who, whether they're doctors, they're witnessing this, they're in a school, their teacher, they're being told you have to use preferred pronouns, whatever it might be, where they're facing a choice knowing that like you, they could face real consequences for choosing to follow their conscience on this. What's your message of encouragement?

You know, the message would be is now is the time to fight. People may want to stay silent because they think that they're protecting their job so they can pay their mortgage. But what they're really doing, you know, and they say this because it's like, oh, I need to take care of my kids, right? But if you don't stand up in this fight, if you don't do something about it, you're only passing that fight on to your children. So now is the time to stand up because what these people are doing to these children is unconscionable. And everyone, and, everyone, people now are starting to look for a fight to be a part of. If anyone wants to help us in this fight, they can donate to our GiveSENGo. They can find that gifsendgo.com for slash Texas underscore

whistleblower. And every dollar that goes into that is going straight into the fight to hold these people accountable. Because right now we have this investigation that we are now pursuing in Congress. We need resources to pursue the proper political pathways to make sure that happens. Hopefully in the next administration, because it's not going to happen now, but we need to lay the groundwork for that happening. Well, that's certainly an investigation that we're going to be keeping a close eye on here at the Daily Signal. And Dr. Hime, thank you for your time. Thank you for your courage in speaking out. And thank you for being willing to join us today and share your story. Yeah, thank you very much.

And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for being with us here on the Daily Signal podcast. If you have not had a chance, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day and take a minute to subscribe to the Daily Siddell podcast. You never miss out on our new shows. And if you would, take a minute to leave us a five-star rating and review. Thanks again for being with us today. Have a great rest of your Thursday. We will see you right back here for our top news edition around 5 p.m. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Kate Trinko.

Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheris. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visitdailySignal.com.