This week, Blaze News spoke with Dr. Ethan Heim, a board-certified general surgeon who works in a small town near Dallas. The doctor claims that Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, the nation's largest children's hospital, continues to mutilate children in the following ways: Even after telling the public that gender programs had been “paused,” he still referred to them as “gender-affirming care.”
From 2018 until last June, Dr. Heim completed surgical residencies at a number of hospitals in the Houston area, including TCH. Starting in late 2021, Heim began to suspect that the hospital was running a secret clinical program targeting children, whether they suffered from gender dysphoria or not. Heim had heard of transgender clinics for children in places like California and Washington, but she had no idea one existed in Texas, let alone at the hospital where she worked.
It seems Heim was right in his suspicions. March 2022, Texas Children's Hospital announced In response to recent statements from Texas Governor Ken Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott (both Republicans), the company announced that it has “suspended hormone-related prescription therapies for gender-affirming services.” . a few weeks ago, paxton He said transgender treatment of minors is a form of child “abuse” and “must stop.”
“This action was taken to protect healthcare workers and affected families from potential criminal legal consequences,” the hospital's statement said.
“Texas Children’s Hospital’s mission is to build healthier futures for all children, including transgender children, within the bounds of the law.”
Despite this assurance, minor patients will continue to receive hormone blockers and gender-related surgeries throughout 2022 and into 2023, with hospital staff and administrators concealing ongoing programs. It appears they didn't even try, Heim told Blaze News. In January 2023 alone, transgender program directors were given the opportunity to have their work featured in TCH's Grand Rounds lecture, Heim said. Pediatricsand a panel organized by students at Baylor College of Medicine affiliated with TCH, held a publicly accessible Zoom conference on gender “care” for minors.
“The directors of a program that didn't even exist were given the most prestigious opportunity to speak at a hospital,” Heim said. [would] Talk about how they run this very active clinic… where they go to see all the kids and get tested to see if they're transgender, hidden from their parents. To be able to do it. ”
At that point, Heim said he could no longer remain silent.
“This all has no basis in medical reality,” Heim said. “I knew if I didn’t do something, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
Heim said he then spent months contacting numerous journalists to share his story, but had little contact until he contacted Christopher Rufo, a prominent anti-woke campaigner. Told. May 16, 2023 — just one day before Texas Senate passes SB14 Ban on transgender procedures for children — Rufo helped Heim anonymously reveal accusations against Texas Children's Hospital in an article for the Manhattan Institute. city journal.
Within days, TCH CEO Mark Wallace said: statementpromised to end the facility's gender care program on September 1, 2023, even though the program was supposed to be “paused” in March 2022.
“We intend to work with patients and their families to manage the discontinuation of hormone therapy and/or procure appropriate care outside of Texas. We will provide psychosocial support to the extent of the law and to the best of our ability.” We will continue to provide all forms of care,” Wallace wrote. The letter, dated May 24, 2023, said: “The transition we are about to embark on will be extremely heart-breaking, but we will overcome this adversity and, as always, be blessed with grace and love.” “I want to overcome the next step with compassion.''
When asked why Heim took his story to a conservative activist rather than his hospital boss, Heim told Blaze News that he knew going through the chain of command wouldn't help. Ta. He explained that because “the fraud is perpetrated by the upper echelons of the hospital,” consulting people at that level would have been “a path to failure.”
But there were still repercussions for going public, even anonymously. Weeks after the City Journal article went viral last May, Heim said two federal employees from the Department of Health and Human Services came to his home – on the day of his residency graduation. She said she showed up and warned him he had “potential.” He becomes the subject of a criminal investigation. ”
These alleged threats by federal agents working under the authority of the Biden administration motivated Haim to reveal his identity and share his story on his own terms. “Defense is meaningless if we don't take aggressive steps to hold accountable those who abuse their power. So that's exactly what we're trying to do.”
And Heim is currently taking steps to implement a plan to fulfill that responsibility. In addition to speaking with Blaze News, he also sat down for another conversation. Rufo's interview, this time on video and without anonymous cover. He hopes that by sharing his story in various mediums, it will help people realize the seriousness of the harm that such clinical interventions cause to children's physical and mental health. Masu. Heim even used words like “evil” and “malicious” to describe them.
“I can't believe they're taking 11, 12, 13-year-old kids and putting them down this path where they have to develop an identity based on hatred for who they really are,” Haim said. . “And they will have to take drugs and deal with complications from surgery for the rest of their lives.
“And it's all based on things that aren't true.”
He also said he wanted to draw attention to the antics used by those in power to intimidate whistleblowers. “All I did was expose the truth,” he said.
“Within 24 hours of the article being published, it was voted that what we exposed was illegal, and I am now the subject of an investigation.”
Heim no longer works at TCH, so he can't definitively say whether the gender care program there is still in place, but he believes it has finally been discontinued. TCH CEO Mark Wallace did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.
Do you like Blaze News? Avoid censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. Please register here!
