Whistleblower nurse Vanessa Sivadge secures first ‘detransitioner clinic’ in settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Friday, August 07, 2026

(Republished from The Christian Post – ChristianPost.com)

Vanessa Sivadge, a Christian nurse who was fired from her job at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) after exposing alleged Medicaid fraud related to the illegal castration of minors, secured a settlement that includes the hospital establishing the first free detransitioner clinic in the United States.

Under the settlement agreement, TCH must open the clinic by the end of October, pay $10 million in penalties to resolve Medicaid fraud claims, and fire five physicians who carried out sex-rejecting procedures in violation of Texas law, according to a Wednesday press release from Burke Law Group, which represented Sivadge.

The clinic is slated to provide free treatment for patients up to age 21 who underwent trans procedures at TCH or elsewhere and need help healing from fertility-related injuries, endocrine system damage, psychiatry and other long-term health damage. The clinic’s services must be provided at no charge to patients for a minimum of five years.

TCH must also commit to institutional reforms that include training healthcare professionals on the dangers of sex-rejecting procedures, rewriting its bylaws to require physicians who perform them on minors to lose their clinical privileges, and commit to banning them at their facilities.

The settlement, which was part of a years-long investigation aided by the Office of the Texas Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice, resolves alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act, the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act, the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as well as federal fraud and conspiracy laws.

“Last week we finalized a settlement agreement with the Texas Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice bringing a close to this chapter to focus our resources on life-saving care and discoveries,” the hospital said in a statement to local Houston outlet KHOU 11.

“We are grateful for and proud of our renowned physicians and nurses whose clinical excellence makes us the nation’s leading pediatric and women’s health system. Our focus remains on creating a healthier future for children and women across Texas and the world,” it added.

Sivadge made headlines in 2024 when she claimed the FBI threatened her and TCH fired her after she anonymously leaked to journalist Christopher Rufo in 2023 that the largest children’s hospital in the U.S. was using federal funds to cover cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers for minors in violation of state law.

FBI special agents Paul Nixon and David McBride showed up at Sivadge’s home in blue jeans two weeks after Rufo published her anonymous whistleblowing, exhibiting what Rufo described as the Biden administration’s attempt “to threaten and imprison anyone who opposes ‘transgender medicine.'”

Sivadge was fired the next year after she requested a religious accommodation that would have transferred her out of the endocrinology clinic, where she alleged she was forced into “indirect participation in the care of children on cross-sex hormones.”

Sivadge claimed at the time that her termination was retaliation in response to her exposing “information on TCH’s egregious pattern of deception and Medicaid fraud,” and that it 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.”

Sivadge posted multiple posts on X in response to the settlement, including what she would have told the version of herself who was left reeling from her termination.

“If I could go back in time and speak to the terrified, insecure girl who walked out of Texas Children’s Hospital with a box of her belongings, I would say this: Your whistleblower case will one day result in America’s First Detransitioner Clinic. That sentence still doesn’t seem real. But now — 2 years later, I can finally share EVERYTHING I couldn’t speak about till now. It’s over. I won. To God be the Glory,” she said.

In another statement, she thanked those who helped her in her case and echoed her assessment that the good that came out of her sacrifice made it worthwhile.

“This has been a hard road and the scars from this journey will not soon wear off. I lost the job I loved and the career I worked so hard to build. But now? America’s First Detransitioner Clinic. Five doctors fired. $10 million dollars paid back to the government. Countless internal reforms and ethics requirements. It’s extraordinary. It’s unprecedented. It was worth it.”

Sivadge also acknowledged fellow whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim, who was similarly harassed by federal law enforcement under the Biden administration after leaking redacted medical records suggesting TCH was prescribing puberty blockers to children, despite claiming otherwise.

Haim’s case, which carried four felony counts and a potential 10-year prison sentence, was dismissed shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. Sivadge noted in her statement that she believes under a Kamala Harris administration, both of them would be in prison.

During a 2024 interview with The Christian Post shortly after she had been fired, Sivadge framed her situation as a battle in a larger spiritual war. She claimed she fulfilled her duty as a Christian by exposing wrongdoing.

“Ephesians 5 says to have nothing to do with the worthless deeds of evil and darkness but instead expose them, and that everything exposed by the light becomes visible,” she said at the time.

“So that was really the foundation and the motivation for me to do what I’ve done, to speak out like I have. Because we have, I believe, a responsibility as Christians to bring to light what’s been done in the darkness,” she added.