A Texas registered nurse who accused doctors at the largest pediatric hospital in the United States of committing Medicaid fraud related to gender interventions for minors claims FBI agents threatened her at her home in response to her speaking out.
Vanessa Sivadge, a nurse at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) in Houston, came forward last year to journalist Christopher Rufo to claim that the institution was pushing "gender-affirming care" on young patients while ignoring their underlying psychological problems.
Sivadge reportedly approached Rufo following his May 2023 story about Dr. Eithan Haim, who leaked medical records suggesting that TCH was continuing to prescribe puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria despite claiming otherwise.
The hospital claimed to have stopped such procedures following a February 2022 formal opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that labeled some sex-change procedures and puberty blockers for minors as "child abuse" under Texas law.
Two weeks after Rufo's story, two FBI agents appeared at Sivadge's door, according to footage Rufo posted to his X account earlier this week.
The video showed special agents Paul Nixon and David McBride, dressed in blue jeans, showing up at Sivadge's front door and telling her they wanted to speak about "some of the things that have been going on at [her] work lately."
After saying they hoped they weren't "interrupting dinner," the video shows them asking to be let inside, during which time Sivadge claimed they "threatened" her.
"They promised they would make life difficult for me if I was trying to protect the leaker," she said. "They said I was 'not safe' at work and claimed that someone at my workplace had given my name to the FBI."
Along with viral footage of the agents, Rufo tweeted: "This is where we are now: The Biden Administration sent two FBI agents to intimidate a nurse who told the truth about the child sex-change program at Texas Children's Hospital."
"The regime is mobilizing to threaten and imprison anyone who opposes 'transgender medicine,'" he added.
When reached for comment by The Christian Post, a spokesperson for the FBI said: "FBI and Department of Justice guidelines do not allow us to provide more information at this time. While individuals are free to speak about their interactions with the FBI, we do not discuss, describe, or confirm any contact we allegedly have with individuals."
TCH did not respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.
Sivadge told Rufo she later found evidence that doctors "cut corners" and fraudulently secured federal funds for sex-change interventions for minors that are now illegal in Texas. The state prohibits Medicaid funds from being used for "sex change operations."
"The largest children's hospital in the country is illegally billing Medicaid for transgender procedures," Sivadge claimed to Rufo, according to City Journal. "It is evident that the hospital continues to believe it is above the law not just by concealing the existence of their transgender medicine program from the public, but by stealing from the federal government."
Sivadge alleged that doctors Richard Ogden Roberts and David Paul were involved. Their profiles on the hospital's website have since been scrubbed, Rufo noted on Wednesday.
Sivadge told Rufo that shortly after she accepted her dream job as a registered nurse helping children in 2021, she began growing disillusioned with TCH and "gender-affirming care" as she observed the rates of transgender-identifying young patients rising exponentially.
"In the cardiac clinic, we were taking sick kids and making them better," she told Rufo. "In the transgender clinic, it was the opposite. We were harming these kids."
Savidge's situation has drawn the attention of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office confirmed to The New York Post that it was investigating.
GOP state Rep. Brian Harrison also called on the Texas Legislature to conduct immediate hearings and launch an investigation into the federal agencies and officials involved.
"We need Republicans to be courageous in fighting back against the unconstitutional tyranny of the Biden administration," Harrison told the outlet.
"And so what I'm asking is that the Texas House of Representatives act in the way that it should act, and the way that I'm demanding it to act, which is to hold immediate hearings, but also to launch formal investigation and subpoena any federal official, the DOJ and HHS, who may have been involved in this, any hospital executives who knew that they were engaged in practices that were, in fact, child abuse," Harrison continued.
"The Biden administration, their goal here is to stifle dissent. They want to silence opposition," he added.
Sivadge's case echoes that of Haim, who was slapped by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this month with a four-count felony indictment that could land him a 10-year prison sentence. He stands accused of violating HIPAA medical privacy laws.
