Dr. Eithan Haim, a general surgeon, exposed the nation’s largest children’s hospital last year for continuing so-called “gender-affirming care” on minors even after the body-altering procedures were banned by the Texas state legislature in 2023.
Along with a whistleblowing pediatric nurse, Vanessa Sivadge, Dr. Haim was invited by House Republicans to testify last week before House Judiciary subcommittee.
The hearing was named “Ending Lawfare Against Whistleblowers Who Protect Children,” because the stated goal was to hear Haim and Sivadge describe how they were treated by federal authorities for what they did.
Haim, who is no longer with the hospital, was prosecuted by the Biden administration and faced up to 10 years in prison for allegedly violating HIPAA laws. What saved him from a February trial was the election of Donald Trump and a Trump-led Department of Justice, which announced in late January it was dropping the charges against the surgeon.
In a series of X posts after the hearing, Dr. Haim called the Democrats he faced last week “manifestly evil” for how they treated him and Sivadge with their political attacks and accusations.
“These people,” the surgeon wrote, “hoot and holler about ‘Our Norms’ and ‘Our Democracy’ but are more than willing to use the infinite power of the federal government to destroy the lives of innocent people.”
In the salvo of accusations, Congressman Jamie Raskin started off the proverbial firing squad by pointing back to Dr. Haim’s indictment.
“We're here to talk about Dr. Eithan Haim,” Raskin began, “a man who, according to a May 2024 criminal indictment returned by a unanimous grand jury of citizens in Texas, unlawfully obtained and disclosed the medical records of children.”
Prepared for that accusation, Dr. Haim easily deflected the attack.
“All of this was pure fiction,” he countered. “The DOJ's own evidence, their own evidence, that they gave us in discovery, disproved every single one of the claims against us.”
In an X post about that exchange, Dr. Haim mocked Raskin as a “deep-state goblin” whose accusations about an indictment and a grand jury were “crafty but predictable.”
Raskin also tangled with Mark Lytle, Dr. Haim’s attorney, which the surgeon described as a “Spanish fighting bull” versus a “rodeo clown.”
In their exchange, Raskin accused Dr. Haim of taking his whistleblowing claims to the right-wing media rather than to a government agency, such as medical authorities or to the police.
“That’s exactly what he did. He went to the Texas attorney general’s office,” Lytle countered. “And he reported child abuse, which was defined by the Texas attorney general, at that time, as child abuse.”
Lytle also pointed out Congress supposedly likes when whistleblowers run to the media with their claims.
In a backhanded compliment, the surgeon did give credit in his social media post to one Democrat, Pramila Jayapal. She had a "clever line of questioning," he wrote, so she was a "worthy adversary out a classroom full of dunces."
Dr. Haim also praised Sivadge for pushing back on Rep. Mary Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. In her exchange with the nurse whistleblower, the Democrat tried the you’re-not-qualified line to discredit the registered nurse for not being a medical doctor, psychiatrist, or a psychologist.
“I know the difference between right and wrong,” the nurse, smiling at the Democrat, replied.
