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Two years after FBI agents visited her home, whistleblower Vanessa Sivadge’s case has led to a landmark settlement that compels Texas Children’s Hospital to open a detransition clinic for patients harmed by its sex-change procedures.

Texas Children’s Hospital has been compelled to open America’s first hospital-funded detransition clinic by the end of October, under a $10 million settlement finalised with the Texas Attorney General’s office last week.

The settlement resolves a whistleblower case brought by former nurse Vanessa Sivadge, who alleged the hospital used false Medicaid diagnosis codes to charge US taxpayers for sex change procedures on children even after Texas outlawed the practice.

Under the terms of the settlement, three physicians will have their hospital privileges permanently terminated within 90 days, while two former physicians are permanently barred from any future role at facilities affiliated with Texas Children’s Hospital. None of the five were named in the settlement.

Texas Children’s has also agreed to issue a public statement, due within 14 days of the settlement, acknowledging that its providers performed “sex-rejecting procedures” on both minor and adult patients, and formally withdrawing its prior public statements in defence of the same practices.

In an official press release, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the outcome “a resounding defeat for the radical gender ideology that has preyed on Texas children under the guise of ‘care’.”

“Texas Children’s has agreed to pay millions back to Texas,” Paxton wrote. “The detransition clinic, which is the first of its kind, must open within months. Activist doctors who harmed children have been fired.”

Sivadge greeted the finalisation of the settlement with a post on X reflecting on the events of the last two years.

“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,” she wrote. “Your whistleblower case will one day result in America’s First Detransitioner Clinic.”

“It’s over. I won,” she added. “To God be the Glory.”

Two years ago, Christian nurse Vanessa Sivadge @V_Sivadge was fired from her job at Texas Children’s Hospital for exposing their illegal and immoral practice of using federal funds to cover sex-change prescriptions and surgeries for minors. This week, Vanessa won a settlement…

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 8, 2026

Origins of the Case

In 2023, Eithan Haim, then an employee at Texas Children’s, leaked internal documents revealing that the hospital was still performing sex-change procedures on children after claiming publicly that it had stopped.

Haim’s leak prompted the state of Texas to ban child gender-transition procedures the following year — a law that was later upheld by the Texas Supreme Court.

At the time, the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) did not investigate the hospital and instead charged Haim with four counts of wrongfully obtaining health information, before the Trump DOJ ultimately dropped the case.

Vanessa Sivadge, who worked as a nurse at a Texas Children’s clinic near Houston, independently came forward after observing physicians falsifying medical records in order to continue prescribing puberty-suppressing drugs and cross-sex hormones after the ban took effect.

In a June 2024 interview with journalist Christopher Rufo, Sivadge explained how the workers used vague diagnosis codes to obtain Medicaid reimbursement, and named three physicians she alleged were involved.

Two FBI agents visited Sivadge’s home shortly afterwards, she said, who told her “they would make life difficult for me if I was trying to protect the leaker,” and warned she was “not safe” at work. She was fired from Texas Children’s later that year.

In response, Sivadge brought a whistleblower lawsuit against the hospital — United States ex rel. Doe v. Texas Children’s Hospital — which alleged violations dating back to 1 January 2010.

A settlement was ultimately secured between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office and Texas Children’s Hospital in May this year. It was fully executed and made public on 5 August.

Terms of the Settlement

Of the $10 million secured in the settlement, $8,576,000 goes to the State of Texas, including $3,719,459 in restitution for funds fraudulently billed to Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health program for low-income patients.

Sivadge receives $1,715,200 as her share under the state’s whistleblower provisions.

Beyond the financial terms, the settlement compels a series of structural changes at the hospital.

Texas Children’s must amend its medical staff bylaws to establish that any physician who performs a sex-change procedure — on a patient of any age, not just children — automatically loses their clinical privileges.

Staff must also undergo training on the state and federal laws that govern such procedures, including whistleblower provisions that entitle an employee who reports violations to a share of any recovered funds.

The hospital has also committed to a permanent ban on sex-change procedures at any of its facilities.

The detransition clinic, once opened, must provide free multidisciplinary care to patients up to age 21 who have undergone sex-change procedures, and make detransition-related obstetric and gynaecological care available to older patients.

The services to be offered at the clinic span endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counselling, psychiatry, psychotherapy, social work and speech pathology.

Texas Children’s Hospital must fund the clinic at no cost to patients for five years, after which time any continued free care will depend on donations to the clinic.

On X, Sivadge noted that the detransition clinic “carries no geographic restrictions” and that patients “can come from literally anywhere” for treatment. She said that experts estimate it will cost “$20–25 million to build, staff, and operate this clinic over the next five years.”

‘Only God Can Write This’

Sivadge gave her first interview since the settlement to journalist Catherine Herridge, alongside her attorney Marcella Burke. In it, she described the toll of coming forward and the conviction that sustained her through the investigation.

“I’m a nurse and I believe in biological truth,” Sivadge said. “This is me trusting the science.”

Reflecting on the two years since she was fired, Sivadge told Herridge she did not know whether the case would end in her own prosecution. She described the FBI’s visit to her home as an attempt at intimidation under the Biden Department of Justice, and imagined the outcome if Trump had lost the 2024 election, saying, “I would be facing prison under a Kamala Harris presidency.”

Sivadge credited her faith for carrying her through the ordeal, adding, “I think this is the type of story only God can write.”

Burke told Herridge the settlement was “setting a precedent within the Department of Justice as they move to settle these cases across the country.”

Sivadge also welcomed the settlement’s adoption of new terminology. In a subsequent post reviewing the agreement, she noted the document repeatedly refers to “sex-rejecting procedures” rather than “gender-affirming care” — language her legal team fought to secure.

“For years, we’ve surrendered the language and allowed activists to wrap irreversible sex rejecting interventions in cute euphemisms designed to silence questions and disarm criticism,” she wrote. “No more. Words matter because words shape reality. And these procedures don’t affirm a child’s sex. They reject it.”

She said she would be watching closely how the clinic is staffed over its first 90 days, particularly its psychologists and psychotherapists. “The people hired over the next 90 days will determine whether this clinic becomes a place of genuine healing — or simply another vehicle for the same destructive ideology that brought us here,” she wrote.

“My prayer is that these positions are filled by professionals committed to biological reality, evidence-based medicine, and speaking truth with compassion. Not activists. Not ideologues.”

I read every page of the $10 million settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital.

The headlines barely scratch the surface.

Here are 5 things hidden in the agreement that surprised even me.🧵 pic.twitter.com/JD6CsB7TKo

— Vanessa Sivadge (@V_Sivadge) August 7, 2026

Australian Parallels

Whistleblowers are yet to secure similar outcomes in Australia.

Queensland psychiatrist Dr Jillian Spencer was sacked from Queensland Health after warning that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones posed serious risks to children, and spent three years under investigation by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) before being cleared of any wrongdoing in July.

Queensland psychiatrist Dr Andrew Amos remains barred by AHPRA from discussing gender medicine publicly or having direct clinical contact with patients, after complaints from activists over social media posts questioning the evidence base for paediatric gender interventions. No finding of patient harm was made against him.

The Daily Declaration has approached AHPRA for its response to the Texas Children’s Hospital settlement.

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Images courtesy of Texas Scorecard and Wikimedia Commons.