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Damages are being sought on behalf of a Texas surgeon who faced a federal investigation by the Biden administration after he blew the whistle on transgender procedures being committed on kids at a teaching hospital.
Dr. Eithan Haim’s state lawsuit seeks “monetary relief over $1,000,000,” against defendants who he said unjustly conspired against him to ruin his career and get him investigated by the federal Department of Justice.
The named defendants include both Texas Children’s Hospital, where he served as a resident, as well as the Baylor College of Medicine network. The medical school is not affiliated with Baylor University.
He also named two doctors and the children’s hospital attorney who he said all played a role in triggering a federal criminal investigation.
Haim argues the defendants undertook this conspiracy, which included posting fake patient reviews accusing him of being a rapist, because he blew the whistle on transgender surgeries being secretly committed at Texas Children’s Hospital.
In March 2022, Texas Children’s Hospital announced it was pausing its gender-related medical procedures for minors, in accordance with Texas officials saying these practices could be investigated as child abuse. However, the hospital continued “lying” to the public and providing these treatments after its announcement, Haim alleges in his lawsuit.
When Haim exposed this, the defendants then provided false information to federal authorities claiming Haim violated federal privacy laws, despite knowing he had proper access and that shared documents did not include identifying data.
When Haim provided documents to investigative reporter Christopher Rufo, he removed patient names and identifying information. The lawsuit states no patient was identified and no patient was harmed by the disclosure. Thus, no privacy laws were broken, the surgeon argues.
The surgeon’s legal team provided further comments to The Fix explaining why Haim is now filing the lawsuit just under a year after the Trump administration dropped the charges.
“Dr. Haim wants to clear his name and hold those accountable for what he alleges was a deliberate campaign to ruin his career and intimidate him into silence,” John Greil and Marcella Burke said via email. “He and his family have had to suffer enough.”
Greil said Haim waited to file the lawsuit “until the baseless criminal case was dismissed.”
According to the lawsuit, a dismissal is rare and indicative of a lack of probable cause.
“Dr. Haim wants accountability for those who have done wrong. But he has also been a consistent and outspoken voice for protecting our country’s children from harmful and ineffective “medical” procedures that are not based in the evidence,” Greil said.
“He hopes that no more children will be harmed, and that no more whistleblowers will be punished for doing what is right,” the attorney said.
“Many of the horrors of these ‘medical’ interventions have only become public because of brave whistleblowers like Dr. Haim,” Haim’s attorney wrote. “This lawsuit is a reminder and a message to other whistleblowers that our laws protect brave citizens from unlawful retaliation.”
The lawsuit details the lengths the defendants went to smear Haim.
After Rufo’s article became public, hospital officials chose to involve federal law enforcement and characterize the disclosure as a criminal violation of privacy laws. Afsheen Davis, Texas Children’s Hospital’s general counsel, was central in communicating with federal authorities.
Another defendant, Dr. Kristy Rialon, admitted to FBI agents that she posed as Haim’s patients and falsely accused him of sexual assault on his WebMD profile.
Neither the defendants nor their attorney responded to The Fix’s inquiry regarding the lawsuit or Dr. Rialon’s posting of complaints under Haim’s WebMD page.
False rape accusations can ruin careers, men’s advocate says
An advocate for due process, fairness, and equal opportunities for men and boys warned these false allegations often threaten the value of life itself.
Ed Bartlett cited a Title IX For All guide that said “[t]hose wrongly accused of rape and sexual assault have been barred from education, lost their jobs and careers, suffered extreme harassment and threats, suffered chronic depression, suffered vigilante violence, suffered the loss of family, loving relationships, and support networks, have been killed, and have killed themselves.”
“It is no stretch to say that false allegations are an attack on what makes life worth living and even on life itself,” the Stop Abusive and Violent Environments founder wrote.
According to the lawsuit, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine representatives met with Department of Health and Human Services agents and Justice department prosecutors to support the narrative that Dr. Haim had committed criminal wrongdoing, using the false allegations as support.
The lawsuit alleges DOJ prosecutor Tina Ansari proceeded knowingly on false pretenses by alleging unfounded harmful conduct, which culminated in Haim’s indictment. She relied heavily on information provided by Texas Children’s Hospital officials when pursuing Haim’s indictment.
Ansari did not verify the hospital’s unfounded claims and ignored readily available evidence that Haim accessed the hospital’s electronic medical record system using his own credentials and within the scope of permissions granted to him by the system.
According to the lawsuit, prosecutors were informed the documents did not have identifying patient information but nevertheless pushed felony charges.
Ansari later stepped down as prosecutor when her family’s ties to Texas Children’s Hospital were brought to light.
The Fix contacted the Justice Department to ask Ansari whether the charges were based on false information from hospital officials, the basis for bringing the case, and how it was evaluated before indictment. Angela Dodge from the DOJ said she had no information to share at this time.
MORE: U. Florida to stop ‘gender-affirming care’ for students
