Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the WallBuilder Show, where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton and guys, we've got a great guest coming on.

We talk a lot about the lack of courage and that that's one of the big problems in the culture and one of the reasons we've gotten where we are, because we got soft. So we're in that part of the cycle where, you know, soft men create tough times. So we we love having stories of courage and today our guest is truly someone of courage, putting her career and her reputation and her family and everything on the line to be a whistleblower. And unfortunately it's kind of a starts as a bad news program but gets towards good news if we look at the courage, and it comes out of Texas. So we're embarrassed to say Texas hospitals have been very involved in these gender. What do they call it? Affirming care? It's basically child mutilation. But anyway, we've got a whistleblower today that has been shining some light in the darkness.

Tim Barton

Well, Rick, it was really hard for me to wait for you to finish that thought to point out it's actually weak men that create hard times, although weak men are soft, so that's kind of correct, yes.

Rick Green

I like the word soft because it just shows even more just wimpy, weak. What is John Cooper's book? Wimpy, weak and Woke. Maybe we'll say that from now on Wimpy Weak and Woke man.

Tim Barton

Create tough times Well it just made me feel a little insecure about my gut when you're saying soft and I'm like I need to do some more crunches. That's a personal feeling right now, but I feel really bad. But it is interesting that when we're looking at what's happening in the nation and we've seen President Trump who's been targeted, but we've seen the Department of Justice and some of these three-letter agencies going after so many people and in this situation there's a scenario where you have medical professionals in Texas at a children's hospital and their focus is taking care of kids which, just to remind everybody listening, Jesus prioritized the protection, the innocence of kids and his teachings where he said that if you cause one of these little ones to stumble, if you do something that harms the innocence of a child, it's better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the ocean than for the consequences you're going to deal with from causing one of these little ones to stumble. And when, Rick, you're pointing out this gender-affirming care, that's actually part of the Democratic platform for this upcoming election cycle. They say that they want to increase this gender-affirming care, these surgeries, these things that are going on for minors and that was banned in Texas.

And then there was a whistleblower situation where they're coming out and alerting people that this hospital, children's hospital, is doing this and after it happens, you have the federal government, the Department of Justice, not going out to the hospital for doing that kind of thing, but going out to the whistleblower who brought attention to it. Utterly ridiculous. But there, as you mentioned, could be some good news, not just from the courage of the individuals that have unfortunately been brought into this, but there might be some good thoughts, some action steps that we're already seeing happen in culture, in political arenas that we might can see going forward. But certainly this is a major problem right now 

Rick Green

we're going to take a quick break when we come back our special guest, a whistleblower out of Texas who now the federal government has weighed in on or weighed down upon, for simply coming forward and telling the truth. Stay with us folks. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.

Rick Green

Welcome back to WallBuilders, thanks so much for staying with us. Venessa Sivadge. Anyway, Vanessa, God bless you, Thank you for coming on and thank you for being somebody that's willing to speak truth, no matter what it costs you. I tell people all over the country lives fortune, sacred honor. That's your reputation. That's a willingness to speak truth, no matter what it costs. You're a living example of that and we're so excited to encourage people to go to GiveSendGo, which thank you for using GiveSendGo and not some of those other ones that cancel good people all the time. Givesendgo and it's https://www.givesendgo.com/nurse_whistleblower. We'll have a link today at wallbuilders.show so it's easy for you to get there. But if you go to https://www.givesendgo.com/nurse_whistleblower then you can help raise the money necessary for Vanessa and her family to simply defend themselves against the medical industrial complex and what they're trying to do to them here in Texas. Okay, that was a long lead-in, Vanessa. I'm so sorry you had to sit through that and not get to even talk. Thank you for coming on today.

Venessa Sivadge 

Thank you so much for having me.

Rick Green

You first of all worked at a hospital that was actually doing what we outlawed here in Texas with regard to a lot of these transgender surgeries and drugs and everything else on kids. I don't know all the details of what happened. Can you tell us what you saw and then we'll talk about the weight of the federal government and everybody else coming down on you and another whistleblower from that particular hospital?

Venessa Sivadge 

Yes, absolutely. I accepted a job at Texas Children's Hospital in 2018. So I've been there for about six years and at the time, I thought I was accepting a dream job. I was going to be there for the rest of my life. I was so excited to take care of children and to care for them, and the first three years I was in a cardiology department where I received the bulk of my training. But in 2021, I transferred to a pediatric multi-specialty clinic and that's where children confused about their sex were being seen by a transgender doctor, and so I started to notice a couple of things. Starting in 2021, when I accepted this role, I had a lot of interaction with parents of confused children. I saw how this doctor would affirm their false identities and ultimately convince parents that gender affirming care quote unquote is life saving and would a hormone would solve their child's problem.

Rick Green

and this is the whole for those of us that haven't you know, thank you Lord had to go through this with a child. This is where they basically and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but the way I've perceived it is they intimidate parents to basically say you know, it's the. Do you want a dead son or a live daughter? Right, they're going to commit suicide if you don't do everything I'm telling you to do. And maybe they don't say it that bluntly, but that's how a parent feels, right.

Venessa Sivadge 

Yes, absolutely, and I'll just say a quick note on that. I think one of the most intimidating things in the world is for a parent who walks in with a very confused child to see a doctor in a white lab coat come into the room and with a bunch of medical degrees on the wall and essentially intimidate them into believing that a hormone will solve their child's deepest confusion and turmoil that they're experiencing and that that will ultimately put their child into a medical transition into the opposite sex, which, in their words, is life saving and affirming. And in my view, that is the greatest lie. That is the greatest manipulation that the medical industrial complex has ever peddled to parents who are well-meaning and well-intentioned and most parents love their children and want nothing less for them, and so that's what I observed. And so in May of 2023.

Rick Green

And that I'm assuming. I'm so sorry to interrupt you again, but it is a very successful method. In other words, that's why one of the reasons why so much of this is happening is that that moment in the end where you're literally overwhelmed with what's happening to your family and to your child and all of a sudden you're being promised this solution from the supposed experts. And so I mean, I don't know what the percentages are, but I would think most of the time the parent is going to go with what that, as you said, person in the white lab is lab coat is doing or recommending.

Venessa Sivadge 

Absolutely, and it was devastating for me as a nurse to observe that and to read these charts of confused and broken and hurting children, many of whom have other issues like autism and they're depressed and they're on anxiety medication or they've been to the emergency room because they've tried to commit suicide.

And these are children that are really hurting and yet they're being presented a treatment, if you want to call it that, in the form of a cross-sex hormone that's supposedly going to solve all of those issues, and so that was devastating for me to observe and to see firsthand what that was doing. And so in May of 2023 is when the first anonymous whistleblower came forward to reveal that Texas Children's had concealed their transgender program from the public and the hospital had gone to great lengths to scrub this from their website. No parent, no lawmaker could tell on the outside looking in that the hospital actually had a robust gender-affirming medicine program that was fully functional, and I knew that that was true because I was working in the clinic where that was taking place. And so I came forward last May anonymously to affirm what the first whistleblower, who we now know is Dr Eitan Hine, who's come forward publicly since then, had had reported that the hospital was giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children.

Rick Green

And you would think in a normal world, in a sane world, you come forward with something like this that you know people would be thankful and be like you know, thank you. Truth matters. We just you know, whether you're for or against or whatever it would be like. Okay, at least we don't have lies, at least we don't have deception. We get truth. Now let's have the policy debate about whether or not to do these things. But wow, I remember this. I mean the firestorm that happened as a result to both of you.

Venessa Sivadge 

Yeah, absolutely, and I wish the story did not end there. As you know, two months later in July of 2023, I was having dinner at home with my family and friends on a normal Monday evening and there was an aggressive knock on the front door and my husband and I opened the door to discover that two federal agents are asking to speak with me about issues at my work and they flashed their badges and they said they were from the FBI. And it was a terrifying moment because I knew that I hadn't done anything wrong and, of course, I didn't regret any steps or any actions I had taken to expose the wrongdoing. But it was just this shocking moment where the federal government had weaponized the Department of Justice to come my house and they were after the they. They were after the identity they want. They essentially asked for my help in exposing Dr Himes identity to the world, who, again, I had no idea who this person was and he was anonymous at the time, but they thought that they could intimidate me into aiding their investigation into

Rick Green

 and they didn't know that you had also been an anonymous whistleblower.

Venessa Sivadge 

We don't know, but I had not been shy about my views and my beliefs online. I had written an article describing my views and my name was on that article. So I'm sure that they put the pieces together and they just decided that maybe this person would be easily manipulated into helping us is what they thought, of course, and nothing could have been further from the truth, because, you know, they threatened my safety. They said they couldn't protect me unless I helped them. But in the weeks that followed that encounter, you know, my husband and I are Christians, we believe in Christ, and one of the verses that was very foundational in our decision to speak up was in Ephesians, and it says have no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness, but instead expose them and that's in Ephesians 5.

And we read that verse and we knew that we were at a crossroads moment, and so we decided that we would not be silent and that we would never aid the federal government's investigation and that we would ultimately come forward to share the story.

Rick Green

Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. You did the opposite of that. I was reading the article in Washington Stand about you and Dr Heim and I thought the opening was so good. Josh Wannerle writes we've always been told Ronald Reagan had his line about I'm from the government and I'm here to help. And that's the most terrifying words that's changed now to we're from the FBI, we know what you believe and that's essentially what they are doing, whether it's you or the pro-life activists Mark Halk and others. It's shocking to me how and you said it exactly right the weaponization of these agencies and these what are supposed to be defenders of the law abiding what's good is now evil and evil good. And for you to stand against that. Like you said, the dream job I mean you're working at Texas Children's Hospital. I mean this is like probably what you dreamed of your whole life. I get to go to help kids and even when I say the words Texas Children's Hospital, I immediately picture in my mind some little kid with cancer or with something else and being treated so well and there's balloons and there's people that come and visit and they get in the best care and it makes you feel good. And yet here we have this deception going on and the destruction of children taking place, and then them lying about it. When you got this visit and well, just go ahead. What happened next? Was that already? At that point, did you think, okay, well, they know, I'm or they're going to figure it out. I might as well come out and go public. I mean, what happened at that point?

Venessa Sivadge 

A couple of things happened. You know, I reached out to an attorney and I and I asked about what we should do. I mean, we were completely clueless. We were completely afraid and terrified, as anyone would be after a visit like this. But we did not let our fear of the future dictate our actions. We instead dived, you know, depended on our faith, depended on God, and just kind of allowed that the wisdom from God to kind of dictate what we decided to do.

Rick Green

Sound mind. Right, you weren't given a spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind. There you go.

Venessa Sivadge 

Speaker 4: 16:06

Yes absolutely. And so, in the months that followed is really when I decided to come forward, because I had ultimately also discovered that the hospital was using Texas medicaid to cover cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers for children and this has been illegal since at least 2015. Texas Medicaid policy very clearly indicates and prohibits any kind of coverage for gender affirming care, quote unquote in the form of puberty blockers and hormones completely separate from the law. That was the bill that was signed into law last September by Governor Greg Abbott, and so this was again was just something that in my day-to-day work, I started noticing that children who were transgender had Medicaid or CHIP or STAR listed on their medical chart and they were on cross-sex hormones because they had gender dysphoria. And this is illegal and this is so illegal. And not only that, but my concern was that the hospital was doing this and American taxpayers had no idea that their tax dollars are being used to cover this, and that is egregiously wrong. And so, in June of 2024, I came forward with reporter Christopher Rufo to reveal what the hospital had been doing in secret for a long time and using American taxpayers to cover this.

Rick Green

And did they own up to it? Did they stop or did they just, you know? Are they still doing it? What's the status of that?

Venessa Sivadge 

Well, they put me on immediately. They put me on leave and they said that I was under investigation. And you know, in the state of Texas it's still legal to treat adults with gender dysphoria with hormones. So I knew that for the patients over the age of 18, that the hospital is still actively prescribing hormones for them, and that is, of course, still very wrong in my view. But I had submitted a request for religious accommodation in May and I essentially said that I'm a Christian, a follower of Christ, and my beliefs and my views due to my religious beliefs, are that men and women are biologically distinct and we are to affirm and honor those roles and those roles can never be medically transitioned or altered. And I asked to be transferred to a different department so that I would not have to have any kind of exposure or any of my work day-to-day work would have to do with patients under this umbrella.

Rick Green

So that you're not literally contributing to what you see as evil? Yeah, absolutely.

Venessa Sivadge 

I thought that was a very reasonable request. You know, I explained my views very clearly and the hospital ignored my request and they did not reply. And, of course, two weeks later, I went public with the you know allegations of fraud and the misuse of funds at the nation's largest children's hospital, and that's when they placed me on leave. And two months later, just last month, on August 16th, I was fired by Texas Children's Hospital and I believe that this is in retaliation for blowing the whistle. Yeah, the pattern of deception and the illegal use of funds that the hospital has taken part of.

Rick Green

So do you now have a wrongful termination suit against them, or what's the legal status now? Are they coming after you? Are you going after them? What is the what's the lay of the land?

Venessa Sivadge 

Well, the reality is is that I'm fundraising for my legal defense, because I do believe that I was wrongfully terminated.

Rick Green

Yeah.

Venessa Sivadge 

But this is very costly, and so that's where I'm relying on the public support who have already been so generous, and I'm so thankful for the messages of encouragement and support I've received. But we're exploring our options with my attorneys, who are committed to defending me, and we'll just have to see what happens.

Rick Green

Okay, all right, and let me back up on one thing before we close out today. If people haven't looked into this at all, they might be thinking well, what's the motivation for the hospital You're just talking about in this case, hormone blockers or whatever you know? Is there really that much money in this? But it's staggering how much money is at stake here, and when you start looking at the actual dollars, you realize, ok, people that are worshipping money and are willing to do anything for money will, of course, go this, go this route. So it's not just a few dollars, any kid that they get on this. It ends up being, isn't it like 100,000, sometimes more than that, once they really start going through a lot of these different drugs and surgeries and everything else.

Venessa Sivadge 

Yeah, that's a great point. The gender-affirming model of medicine is highly, highly lucrative. And it's not just the hormones that the child is placed on, which are in and of themselves very costly, but it's the weekly follow ups, it's the weekly lab draws, it's the then the surgeries and the double mastectomies and all of all of the things that essentially make a child a medical patient for life and they make slaves of the medical industrial complex. And yes, the $100,000 figure I've heard that figure as well. That's pretty accurate if you were to add up everything.

Rick Green

It's like a ramped up.

You know Robert F Kennedy Jr and well, and the brother-sister combo I forget their names that were on Tucker talking about this in other areas of medicine, where you know if they can get you basically in the rat cage, then they've got you spending money on this stuff for the rest of your life. This is just, like you know, a tenfold on those numbers, and it's emotional, so you're willing to do it and so, in this case, like you said, the parents and making that initial decision. It's an evil, evil thing, and for you to have the courage to stand up and say no is huge, and I hope that more across the country will be inspired by your stance and do the same thing, because you know what's happening all over the nation in hospitals that are claiming that it's not happening. So, to Dr Heim and to you both, thank you, thank you, thank you. I want to give out the GiveSeGo one more time GiveSinGocom, and then it's forward slash nurse, underscore, whistleblower. And I'm guessing they can probably search your name as well and it'll find it Right, vanessa.

Venessa Sivadge 

Yes.

Rick Green

And it was Sivadge. Let me see if I remembered it right from the beginning yes, vanessa Sivadge, vanessa, god bless you. We're so thankful for you. You got that Texas spirit man, come and take it, and I appreciate you standing up for truth and for these kids.

Venessa Sivadge 

Thank you for having me today.

Rick Green

Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Break

Rick Green

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on the wall builder show, thanks to vanessa and guys. Incredible courage and just another example of this world we're living in now.

David Barton

If the good guys stand up, man, they want to silence them as quickly as they can, you know this is a real problem because and she's got so much guts on this, so much background to do this and how the things happen.

But I want to go back to whistleblower. Whistleblower laws were done to encourage people to uncover the stuff that is covered, and so when there's corruption going on, something wrong going on, a violation of law going on, if whistleblower brings that to the attention, then they're going to be protected, they get special protection. And now here you've got a whistleblower and, by the way, this is a state law. So why is the FBI showing up at her door knocking the way they did and intimidating and threatening on a state law? And it's become where the FBI is kind of like the woke police, the federal woke police, and they're going after states as well as everything else. Her courage and you can hear it, I mean she's not backing down, she's standing firm. It's just, it's absolutely ridiculous that these whistleblower laws have now become ways to actually persecute people.

Tim Barton

But I would say one of the things we can take away that could be good news is, if you look at what's happened to President Trump, he obviously recognizes the corruption of what's going on. In fact, even having RFK Jr now looking like maybe he will be part of his cabinet, part of the team, and RFK Jr certainly knows about the corruption of some of the DOJ and some of those three-letter agencies, it certainly seems that President Trump is putting people around him who have been targeted, who've been victimized by some of this, and they are interested in rooting out this corruption. So, even though we're seeing these terrible things happen like this, it does leave me with a little bit of hope and optimism, recognizing that there is an election coming up and that there is one party that is absolutely opposed to this nonsense going on, and it should inspire us to say we're going to make sure we vote in this election. We're going to make sure our voices are heard, because we need to put a stop to this year in America.

Rick Green

Amen. If you want more good news folks, be sure and tune in this Friday. On Good News Friday, we'll have even more of these stories of courage for you and talking about some good news happening across the country. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to the WallBuilder Show