Texas doctor charged with taking private patient information on transgender care
Posted 6/18/24
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas doctor who calls himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors is accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients from the nation's largest pediatric …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
Texas doctor charged with taking private patient information on transgender care
Dr. Eithan Haim walks out of the Bob Casey United States Courthouse after appearing for an arraignment hearing Monday, June 17, 2024 in Houston. Haim, who calls himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors has been indicted on federal charges of illegally obtaining private information on patients who were not under his care, with intent to cause harm to the nation's largest pediatric hospital. He has pleaded not guilty. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Posted
HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas doctor who calls himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors is accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients from the nation's largest pediatric hospital who were not under his care.
Federal prosecutors said Dr. Eithan Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, snatched the information and shared it with a conservative activist with “intent to cause malicious harm” to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.
Haim pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to four counts of wrongfully obtaining individually identifiable health information.
Haim, a Dallas surgeon, previously had done some work at Texas Children's Hospital as part of his residency. The indictment against Haim alleges that in 2023, he asked to reactivate his login there to access information on pediatric patients not under his care, including names, attending physicians and treatment codes, then turned over the information to a media contact.
Haim has publicly identified himself as the person who gave the information about patients at Texas Children's to a conservative activist, who published a story that the hospital was providing transgender care for minors in secret. At the time, transgender care for minors was legal in Texas, but the hospital had announced in 2022 that it would stop would stop gender-affirming therapies.
Texas lawmakers banned transgender care for minors in September 2023. That law is being challenged in court. At least 25 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states face lawsuits.
Haim faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. He was released on $10,000 bond.
“I have maintained from day one that I have done nothing wrong. We’re going to fight this tooth and nail, stand up for whistleblowers everywhere,” Haim said outside the courthouse Monday.
Texas Children’s declined to comment on the charges against Haim. In previous statements, hospital officials said its doctors have always provided care within the law.