Patients and parents speak after joining other hospitals to stop gender surgeries after a manager’s order that threatens the loss of federal financing of Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital.
AYESHA RASCOE, HAND OWNER:
In the hurry of the executive orders published by President Trump, there was a targeting hospital that provides gender care for young people. In contrast, most hospitals stopped or withdrawn certain treatments. This includes Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Kristen Schorsch at the WBEZ Member Station follows the fluctuation effects on patients and their families.
Kristen Schorsch, Byline: A teenager in Chicago suburbs. He loves the theater and is working on Kartal Scout project and has been being treated for the last four years.
UNIDENTIFIED person #1: It doesn’t correct anything wrong for me to get this treatment. This only helps me grow up about who I want to be and who can feel the most comfortable.
Schorsch: NPR does not define 17 -year -old or mother because they are afraid to be transsexual. Once a week, testosterone injects. One day, if he wanted to have his own biological children, he has already frozen his eggs. The next step was to plan the best surgery at Lurie Children’s Hospital, but his mother received a voice message from the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED person #2: and me, oh, no. I could feel what I knew in the pit of my stomach.
Schorsch: Surgery was closed. Lurie is close to Chicago city center. It is one of the oldest gender care programs in the country. Trump’s executive order says that care is suitable for chemical and surgical injury. In addition, if the hospitals do not comply, they may lose important federal funds and Lurie’s income of more than half of Medicaid said. The hospital’s decision left the 17 -year -old pain and confused. If this change comes, he says he asks his doctors what to do.
UNIDENTIFIED person #1: We will fight all the answers as much as we can legally. We will try to push it back as much as we can. And then they continue and cancel themselves. For example, they were not forced to do this.
Schorsch: Two Federal Judges decided that the execution decision was unacceptable, but Lurie did not continue the operations. Illinois also has a state law that says that discrimination against patients is illegal because of gender identities. Does Lurie violate this state law? Neither the Chief Public Prosecutor of the State nor the Governor JB Pritzker. Democrat Pritzker, NPR, said that hospitals think blackmailing for restrictive care.
JB Pritzker: Believe me, I know people at Lurie Children’s Hospital. I know the people who run most of these hospitals and I can tell you that they want to do the right thing for their patients.
Schorsch: After Lurie’s decision, he protested hundreds of outside.
UNIDENTIED protesters #1: (Divine) If children are under attack, what will we do?
UNIDENTIED protesters #2: (Divine) stands up. Fight.
Schorsch: Twenty -seven states limit or prohibit gender care for minors. This is Dr. It includes South Carolina, where Elizabeth Mack works. He treated young trans patients who entered the intensive care unit when they could not care.
Elizabeth Mack: And they’re starting to commit suicide or die. It’s just one of the things that leave a sign I can’t see.
Schorsch: Lurie, not only the therapy or other treatments, only stopped surgeries, but some parents in Chicago are concerned about the next step. Michelle Vallet’s son Ben Garcia shoots testosterone every week and receives controls at Lurie.
Michelle Vallet: There is probably no family in Lurie that Lurie will not fold all care. I know my son is not coming back.
Schorsch: Robert Garofalo started a gender care program at Lurie Children’s. In a statement, “This decision was carefully difficult and his wife was between unprecedented conditions and external pressures,” he said. He said that Lurie had stopped operations, so that they could continue to offer other treatments such as hormones and puberty blockers. Surgery is only one option for minors and is rare.
When I was 10 or 11, I started to go to Lurie when I was 10 or 11. The therapists evaluated their mental health on more than one appointment before each new treatment starts. When Garcia was 16 years old, there was double mastectomy. Without this upper surgery …
Ben Garcia: I was less reliable, withdrawn to myself more. This care has made me much more comfortable in my way to offer myself and present myself to the world.
Schorsch: Now Garcia’s 18 and went to university in autumn. Nevertheless, his mother and other families feel betrayed by Lurie.
Vallet: I can understand that it is economical, is it, right? But at a certain point, in our environment, no, I don’t do it.
Schorsch: After canceling Lurie operations, many patients were directed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. However, after making an appointment there, Northwestern canceled them.
Kristen Schorsch in Chicago for NPR news.
Rascoe: This story comes from NPR’s partnership with WBEZ and KFF Health News.
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