BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A family that trusted a hospital to provide care for their transgender son said they feel let down by the hospital's decision to limit the gender affirming care it provides.
Children's Hospital Colorado said last month it will no longer provide gender affirming surgeries for transgender adult patients. It never provided the care for patients under 18.
"We’re not going to go away. My health care is not going away. You can deny me my health care, it doesn’t mean I don’t need it," said Zack Nix, 15, who receives gender affirming care at the hospital. "Trans people are always going to need health care, trans kids especially are always going to need health care and Children’s is where they should get that health care."
Nix is no stranger to the hospital; he has a heart condition that requires regular appointments and open heart surgery at four months old.
His family wanted him to get gender affirming surgery at Children's when he turned 18 because they know the doctors and the doctors know his unique medical circumstances.
"We knew that we could have multi-disciplinary care at Children's, that they would be able to take into consideration his pulmonary valve, his heart condition, if and when we would want future surgeries," Danielle Nix said. "Knowing that is no longer an option, as a mother, is also scary to me."
In a statement, Children's Hospital Colorado spokesperson Rachael Fowler said the hospital understands the decision is disappointing for patients.
"We are diligently working with these patients and their families to connect them to trusted, adult hospitals that will help these adult patients achieve their goals," Fowler said. "There are many quality hospitals in the region that we have strong partnerships with where adult patients can receive top-tier, gender-affirming surgical care."
Fowler said as other states shut down gender affirming clinics, Children's has received an unprecedented amount of referrals. It'll still provide gender affirming care for kids, but patients in need of surgery will have to go somewhere else.
"You’ll do my implant, but you won’t do my top surgery and it felt really slimy to me," Zack Nix said.
Now his family said they'll have to start over and establish care at another hospital to get Zack gender affirming surgery after he turns 18. They worry other hospitals might follow Children's Hospital's lead and stop offering the procedure.
"It gives us a feeling that shoot, this might not last," Tom Nix, Zack's father, said.
Fowler said many children's hospitals across the country have been threatened for providing transgender care, but there is no immediate threat to Children's Colorado.
"Threats were not a factor in our decision to change our surgical services for this group of patients," she said. "It was out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our patients, families and team members, we made the decision to limit the information publicly available on our website."
She said the hospital remains committed to embracing patients for who they are and "providing high-quality care for gender diverse pediatric and adolescent patients."
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