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I SHOULD HAVE HAD THIS WHEN THE DOCTOR ORIGINALLY TOLD ME OVER A YEAR AGO. Are You a Graphic Designer? Dr. Rumer is an experienced surgeon: he has run his own practice since 2007, has been treating transgender patients since 2016, and performs up to 400 gender-affirming procedures annually, including facial feminization, breast augmentation and GRS. When they heard back from Dr. Rumers officethere had been an administrative mix-up with Carlies recordsthe surgeon was upset that Carlie hadnt arranged to fly to Philadelphia to have the doctor fix the issue. Dr. Kathy Rumer - Gender Reassignment Surgery Expert Rumer left a lot of erectile tissue under my labia minora, which can be a problem, Rose says. When you see a pattern of outcomes that suggests that maybe a surgeon isnt meeting standards of care, then you feel obliged to speak up.. After her experience with Dr. Rumer, Carlie decided against a malpractice suit and tried to spread warnings about the surgeon on her own. Dr. Kathy Rumer is a leading aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon in the Philadelphia area who specializes in gender reassignment surgery. Malpractice suits remain an expensive last resort, and can be difficult to litigate: the law and medicine havent yet found consensus on what constitutes malpractice in trans-affirming surgeries. Rumer falls short in some terrifying waysblaming the patients for their surgical complications, anger and hostility towards those who complain, lack of availability or accountability. Dr. Rumer, she adds, also understands the vulnerability of patients who desperately desire surgery in a climate of still relatively few surgeons.. 24 Sep 2022 19:13:22 RT @ShifterofShapes: Dr Kathy Rumer is another "sex reassignment surgeon" who botched countless patients and gave many colostomy bags along with other life long complications. She told me that it's very rare for someone to develop granulation tissue like this a year after bottom surgery. Imagine trying to run your surgical clinic and instead of getting calls for consultations you instead get angry calls regarding your continued support of a transphobic doctor. Dr. Rumer declined to respond to Jezebels inquiries about her treatment of this or any of her other patients. If you want to effectively apply public pressure, calling these businesses during their operating hours is a great place to start. Lets stand together apply that same fervor on the following people and organizations who have enabled and worse yet, stood by silent as people got victimized by this doctor and we dont give them an inch until they #DropRumer. Please don't stalk patients online?? Shape Shifter on Twitter: "Dr Kathy Rumer is another "sex reassignment Dr. Dugi notes that staff concerns about the quality and outcome of care are elevated to a peer review process, which can be escalated further to an institutional peer review committee. My symptons and complaints are WELL-DOCUMENTED in all of my emails to Dr. Rumer's office. Also feel free to ask Rumers staff why she fraternizes with registered Republicans to silence her own patients. We all want greater access for trans persons seeking surgery and we do our best to educate and to facilitate better outcomes, says Dr. Bowers, the San Francisco gender surgeon, but Dr. In 2018, Dr. Rumer was featured in an NBC documentary about a college students transition. Write to: The Honorable Jamie Raskin, Chairman, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 2242 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C 20515. It doesnt really look like a vulva. Even other doctors, they say, will end up at least once trying to stick a finger in my urethra because its not obvious., Rose says that Dr. Rumer didnt construct a clitoral hood, leaving their clitoris completely exposed to irritation. Her follow-up appointment, a week after the surgery, was administered by a nurse. I hope you can appreciate that from our perspective, these facts understandably lead to questions about the integrity of your inquiry and article. (By the time I reached out to Rumer for comment, we had been working on versions of this story intermittently for over a year, and the we was clearly meant to refer to the reporter and Jezebel together, as is common practice.). https://jezebel.com/when-surgeons-fail-their-trans-patients-1844774990?rev=1597854733082. Most, understandably, declined to comment, but three who wished to remain anonymous had collectively seen more than 50 patients who had originally gone to Dr. Rumer for GRS since 2016. This level of cruelty against a marginalized community is unbefitting of someone who performatively pretends to advocate for us. (THANK YOU!) And pursuing formal action against the surgeon isnt going to do anything to make up for what happened., I should have done more, she says, but I just had to move on with my life.. Will be used in accordance with our terms of service & privacy policy. 215-563-0652 or 215-563-0658. The answer: It is up to us to hold Rumer and all of the people who protect her accountable. Generally, it results in a loss of tissue in the infected area. Until the powerful grow the spine to finally speak up the onus falls upon us to be the vanguard and defend our community from Rumer. Our surgeons strive for perfection, but occasionally there are complications, he says. In finding a doctor to perform a surgery prospective patients like Carlie are largely on their own. So, yea, ~2.5 years of complications and no actual follow-up. 1. Call her office up, ask them why she is allowing an absolute despot like Rumer to continue to have the endorsement of WPATH. (855) 782-5665. I'm basically winging it and referring back to old notes as I type it, but I'm not exactly the most mentally sound at the moment. I need help! He only sees us as bags of cash. Speaking out after a traumatic experience, in a moment when so few are able to access care, can be weaponized by anti-trans activists, GRS training can vary between a week of observation with an established surgeon to a years-long apprenticeship program, If the patient survived the operationand doesnt die of some hideous complication or is not readmitted multiple times, that is their measure of success., Each of the plaintiffs Described issues characterized as permanent injury such that the plaintiffs would never have sexual function again. Dr. Kathy Rumer, DO / "The Butcher of Ardmore" / Rumer Gender Surgery Rumers litigiousness isnt unique among surgeons, and the environment can make it difficult for many trans people to find recourse, or warn others about bad surgical experiences. Dr. Rumer, who has not treated the 65-year-old, added that "a botched rhinoplasty can lead to . It was help that never materialized. Cookie Notice Jezebel spoke to four others who say they experienced issues with surgeries performed by Dr. Rumer, ranging from allegations of poor post-operative care to construction of their vaginas that left them in significant pain or with vulvas that didnt look anatomically correct. A senior advisor to New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, quit on Sunday after reports emerged of him creating a toxic environment. Phone: (855) 782-5665. The organization serves as an active gatekeeper, laying out strict guidelines for which patients are allowed access to transition-related surgical procedures, but it does not expressly oversee the practices that perform them. When problems occur, speaking out about such a private issue can be difficultCarlie requested a pseudonym, concerned about harassment and being identified publicly with such an intimate issue in the press. Blasdel notes that while several medical facilities have recently begun calling themselves transgender centers of excellence, there are no current criteria the surgeon or facility must meet in order to earn that designation. Rumer - Transgender Surgery in Philadelphia with Gender Reassignment Dr. Rumers practice filed a libel suit against the anonymous owner of the website in February of this year, named in court documents as John or Jane Doe. Surgeons are accountable to a patchwork of institutions and GRS training can vary between a week of observation with an established surgeon to a years-long apprenticeship program. Jezebel spoke with several other patients of Dr. Dugi, who together ended up filing an official complaint with the hospital. Rose says theyre still angry about their surgery six years later, and theyre concerned about Dr. Rumer operating on trans people. (mass reporting these false positive reviews is also an option) Google means alot to Rumer, let's declaw her on this front. You can always catch up on Botched here!. On June 12, a newly finalized HHS rule which eliminated gender identity non-discrimination protections within the Affordable Care Act recently garnered over 200,000 public comments. Just prior to publication, Dr. Rumer again declined to comment and through her attorney threatened to add Jezebel to her pending libel suit. Her office is still open for business and she still performing surgeries for profit. and our Dr. Rumer completely fucked up my body. It was mortifying, she says, noting that she never gave Heyer permission to publish her complaint. The letter, which contained the corroborated accounts of several conference attendees, called into question the accuracy of Dr. Rumers miraculous claim. Rumer goes, I followed the WPATH guidelines on how to treat my patients. (855) R U A LOOKER. Kathy Rumer did not reach this point of zero accountability without help. Insurance coverage often dictates where patients receive care, as it did for Danielle, a 42-year-old trans woman who lives in Portland, Oregon, and depends on Medicaid. Rumer has also been paying Google and advertising services top dollar to bury negative articles about her and in some cases even delete negative reviews. Intersex people who have related surgical interests may post. We can help you find another local provider who specializes in what you're interested in. While the OSHU patients negotiated with hospital officials over possible reforms, some former patients of Dr. Rumer have taken more extreme action. https://linktr.ee/resignrumer There is also a subreddit /r/KathyRumer, Need to radicalize a friend who thinks its possible to beat Rumer via the legal game/system? The suits described humiliation and severe psychological trauma as a result of Dr. Rumers work, and each originally demanded a jury trial but was eventually submitted for voluntary private arbitration. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. For more information, please see our Are You Awesome at Social Media? DO NOT GO TO DR. KATHY RUMER. I don't have a fucking vagina. But Danielle says this whole thing just sabotaged a whole year of work within the Portland trans community, adding that while things didnt turn out ideally, she doesnt regret her surgery. Specifically, the hospital started a community advisory board comprising of local trans and gender non-conforming people who consult with staff and leaders from OHSUs Transgender Health Program, patient relations department, and other relevant parties. If you have any questions, or would like to setup a phone, Skype or in-person consultation with Dr. Rumer, please send us a message using the form below. The Life and Sad Ending of Cathy Lee CrosbyCathy Lee Crosby was born on December 2, 1944, in Los Angeles, California.Graduate of the University Of Southern C. This has been an extremely traumatizing experience for me. The Newsletter Bringing the Legal System to Light. If you think you can do better, why dont you just give her a vagina?. It's time to take action. In addition to performing hundreds of gender-affirming procedures each year, Dr. Rumer also directs a 1-year . Something like cardiac surgery or plastic surgery has., When I asked Green about the varying quality of standards in the current landscape, he told me it was because of our medical system: Its because of the decades of anti-trans bias that has existed, he said. It's September and I still haven't had revision surgery. On March 11, the surgeons attorney attempted to subpoena me based on an unfounded assumption that I was coordinating with this John or Jane Doe. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. While insurance coverage for GRS has benefited countless lives, an unintentional side effect has been what Dr. Marci Bowers, a San Francisco-based gender surgeon who has been practicing for three decades, refers to as a culture of permissiveness: As far as an insurance company goes, if the patient survived the operation, leaves the hospital in a prescribed amount of time, and doesnt die of some hideous complication or is not readmitted multiple times, she says, that is their measure of success. Providers like Dr. Rumer, she says, understand the industry and sign contracts to become preferred providers, effectively funnelling new patients into their practice based on these metrics. In 2017, Dr. Schechter co-wrote an article in the Journal of Sexual Medicine laying out some training minimums for prospective surgeons. I needed urgent help a year and a half ago. Now that the rule is being implemented, insurance companies will again be allowed to sell policies with blanket exclusions for transsexual surgeries. Within such a highly politicized regulatory environment, innovation and reform become exceedingly difficult. Her office is horrible at handling insurance. And I think at some point there will be a governing board of some form, probably in the next five to ten years. Even beyond trans rights, denying a patients right to free speech is reprehensible. I'm getting gross green discharge. PS: To Kathy Rumer: Consider this your eviction notice. I live right near Manhattan. Each of those disciplines have separate boards responsible for certification. An anti-trans campaigner named Walt Heyer, according to several people involved, acquired notes from the meeting between patients and the hospital under false pretenses, promising legal help and support for detransitioning to one of the complainants. These are . The most active members of the group left, says Danielle, including herself and a dozen others. For more information, please see our Call her office up, ask them why she is allowing an absolute despot like Rumer to continue to have the endorsement of WPATH. In a time when the Trump administration threatens to roll back a decade of progress around trans access to insurance coverage and Medicaid reimbursement, some worry about anti-transition media crusaders leveraging trans medical horror stories into political opposition against transitioning itself, as Heyer did. TALK TO A REALSELF ADVISOR. Crozer Chester Medical Center 1 Medical Center Blvd Chester, PA 19013. Rumers legal matters dont just end there, Dr. Kathy Rumer actually employed a Republican affiliated legal firm (with former Trump ties) to silence two of her low income trans patients from speaking out, and if this was not egregious enough, her lawyers were transphobic (forced a patient to disclose her deadname during a deposition) and ultimately got this girl to cave to a gag order under the threat of this patients genitals being up for public scrutiny in front of a juried trial which would be presided over by a Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ judge. Patients have also reported being misgendered by her staff. UPDATE: a petition has been posted demanding Rumer's immediate resignation. I've explained to them every moment my symptoms have gotten worse and worse. Botched - Home | Facebook According to Blasdel, accurately tracking outcome data is key for trans people to make an informed surgical decision, and that data collection isnt happening. While these guidelines would improve the training quality across the country, it remains voluntary for individual hospitals and surgeons. Many patients who go to Dr. Rumer for bottom surgery are happy with their results. Marci however just so happens to have the power to drop Rumer from WPATH. Will This Botched Patient Back Out of Surgery? Watch! - E! Online Sinai, to the stand. Shes been a member of WPATH since 2010. Nobody in that ward knew how to deal with peoples trauma, she says. According to Schechter, necrosis like Simpson experienced is a risk in any vaginoplasty, and could have been caused by wearing a too-tight undergarment early in post-operative recovery, though it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what may cause the infection for a given patient. Then we were supposed to book for February or March, but her office simply couldn't figure out how to handle insurance, and THEN they put me on a wait list to have surgery on July 17, 2019. SHE WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE HEALING BEAUTIFULLY UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE. Bruce Jenner's Plastic Surgery Hell Exposed: Doctors Say He Is Basically two steps forward, one step back, says former WPATH president and current communications director Jamison Green of the explosion in surgical growth. Find out if Rumer is attending a trans health conference style convention in your city and let it be known that this doctor is not welcome in any queer space. Carlie chose a surgeon, Dr. Kathy Rumer, who was based in the Philadelphia area and specialized in gender-affirming procedures. During this time numerous calls from Carlies mother and her OBGYN to Dr. Rumers office went unanswered, both she and her mother say. She told me I needed surgery under "twilight sedation" to fix much deeper granulation tissue. In or around 2019, Dr. Rumer discovered a website known as "Kathy Rumer's Anonymous", a . Transgender questions; transgender answers. Many other hospitals followed suit and the Department of Health and Human Services banned Medicare coverage of the procedure in 1981, prompting most insurance companies to explicitly exclude trans-related coverage from private insurance plans shortly after. COLEY v. RUMER, 2:18-cv-01188 - CourtListener.com Her staff use sock accounts to post fake positive reviews on almost a weekly basis. Though she says her visual and sensorial results were good, Danielles experience in the hospital left much to be desired. Give her some free publicity). The subpoena demanded I turn over all notes, emails, documents and research referencing Dr. Rumer or her practice. Kathy also has a long standing reputation for ghosting and victim blaming her patients whenever complications arise. Audrina Minto, also known as Arturo Minto, filed a complaint July 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. : Rumer has resorted to taking out of state medicaid as a result of her dwindling reputation in PA. In April, Dr. Rumers counsel attempted to subpoena me in an unrelated libel case, demanding I hand over all notes, emails, documents and research related to this story. I couldn't have just pulled "twilight sedation" out of my ass. I had bottom surgery with Dr. Kathy Rumer in May 2017. Some worry about anti-transition media crusaders leveraging trans medical horror stories into political opposition against transitioning itself, since 2016 has focused exclusively on trans patients. In finding a doctor to perform a surgery prospective patients like Carlie are largely on their own. We may earn a commission from links on this page. This is a great one to share. Its their body and their right. But to make an informed choice about their bodies, he says, trans people would need more information about what happens when surgeries go awry. Our sisters at Stonewall would have never accepted Rumer or her allies and neither should we. Hannah Simpson, a 34-year-old trans woman from New York City, says that two weeks after she had GRS with Dr. Rumer in the summer of 2014, she noticed that her vulva was starting to look asymmetrical, with one part looking red and swollen. It's hard to remember, but we were starting to discuss choosing a revision date right around the end of December 2018/early 2019. Simpsons complaints about Dr. Rumers work are similar to those alleged by other former patients who spoke with Jezebel. In her state, some gender affirming surgeries are covered by the states Medicaid program, but with trans healthcare a political target for the Republican party, Danielle felt some urgency to have it done quickly back in 2015. These meetings are ongoing until a consensus is reached regarding current patient concerns, the goals of the discussion have been addressed, and plans are in place to prevent recurrence, Dr. Dugi writes in an email. According to the complaint, the defendants performed male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, a bilateral augmentation and related surgical procedures on Minto on July 12, 2016. Scan this QR code to download the app now. Without that key element, insurance coverage questions are left to regional decision boards, often comprised of insurance company representatives and public health officials who may harbor anti-trans beliefs they want to institutionalize. In a follow-up appointment and then again in a subsequent email which Simpson shared with Jezebel, Dr. Rumer blamed the dead skin on a pair of too-tight Depends Simpson had worn in the hospital, which Simpson believes was a way to dodge the issue. alleging that the . I had bottom surgery with Dr. Kathy Rumer in May 2017. Additionally, since 2016 there have been four malpractice suits filed against the doctor over similar issues, all of which were eventually arbitrated out of court. Green favors a national coverage determination, a statement from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services which acts as a guidance for coverage throughout the health insurance industry. Some, like Gaines Blasdel, a consultant who worked in an LGBTQ primary care center helping patients access gender-affirming surgery and who organized the open letter to WPATH in 2018, suggest a centers of excellence model, in which insurance companies and professional organizations collaborate to ensure insurance would only be paid out to surgeons who participated in a dedicated program. The Butcher of Ardmore has continued for long enough. Carlie says she saw the doctor briefly before being wheeled into the operating room, but didnt see Dr. Rumer again during her three days of recovery in the hospital. Feel free to make flyers to warn your local trans support groups and clinics. In 2018, another group of trans people who saw her speak at a trans medical conference filed a complaint accusing the doctor of falsifying success rates, after which the Pennsylvania State Medical Board communicated with the surgeon but took no disciplinary action. These two men are responsible for that fear, Lance Rogers and Joe Heffern. The subpoena originally asked me to appear at the office of Dr. Rumers attorney in Ardmore, Pennsylvania on April 2, but was subsequently canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of doctors who perform GRS and the lengthy waiting lists mean people have few options to choose from when they go looking for a surgeon. As coverage for these procedures increases, likely so will demand for qualified surgeons to perform them, the researchers concluded. I'm not ok! There is no independent resource where patients can get data on a surgeons complication rate. Carlie had just returned to Louisiana when she went to the movies with her girlfriend and had trouble sitting down comfortably. Rule 5: This sub is by and for trans people. Please help! 17 Mar 2023 07:18:01 Non-profit organizations like WPATH have traditionally tried to fill the need for training but lack the capacity to institute systemic changes on their own. (Like Alexis Lake, these guys are also deserving of some free publicity.) Her office is still open for business and she still performing surgeries for profit.