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. It's a baby-sized vagina/wound. And I think at some point there will be a governing board of some form, probably in the next five to ten years. This is a great one to share. I note that while you are a self-described freelance journalist, you utilize the pronoun the plural pronoun we (e.g. Get botched by the butcher, get sued if you speak out. During this time numerous calls from Carlies mother and her OBGYN to Dr. Rumers office went unanswered, both she and her mother say. PHILADELPHIA A patient is suing Dr. Kathy Rumer and Delaware Valley Aesthetics PLLC, which does business as Rumer Cosmetic Surgery, citing alleged medical negligence. (THANK YOU!) Up until July 2018, Dr. Rumer told me how "beautifully" I was healing when I'd see her for a post-op check-up. Will be used in accordance with our terms of service & privacy policy. In 2018, Dr. Rumer appeared in an NBC documentary about the transformation of a college student. Give her some free publicity). I'm a 35-yr old trans-woman. This is a good share: When Surgeons Fail Their Trans Patients by Katelyn Burns https://jezebel.com/when-surgeons-fail-their-trans-patients-1844774990?rev=1597854733082. 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. Fear of expensive and time-consuming legal challenges based on patient testimonies are not unfounded: Dr. Rumer and her legal team directed letters to me questioning the integrity of your inquiry and article, declined to answer factual questions, and eventually served me a subpoena in an attempt to gain access to my reporting notes and sources. Over the course of 2018, four former patients of the surgeons filed separate malpractice suits in Pennsylvanias Eastern District court. A few days later, Carlie and her mother say they heard from the doctor, who was on vacation and told Carlie she shouldnt be concerned. Since 2007, she has had her own practice (Rumer Cosmetic Surgery), and since 2016, she has switched to focusing exclusively on transgender patients, offering a range of gender-affirming care such as vaginoplasty, facial feminization . UPDATE: a petition has been posted demanding Rumer's immediate resignation. I live right near Manhattan. Do not worry, direct action takes on many forms. Fields marked with an * are required. As coverage for these procedures increases, likely so will demand for qualified surgeons to perform them, the researchers concluded. Carlie chose a surgeon, Dr. Kathy Rumer, who was based in the Philadelphia area and specialized in gender-affirming procedures. 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 really didn't need this experience. Just prior to publication, Dr. Rumer again declined to comment and through her attorney threatened to add Jezebel to her pending libel suit. Rumer and her allies rely upon silence and fear. Offices can vary widely when it comes to patient-to-doctor ratios and what kind of specialized training a surgeon receives. What is wrong with this staff?! 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. I used to be able to get to the 4th dot on the medium-size dilator, and the 3rd dot on the largest dilator. Every other week there is a new horror account on Reddit where someone comes out who was victimized by this doctor in her genocide against the trans community. That's my layperson understanding of this. So who is responsible for allowing a monster like Rumer to continue? Her follow-up appointment, a week after the surgery, was administered by a nurse. 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. I needed urgent help a year and a half ago. The two had spoken on Skype a few months before the surgery but never had an in-person pre-op appointment. 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. I was like, I need to get a vagina before we have a Republican president, she told Jezebel in an interview in the spring of 2018. Its an institutional framework that doesnt fit the current challenges, says Green. Regardless, restricting access to these procedures is not the answer when there are reforms that could be made to the existing system in order to improve it. Stage a Picket: All of the individuals and organizations on the list have a physical place of business, nothing applies pressure more than a dozen people standing outside an office with a megaphone and signs and the first place that should be picketed is most definitely Rumers office in Ardmore. . Privacy Policy. And even then, website administrators are sometimes nervous to host negative remarks against a specific surgeon, fearing a potential libel suit. Intersex people who have related surgical interests may post. I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. In a pre-trial brief filed in late February, before the case was referred for arbitration, Dr. Rumers attorneys argued the surgeon was not negligent, hadnt deviated from the standard of care and that the issues the patient experienced were recognized complication[s] of vaginoplasty. The pleading also noted that the patient was not employed at the time she was treated by Dr. Rumer and that the 47-year-old hadnt reported significant problems until more than a year after her surgery. Her office is horrible at handling insurance. That email to me was the last straw. There is a larger concern that is poised to swell as demand for GRS grows: that without a specific reporting mechanism for patients who feel wronged or an institutional body tasked with regulating the specifics of trans-affirmative care, patients who seek these surgeries are locked in a devils bargain, unable to be assured of the quality of care when they sign on and unclear how to move forward when theyre unhappy with the results. 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. So, yea, ~2.5 years of complications and no actual follow-up. Dr. Rumer butchered me and dealing with her office to get a resolution has been a fucking NIGHTMARE. In finding a doctor to perform a surgery prospective patients like Carlie are largely on their own. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 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. Dr. Rumer completely fucked up my body. "A botched rhinoplasty can lead to facially disfiguring results," Dr. Kathy Rumer, a Philadelphia-based aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon who has not treated Bruce, told The ENQUIRER. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. I've gained much of that weight since then, but it's too fucking late now. "Just to let you know posting nasty reviews on REDDIT is not a very kind thing to do when you are looking for help from my office." I don't have a fucking vagina. I honestly lost a ton of weight from severe depression. Can't use BCC. lol. : Wed love for the hashtag #DropRumer to trend. As a result of the defendants' alleged negligence, the plaintiff suffered urethral and vaginal strictures, had clitoral scar tissue, was unable to have sexual intercourse and experienced gender dysphoria. DO NOT GO TO DR. KATHY RUMER. Oct 2020 - 1-year update: Kathy (or someone from her staff) found this post and emailed me to complain about it only 20 days after it was posted (and after around 2 years of complications at that point). Once she woke up from the anesthesia, she was told that the procedure had taken twice as long as normal because her genitalia had been difficult to dissect. 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. The modern technique for vaginoplasty was developed over 100 years ago in Europe and has been practiced in the United States for at least the last 50 years. According to a complaint submitted to the Pennsylvania State Medical Board and shared with Jezebel, Dr. Rumer allegedly claimed a 1 percent complication rate for fistula and stricture following urethral lengthening, one of the procedures commonly performed as part of phalloplasty, the surgery which creates a functional penis for transmasculine trans people. Worse yet, her help came from some of the very people we are supposed to trust . Because right now, they dont certify in specific disease conditions, so to speak., Currently the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has general board certification, but nothing specific to gender-related surgeries, meaning affiliated surgeons wouldnt have to meet specific training standards in order to operate on the genitalia of transgender patients. Dr. Kathy Rumer, DO is a Cosmetic, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Specialist in Drexel Hill, PA. She is affiliated with medical facilities such as Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Delaware County Memorial Hospital. 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. (855) R U A LOOKER. Dr. Rumer has even blatantly admitted in court to her false advertising without consequence. Many patients who go to Dr. Rumer for bottom surgery are happy with their results. Whenever I deal with Dr. Rumer's office, I have to be the liaison for my insurance company and her office. People will always make the choice of fast and cheap over good in some cases, he added more recently. Her office is still open for business and she still performing surgeries for profit. Once the Obama-era policies were implemented and more trans people could pay for these procedures with insurance or Medicaid, some hospitals rushed to meet the pent-up demand. Organize, stand up, speak out. The most common reason for regretting trans-affirming surgery, in fact, is inadequate surgical outcomes. This standard is followed by all medical centers and defined by national accrediting agencies, he says. In response to several questions from Jezebel, Dr. Dugi says the hospital does not address specific patient interactions because of privacy laws but does admit the staff had several discussions with transgender patients. 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. Get botched by the butcher, get sued if you speak out. There is no independent resource where patients can get data on a surgeons complication rate. Tune-in to the series premiere of Botched this Tuesday, June 24 at 9/8c! It seems likely Dr. Rumer would say, as she writes on her website and argued in court, that these complications are the result of poor adherence to her offices postoperative directions, or are part of the reasonable risk of any surgery of this kind. A senior advisor to New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, quit on Sunday after reports emerged of him creating a toxic environment. And why does it take so long before anyone acts? My dilators have 5 dots on them to measure depth. Even beyond trans rights, denying a patients right to free speech is reprehensible. Kathy Rumer is an experienced plastic surgeon and surgical specialist who operates out of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. There is so much more to this story, but I'm moving on. There are lots of great gender-affirming surgeons in New York; I'm not transmasc so I can't recommend anyone for top surgery, but absolutely do not go with Rumer if you don't want to be mutilated. Sinai, to the stand. In the summer of 2018, the group of trans people who had surgery with Dr. Dugi in Portland met with OSHU to discuss how the hospital could provide more trauma-informed care for its trans patients. 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. Nobody in that ward knew how to deal with peoples trauma, she says. The step back, he says, is that some surgeons may not opt to train in the most rigorous environments: They dont join WPATH. At this point, I can BARELY dilate. A sub for the discussion of surgeries, surgery results, surgeon satisfaction and the costs incurred by transgender people. Conservative scaremongering against transition-related surgeries have directly led to eight states introducing bills which would criminalize doctors who provide transition care to minors. Privacy Policy. It's time to take 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? We can help you find another local provider who specializes in what you're interested in. She provides comprehensive transitioning surgical procedures to both the male-to-female (MTF) and female-to-male (FTM) transgender communities. Dr. Rumer has even expressed her own silent transphobia by using a stock photo of an androgynous male model to advertise facial feminization surgery in addition to the rest of the stock photos she uses to mislead people to the outcomes of her surgical results. This must stop immediately. Do You Know of More Individuals or Organizations Who Have Shielded Rumer From Justice? For more information, please see our And speaking out after a traumatic experience, in a moment when so few are able to access care, can either be weaponized by anti-trans activists or interpreted by advocates as a step back. 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. The experience has left her disillusioned with the medical profession and she is no longer pursuing a medical degree. Dr. Rumer's office literally told me to just do the best I can and iodine-douche every 2 days. Top and Bottom and no butchering. For more information, please see our . I need help NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. I kept insisting to them that I couldn't wait that long. Though she says her visual and sensorial results were good, Danielles experience in the hospital left much to be desired. I'm sorry if this isn't the most well-written thing, or if there are gaps in my backstory. The two had spoken on Skype a few months before the surgery but . Kathy is history. Its the insurance system, its the way people get paid. Heyer disputes the claim that he obtained the notes under false pretenses, telling Jezebel his Federalist article ended up resulting in blowback against his source, who in turn declined legal help to avoid further conflict. 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. Also feel free to ask Rumers staff why she fraternizes with registered Republicans to silence her own patients. Oh joy. Feel free to make flyers to warn your local trans support groups and clinics. 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.
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