A San Diego family says Rady Children's Hospital abruptly canceled their 15-year-old's gender-affirming care, including a mastectomy that was just weeks away. The call, they say, came out of nowhere and sent the teen and their parents scrambling to find another surgeon while they pressed hospital leaders for an explanation.
Fifteen-year-old Enfys Zerlaut, who previously went by Evelyn, came out as nonbinary about four years ago and began care at Rady roughly 10 months ago, the family told NBC 7 San Diego. That care, according to the family, included therapy, visits with an endocrinologist and surgical consultations that led to a scheduled mastectomy. Enfys and their mother described the cancellation as devastating and said they are pushing for a meeting with hospital leadership to appeal the decision.
Pressure From D.C. Ripples Into Exam Rooms
The family believes the appointment was canceled in the middle of a federal crackdown that would penalize hospitals providing certain gender-related procedures for minors. The Department of Health and Human Services and related agencies have rolled out proposed rules that would bar hospitals performing specific treatments for minors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid. KFF notes that the changes could pressure hospitals to halt services rather than risk losing vital federal reimbursements.
Major Children’s Hospitals Hit Pause
Several prominent pediatric centers have already limited or paused parts of their gender programs while the legal and regulatory fights play out. The Colorado Sun and CPR reported that Children's Hospital Colorado and Denver Health recently suspended or curtailed gender-affirming services for patients under 18 after drawing federal scrutiny.
Rady’s Role In San Diego And What A Pullback Means
Rady has long been one of the region’s main providers of gender-affirming care for youth and, as reporting has noted, has published research on outcomes for transgender and nonbinary teens. At the same time, the hospital has stayed quiet on individual cases. Industry coverage has quoted Rady saying it cannot discuss specific patients because of privacy and confidentiality rules, leaving families like the Zerlauts to piece together how policy decisions might be playing out behind closed doors.
Court Battles, Red Tape And Families Caught In The Middle
State attorneys general and health systems are challenging the federal actions in court, arguing that the grant conditions and rule changes go too far, according to Reuters. Judges have issued temporary injunctions in related disputes and the litigation is still unfolding. National coverage has reported that this legal gray area is part of the reason some hospitals say they are pausing services while they weigh the financial and legal risk.
For the Zerlaut family, the stakes are less abstract and more immediate: keep Enfys’s care on track and secure the surgery they believe is medically necessary. "It was just the worst feeling in the world," Enfys’s mother told NBC 7 San Diego. Local advocates warn that if more centers pause or scale back services, waitlists will grow and more families could be forced to travel long distances or pay out of pocket to maintain care.
