we obtained, we were hoping) in your messages. And I think at some point there will be a governing board of some form, probably in the next five to ten years. I need help! Dr. Rumer declined to respond to Jezebels inquiries about her treatment of this or any of her other patients. In late July, the presiding judge ordered Rumers legal team to show just cause to continue the case, considering the failure to allege the citizenship of the anonymous website owner since the complaint was filed in January. That seems like her go-to word for every check-up: "beautiful." Dr. Rumer butchered me and dealing with her office to get a resolution has been a fucking NIGHTMARE. On the trans-focused message board Susans Place, one of the only centralized repositories of reviews for surgeons, warnings against libel abound, particularly in the Facial Feminization Surgery sub-forum. and our (For full disclosure: I paid $100 for a surgical consultation over Skype with Dr. Rumer in late September 2017 but ultimately decided to go with another surgeon.). Dr. Kathy Rumer Accused of Abusing Transgender Patients Our surgeons strive for perfection, but occasionally there are complications, he says. Basically two steps forward, one step back, says former WPATH president and current communications director Jamison Green of the explosion in surgical growth. I'm getting gross green discharge. A complaint she filed with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs resulted in no formal action. Her office accepts new patients. 215-563-0652 or 215-563-0658. New York Gov Kathy Hochul's political advisor, 42, quits 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. Without a set fellowship or apprenticeship guideline from WPATH or any other professional body, theres a broad range of standards for surgeries that patients will have to live with for the rest of their lives. The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks damages of not less than $75,000, costs, pre-judgment and post judgment interest and other relief. But running a training can be prohibitively expensive for an organization like WPATH, and attending the training remains optional and unpaid for surgeons who actually want to do the work. "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." Dr. Rumer's office doesn't make outbound calls to insurance providers. These patients experiences and their difficulty finding recourse arent about one doctor. 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. Bottom surgery for both transfeminine and transmasculine people is multidisciplinary in nature, requiring plastic surgical, urological, and gynecological experience. This must stop immediately. It also alleged Dr. Rumer used pictures of another surgeons results, claiming them as her own. Dr. Kathy Rumer is a leading aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgeon in the Philadelphia area who specializes in gender reassignment surgery. 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. Dr. Kathy L. Rumer is a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon in the Philadelphia tri-state area who has deep experience with gender reassignment surgery and a practice that is geared exclusively toward transgender patients. Rumer Cosmetic Surgery. Its been a fucking nightmare. She deleted her post to avoid more attention from anti-trans fanatics. Though regret rates remain low and, and as Dr. Schechter says, the risks and the complications are commensurate with the risks and complications of other similar procedures, anti-trans disinformation has become a serious problem in many corners of the media. Two surgeons, Dr. Kathy Rumer of Rumer Cosmetic Surgery and Dr. Sherman Leis, each have a fellow hand-picked by the physician to go through a 12-month program addressing all aspects of gender . Cis people generally associate transitioning with extensive surgeries, but transition-related surgical procedures are very rarely approved for trans people under age 18. 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. Transgender questions; transgender answers. I honestly lost a ton of weight from severe depression. The most active members of the group left, says Danielle, including herself and a dozen others. I'm becoming more depressed and asocial. Oh joy. Over time, we have participated in several in-person meetings with individuals and groups. Her team has prescribed medications which could have possibly killed their patient. As a physician nobody likes malpractice suits, says Dr. Ting. Any association with this doctor deserves to be career ending and we need to make it a statement that anyone who aids and abets Rumer is to be heckled and shamed. GRS Surgeon Kathy Rumer is using a right-wing legal team to - Reddit In addition to performing hundreds of gender-affirming procedures each year, Dr. Rumer also directs a 1-year . 24 Sep 2022 19:13:22 She has not pursued any official avenues of complaint, worried that doing so would make it less likely that another surgeon would take on her case. But according to Green, of WPATH, there are no medical boards that specifically certify individual surgeons for gender-related surgeries: I badgered the surgeons to get the societies, like the plastic surgery society, to try to figure out how to make this training part of the boards examination, so you could be board certified, he says. The details of the arbitration proceedings and their outcomes are not public; none of the plaintiffs in the cases against Dr. Rumers practice returned multiple requests for an interview. Whenever I deal with Dr. Rumer's office, I have to be the liaison for my insurance company and her office. The organization runs its own surgical trainings, which began under Greens presidency from 2014 to 2016. My roommate and I both have had surgery with Dr. Rumer. Congressperson Rep. Jamie Raskin has been taking an interest in Rumers SLAPP suits and abuses and would love to hear from you. The advice shocked both Carlie and her mother. Dr. Kathy Rumer - Gender Reassignment Surgery Expert Kathy Rumer is using a Right Wing legal team to harass her own - Reddit 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. PS: To Kathy Rumer: Consider this your eviction notice. Thanks for other patients' medical records too. Shape Shifter on Twitter: "Dr Kathy Rumer is another "sex reassignment Its an institutional framework that doesnt fit the current challenges, says Green. TALK TO A REALSELF ADVISOR. When she posted about her experience with Dr. Rumer on message boards in an attempt to warn other potential patients, Carlies words were reprinted on anti-trans forums. Legal threats havent only been directed towards anonymous trolls and reporters: Dr. Bowers shared a 2018 email written by Dr. Rumer alleging written defamation and threatening a libel lawsuit after the surgeon commented on Dr. Rumer in a consultation with one of Rumers former patients. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Kathy Rumer is a top tier butcher i've heard horror stories of vaginas falling out of bodies and exploding due to her butchery . If you think you can do better, why dont you just give her a vagina?. Dr. Rumer's office literally told me to just do the best I can and iodine-douche every 2 days. It was the spring of 2017 and about two weeks prior Carlie, a 34-year-old trans woman, had undergone a vaginoplasty: a surgery sometimes performed after injuries or post-cancer but most commonly associated with transition-related care. Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul. For more information, please see our 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. Dr. Kathy L. Rumer is a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon in the Philadelphia tri-state area who has deep experience with gender reassignment surgery and a practice that is geared exclusively toward transgender patients. Often, patients rely completely on a surgeons self-reported data. 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. Many patients who go to Dr. Rumer for bottom surgery are happy with their results. (mass reporting these false positive reviews is also an option) Google means alot to Rumer, let's declaw her on this front. I kept insisting to them that I couldn't wait that long. RUMER COSMETIC SURGERY - 105 Photos & 21 Reviews - 105 Ardmore Ave In finding a doctor to perform a surgery prospective patients like Carlie are largely on their own. (Attachments: # 1 Case Management Track Form, # 2 Civil Cover Sheet, # 3 Designation Form) (jwl, ) (Entered: 03/20/2018) Main Doc ument. I found new doctors thanks to Reddit. 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. 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. By the time I'm hopefully all healed, this will have been a 4-year ordeal. Kathy also has a long standing reputation for ghosting and victim blaming her patients whenever complications arise. We can beat Rumer through a war of attrition by denying her as many new patients as possible. But they say that their frustration is also directed at the systemic issues surrounding procedures like these: The lack of doctors who perform GRS and the lengthy waiting lists that mean people like them have few options to choose from and not enough information when they go looking for a surgeon. I wasnt going to get any restitution on my bit, she says. My symptons and complaints are WELL-DOCUMENTED in all of my emails to Dr. Rumer's office. So, sorry in advance. At that time, I also told her that I was bleeding almost every time I dilate for a month. To try to fill the gap, people like Dr. Schechter and other doctors who specialize in gender-affirming care have come together to argue for a more standardized training system for hospitals looking to expand into the field. 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. That's my layperson understanding of this. Maybe they go and scrub in with one surgeon on one surgery and they say, Oh yeah, now I know how to do this. As one anonymous surgeon quoted in a 2017 survey put itsomeone is going to see someone with a reputable name; they learn for a week, and they start doing them. consultations through RealSelf. Carlie chose a surgeon, Dr. Kathy Rumer, who was based in the Philadelphia area and specialized in gender-affirming procedures. COLEY v. RUMER, 2:18-cv-01188 - CourtListener.com Call 855-782-5665 for your consultation. Rumer Cosmetic Surgery 105 Ardmore Ave Ardmore, PA 19003. Each of the plaintiffs described strictures and damages to their urethras, vaginal cavities, and labias along with bulges or misshapen clitoral hoods, issues characterized as permanent injury such that the plaintiffs would never have sexual function again.. For more information, please see our A team of doctors, none of whom had experience with a post-op vulva or vaginapost-op genitalia are slightly different from their cisgender counterpartsoperated on Carlie. Heyers publication of the OSHU complaint put a serious dent in talks with the hospital, and shocked the post-op patients who had been looking to start a dialogue with the hospital. Alexis Lake, Lake Therapy: This therapist serves the Lancaster area which has little to no resources for gender affirming care, not only is she a personal friend of Rumer but actively brags to her own clientele about how many people she refers to Rumer. It was help that never materialized. With several different possible medical boards certifying surgeons performing gender-related surgeries, no single board feels responsible for the bad experiences of trans patients. Top and Bottom and no butchering. Bruce Jenner's Plastic Surgery Hell Exposed: Doctors Say He Is Additionally, Rumers hair removal technique failed, leaving some hair growing just inside the labia, though not in the vaginal canal itself. alleging that the defendants did not have the appropriate expected from board certified plastic surgeons. 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. I am completely unable to have sex, and it's driving me fucking crazy. The most common reason for regretting trans-affirming surgery, in fact, is inadequate surgical outcomes. The subpoena demanded I turn over all notes, emails, documents and research referencing Dr. Rumer or her practice. The next morning, she called the emergency number she had been given and sent an email to Dr. Rumers office. 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.). I also quite possibly need a lawyer. That being said, I feel as practitioners in this very small and new field, we have to police ourselves and maintain standards.. Now I can only get half-way to the first dot on my smallest purple dilator. 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. 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. Granted that even a serial butcher like Dr. Butcher Brown striked it lucky that he had a few happy patients who worshipped him? Simpsons complaints about Dr. Rumers work are similar to those alleged by other former patients who spoke with Jezebel. Dr. Dr. Rumer, who has not treated the 65-year-old, added that "a botched rhinoplasty can lead to . In 1979, Johns Hopkins stopped offering GRS for political reasons despite being one of the leading-edge American hospitals to develop the practice. PHILADELPHIA A patient is suing Dr. Kathy Rumer and Delaware Valley Aesthetics PLLC, which does business as Rumer Cosmetic Surgery, citing alleged medical negligence. Our sisters at Stonewall would have never accepted Rumer or her allies and neither should we. The Plastic Surgery Procedure Kathy Griffin Regrets Getting Delaware County Memorial Hospital offers gender affirmation surgery . People dont want to talk about complications in their marketing presentations.. 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. Rule 5: This sub is by and for trans people. In or around 2019, Dr. Rumer discovered a website known as "Kathy Rumer's Anonymous", a . Schedule a Consultation Rumer Gender Surgery. Rumer Gender Surgery - Facebook Dr. Kathy L. Rumer is trusted by her patients for ethical, high quality care. As a surgeon I can tell you every surgeon has bad outcomes, Dr. Ting tells Jezebel. Roses surgery didnt turn out as planned. 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. Also, almost killed Diana Goetsch and Kelly Maloney. I need help NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. Joelle Trieste, PhD on Twitter: "RT @ShifterofShapes: Dr Kathy Rumer It's September and I still haven't had revision surgery. Kathy Hochul has called it quits after being blamed for driving her political . 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. That email to me was the last straw. But there are few standardized rules around what qualified means, and gender reassignment is plagued by issues that affect other areas of the medical industry. Dr. Kathy Rumer, DO / "The Butcher of Ardmore" / Rumer Gender Surgery 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. Privacy Policy. This was my first Reddit post from what was really intended to be an anonymous account. Public Call to Action Against Dr. Kathy Rumer : r/MtF - Reddit Crozer Chester Medical Center 1 Medical Center Blvd Chester, PA 19013. These patients experiences and their difficulty finding recourse arent about one doctor. I'm sorry if this isn't the most well-written thing, or if there are gaps in my backstory. 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. 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. Patients of Rumer often have to undergo stressful and costly revision surgeries with other doctors. I'm not a doctor by any means. We look forward to hearing from you! Dr. Kathy Rumer, DO - Cosmetic, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Are You a Graphic Designer? She is represented by Kristy Bruce of The Rubinstein Law Firm LLC in Hamilton, New Jersey. I SHOULD HAVE HAD THIS WHEN THE DOCTOR ORIGINALLY TOLD ME OVER A YEAR AGO. Mazzoni organizes this conference every summer. She holds degrees in mathematics, engineering and . A few months later, she said she never said that. Established in 2007. I'm not well. 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. Spread the word. Our goal, of course, is to train more people so that at least in major areas people dont have to travel So theres also that lag time between getting people trained appropriately and getting institution centers [and] hospitals up and running., Cutting down on that lag time to meet the growing demand for gender-affirming surgeries can often mean cutting valuable training corners for hospitals and surgeons. 105 Ardmore Avenue. Its who decides how the operating theater in the hospital is going to be used, what kind of surgeries they are going to do., They make those decisions and we have to just live with it, he said, and work around these things., None of that matters to Carlie, who has scuttled plans for other transition-related surgeries, like facial feminization, thanks to her experience with Dr. Rumer. 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. SHE WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE HEALING BEAUTIFULLY UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE. A compilation of screenshots, articles about Kathy Rumer have been gathered here. 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. 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. Infections occur, tissue necrosis, dehiscences, those things occur with any surgery, he says. For more information, please see our This standard is followed by all medical centers and defined by national accrediting agencies, he says. At this point, I can BARELY dilate. Audrina Minto, also known as Arturo Minto, filed a complaint July 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.