Physician who misplaced job over ‘regrettable’ Texas flood submit says sorry | Texas floods 2025
A pediatrician who’s not working for a sequence of clinics affiliated with a outstanding Houston hospital system after a social media submit that wished voters in a Donald Trump-supporting county of central Texas “get what they voted for” amid flash flooding that killed almost 120 – together with many kids – has publicly apologized.
“I communicate to you as a mom, a neighbor, a pediatrician, and a human being who’s deeply sorry,” Dr Christina Propst wrote after Blue Fish Pediatrics introduced on Sunday she was not an worker there due to a social media submit that the clinic mentioned did “not mirror the worth, requirements or mission” of the chain. “I take full accountability for a social media remark I made earlier than we knew that so many valuable lives have been misplaced to the horrible tragedy in central Texas.
“I perceive my remark triggered immense ache to these struggling indescribable grief and for that I’m really sorry,” Propst added in a submit first reported by the Texas information station KPRC. “I want to clarify that my regrettable remark was under no circumstances a response to the tragic lack of human life … and … that may be a proven fact that I deeply remorse.”
Within the submit that preceded the tip of her time at Blue Fish Pediatrics on 4 July, Propst alluded to how Kerr county, Texas, had – just like the state as a complete – voted in favor of Trump as he defeated former vice-president Kamala Harris in November’s White Home election.
Trump’s presidential administration has since sought to erase mentions of the continuing local weather disaster and its penalties, one among which is making rainfall like that which devastated Kerr extra frequent. The president has additionally mused about “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Administration Company (Fema), partly in order that Trump’s workplace may very well be in command of distributing catastrophe reduction funds and in the end “give out much less cash”.
“Could all guests, kids, non-Maga voters and pets be protected and dry,” mentioned the submit, which invoked an acronym for Trump’s “Make America nice once more” slogan. “Kerr county Maga voted to intestine Fema. They deny local weather change. Could they get what they voted for.”
Residents of Kerr county have since spoken about shedding all of their possessions, together with their properties, after the flood in query. They’ve additionally recounted looking for what have confirmed to be elusive solutions in regards to the stage of preparedness from authorities tasked with defending their communities.
Quickly, the submit made its technique to Blue Fish Pediatrics, listed as an impartial companion of Houston’s well-known Memorial Hermann hospital community. The clinic chain – which was tagged by social media customers demanding that it act towards Propst – mentioned in an announcement that the group was instantly putting the message’s creator on depart. An announcement later mentioned that the submit’s creator was “not an employed” on the chain whereas expressing “full assist to the households and the encircling communities who’re grieving, recovering and trying to find hope”.
Many US healthcare suppliers are required by their employers – as a situation of their employment – to keep away from circulating opinions which may undermine belief of their occupation amongst members of the general public.
“We strongly condemn the feedback that have been made in that submit,” Blue Fish Pediatrics’ assertion mentioned. “That submit doesn’t mirror the values, requirements or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We don’t assist or condone any assertion that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to obviously uphold compassion for each baby and household, no matter background or beliefs.”
The clinic chain’s assertion didn’t say whether or not Propst had resigned or was dismissed. However on Wednesday, KPRC reported that Propst – partly – had since printed one other submit saying she wished to “apologize to every particular person struggling by means of horrible loss on this troublesome time”.
“The remark was mine and mine alone,” Propst’s submit mentioned, partly. “Even in these divisive instances, some issues are and will stay sacred.”
The timing of the submit that value Propst her employment triggered offense, being printed after communities alongside Texas’s Guadalupe River have been overwhelmed early on Friday by flash flooding triggered by torrential rain. The river rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes after 1.8tn gallons of rain fell over a area together with Kerr county, Texas, about 90 miles (145km) north-west of San Antonio.
As of Wednesday, officers reported that not less than 119 folks had died, together with greater than two dozen campers and counselors on the nondenominational Christian establishment of Camp Mystic – with greater than 160 in Kerr believed to be lacking. That made up a lot of the greater than 170 lacking in all of Texas as of Wednesday.
Kerr county residents who survived the flood have spoken about shedding their properties and different possessions.
In keeping with a biography at Blue Fish’s web site which was just lately taken offline, Propst is a local of New York who graduated from Princeton College in 1991. She graduated from New Orleans’s Tulane medical faculty, acquired certifications from the American board in addition to academy of pediatrics and spent 17 years in group follow in Houston earlier than becoming a member of Blue Fish in 2018.