Medical centers fight to keep liver transplants close to home after new policy takes effect
The United Network for Organ Sharing has rolled out a new liver transplant distribution system.
A decorated Texas surgeon stands accused of depriving his own patients of new livers by manipulating their records on a national organ wait list.
Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., 64, has practiced since 1981 and performed more than 800 procedures throughout his career, according to his bio on Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center's website. His survival and surgical outcome rates are "among the best in the nation," the University of Texas' UTHealth Houston told Fox News Digital in a statement.
But the medical center said it has paused its liver and kidney transplant programs after the doctor admitted to changing patient and donor records in the United Network for Organ Sharing transplant information database, effectively denying patients potentially life-saving treatment.
"Upon learning of this inappropriate activity, we immediately began an investigation, and chose to voluntarily inactivate our liver transplant program," a spokesperson for Memorial Hermann Health System, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Texas, said in an email to Fox News Digital.
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Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston has put its liver and kidney transplant programs on hold after learning that Dr. J. Steve Bynon made "inappropriate" changes to his patients' entries on a government organ wait list. (Getty Images/File)
Only the liver transplant program was affected, they said, but because Bynon also oversaw the kidney transplant program, both were halted. The spokesperson said transplant care coordinators are working with patients and families to help them find new hospitals to get their crucial procedures.
Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni, the vice chair of the ethics committee at the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), explained the impact that Bynon's alleged conduct may have had on patients.
"They’re sitting at home, maybe not traveling, thinking they could get an organ offer any time, but in reality, they’re functionally inactive, and so they’re not going to get that transplant," Kulkarni told the New York Times.
Although Memorial Hermann is a major hospital in Houston, its liver transplant program is one of the smallest in the state; it performed 29 such transplants last year, according to federal data. But of those 29 patients, 14 patients were taken off the center's waiting list because they became too sick or died while waiting for a viable transplant, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
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The hospital, a teaching school affiliated with the University of Texas, performed 29 transplants last year. Fourteen patients on its waiting list became ineligible for transplants because they became too sick or died before an organ meeting their parameters in the database became available. It is unclear whether Dr. Bynon's alleged tampering played a role.
This year, as of last month, five patients at the hospital died or became too sick to receive a liver transplant. A hospital spokesperson told Fox News Digital that their program treated patients who were in more advanced stages of liver failure than average. It is unclear whether Bynon's alleged tampering played a role in their deaths.
A complaint led the hospital to notice "irregularities" – patients listed as only compatible with donors with impossible age and weight parameters. For example, according to the Times, one patient needed a liver from a 300-pound toddler, their UNOS entry showed.
Bynon has led the hospital's abdominal surgery program since 2011, according to the medical center's bio. According to UTHealth, Bynon is a "current employee at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston" despite the allegations against him.
Memorial Hermann performed 29 liver transplants last year, according to federal data. (iStock)
"Dr. Steve Bynon is an exceptionally talented and caring physician, and a pioneer in abdominal organ transplantation. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, Bynon’s survival rates and surgical outcomes are among the best in the nation, even while treating patients with higher-than-average acuity and disease complexity," the university's hospital group said in a statement last week. "UTHealth Houston is proud of the many contributions Dr. Bynon and his team have made to our university, our academic and clinical transplant programs, and to the field of transplant medicine."
"Our faculty and staff members, including Dr. Bynon, are assisting with the inquiry into Memorial Hermann’s liver transplant program and are committed to addressing and resolving any findings identified by this process."
Bynon could not be reached for comment. UTHealth told Fox News Digital that the doctor "is not doing interviews."
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The waiting period for a deceased donor liver generally takes between 30 days and five years, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. (iStock)
The Department of Health and Human Services and the United Network for Organ Sharing, a federal contractor that oversees the country's transplant system, confirmed that they were also investigating the allegations.
It is unclear what prompted the doctor to allegedly alter entries in the government system. Andrew Cherkasky, a former federal prosecutor whose current law firm handles medical malpractice lawsuits, explained possible motivations for such behavior.
"He could be playing a Godlike role. Sometimes doctors or surgeons are criticized for playing God. Maybe he was making his own personal choices about who he thought deserved and who did not," Cherkasky said.
"It could also be to preserve his stats. He was noted as having particularly high success rates for his surgeries. Perhaps he assessed these patients as unlikely to survive or take to the transplant and was making a nonmedical decision to protect his statistics," he added.
Memorial Hermann paused its liver and kidney transplant programs after the allegations. (iStock)
Considering the information currently available, Cherkasky said a future civil or even criminal court proceeding is likely.
"He should be concerned about criminal action. If he recklessly deviated from the standard of care in wanton disregard to what his expectations are, and it led to the untimely death of patients, he could be charged with negligent homicide," he said.
However, the fact that Bynon is still practicing could indicate "that the actual boards that make these decisions are not seeing the gross deviation from the standard of care that appears to be in current reporting on this issue."
