A Houston physician has been indicted on fees of falsifying medical data for 5 sufferers, making them ineligible to obtain a liver transplant, federal prosecutors introduced on Thursday.
Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr. was indicted by a grand jury in Houston final month on 5 counts of false statements regarding well being care issues.
Bynon is accused of constructing false statements in his function as director of stomach organ transplantation and surgical director for liver transplantation at Memorial Hermann Well being System in Houston.
Of the 5 sufferers detailed in an indictment made public on Thursday, three died and two others have been capable of get liver transplants at completely different hospitals.
Sufferers, their households, and different members of their medical care group have been unaware Bynon allegedly made false statements of their medical data, in response to courtroom data.
“Dr. Bynon is alleged to have betrayed probably the most sacred responsibility of a medical skilled — to heal,” U.S. Lawyer Nicholas J. Ganjei stated in an announcement. “He stole years and hope from those that trusted him most by falsifying data and stopping sufferers from receiving organ transplants.”
Samy Khalil, Bynon’s legal professional, instructed reporters exterior the federal courthouse after the physician’s preliminary courtroom look Thursday afternoon that Bynon is a gifted organ transplant surgeon who has carried out over 2,000 transplants over his 40-year profession.
“Nothing he did was illegal. All the things that he did was lawful and in good religion,” Khalil stated. “We sit up for clearing his title in a courtroom of legislation and educating, frankly, the federal government on the medical ideas that undergird this completely, completely misguided prosecution.”
Memorial Hermann Well being System and UTHealth Houston, who employs Bynon, didn’t instantly reply to emails requesting remark.
The indictment and a information launch by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Houston didn’t element a motive for why Bynon allegedly altered affected person data. Angela Dodge, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace declined to remark.
After the accusations in opposition to Bynon have been first made public in April 2024, Memorial Hermann shut down its liver and kidney transplant program. Memorial Hermann reactivated its transplant program a 12 months later.
The households of a number of sufferers who died whereas ready for liver transplants have sued Bynon in Houston civil courtroom, eager to know if their family members have been denied liver transplants as a consequence of Bynon’s actions. The lawsuits stay pending.
The indictment alleges Bynon change the data of 5 sufferers from March 2023 to March 2024.
One affected person was ineligible to obtain a donor organ provide for roughly 149 days and died in February 2024 beneath Bynon’s care, in response to the indictment.
One other affected person was ineligible to obtain a donor organ provide for roughly 69 days and died in December 2023 throughout a surgical procedure to obtain a brand new liver.
A 3rd affected person who required an “pressing liver transplantation” died in December 2023, two days after Bynon allegedly entered false donor matching standards for the affected person that “severely restricted” or made the affected person “functionally ineligible to obtain a lifesaving donor organ provide,” in response to the indictment.
Two different sufferers obtained profitable liver transplants after going to different hospitals.
If convicted, Bynon faces as much as 5 years in federal jail for every depend.
In February 2025, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Community, which manages the nation’s organ donation program, declared Memorial Hermann to be a member not in good standing. The designation is probably the most extreme motion that the transplantation community can take and tells the general public that considered one of its members has proven a critical lapse in affected person security or high quality of care.
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