For decades, Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., a transplant surgeon in Texas, gained accolades and national prominence for his work, including by helping to enforce professional standards in the country’s sprawling organ transplant system.
But officials are now investigating allegations that Dr. Bynon was secretly manipulating a government database to make some of his own patients ineligible to receive new livers, potentially depriving them of lifesaving care.
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, where Dr. Bynon oversaw both the liver and kidney transplant programs, abruptly shut down those programs in the past week while looking into the allegations.
On Thursday, the medical center, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Texas, said in a statement that it had found evidence that a doctor in its liver transplant program had effectively denied patients transplants by changing records.
Officials identified the physician as Dr. Bynon, who is employed by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and has had a contract to lead Memorial Hermann’s abdominal transplant program since 2011.
Persons:
J, Steve Bynon Jr, Bynon, Hermann
Organizations:
Texas Medical Center, University of Texas, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Locations:
Texas, Houston