For decades, Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., a transplant surgeon in Texas, has earned awards and national recognition for his work, including by helping implement professional standards in the nation’s vast organ transplant system.
But officials are now investigating allegations that Dr. Bynon secretly manipulated a government database to make some of his own patients ineligible to receive new livers, potentially depriving them of life-saving care.
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, where Dr. Bynon has both liver and kidney transplant programs, those programs were abruptly shut down last week while the allegations are being looked into.
On Thursday, the medical center, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Texas, said in a statement that a doctor in its liver transplant program admitted to altering patient records. That effectively rejected the transplants, the hospital said. Officials identified the physician as Dr. Bynon, who works at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and has been contracted to lead Memorial Hermann’s abdominal transplant program since 2011.
It is unclear what may have motivated Dr. Bynon. Reached by phone Thursday, he referred questions to UTHealth Houston, which declined to comment. Dr. did not confirm. Bynon he admitted to altering the records.
Founded in 1925, Memorial Hermann is a major hospital in Houston, but it has a relatively small liver transplant program. Last year, it performed 29 liver transplants, according to federal data, making it one of the smallest programs in Texas.
In recent years, a disproportionate number of Memorial Hermann patients have died while waiting for a liver, according to the data. Last year, 14 patients were removed from the center’s waiting list because they died or became too sick, and the mortality rate for people waiting for a transplant was higher than expected, according to the Scientific Registry. of Transplant Recipients, a research group.
This year, as of last month, five patients have died or become too ill to receive a liver transplant, while the hospital has performed three transplants, records show. The investigation is at an early stage, and it is unclear whether possible changes to the waiting list actually resulted in a patient not receiving a liver. A hospital spokeswoman said the center treats patients who are more seriously ill than usual.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that it is also investigating the allegations. So is the United Network for Organ Sharing, the federal contractor that oversees the nation’s organ transplant system.
“We accept the seriousness of this allegation,” the HHS statement said. “We are working diligently to address this issue with the attention it deserves.”
Officials began investigating after being alerted by a complaint. A review found what the hospital called “irregularities” in how patients on the waiting list for liver transplants were classified. When doctors put a patient on the list, they must specify the types of donors they will consider, including the person’s age and weight.
Hospital officials said they found patients listed as accepting only donors whose age and weight were impossible — for example, a 300-pound baby — making them unable to receive any transplants.
Other transplant surgeons said if the list was tampered with, patients would not know of changes in their status.
“They’re sitting at home, maybe not traveling, thinking they can get an organ offer at any time, but in reality, they’re not functionally active, and so they can’t get that transplant,” said Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni, the vice chair of the ethics committee at the United Network for Organ Sharing. “It’s highly unusual, I’ve never heard of it, and it’s also highly inappropriate.”
The hospital said in its statement that it did not know how many patients were affected by the changes, or when they began. It said the issues only affected the liver transplant program, but the hospital also closed the kidney transplant program because it was headed by the same doctor.
Dr. Bynon, 64, has spent his career in stomach transplants, and is considered one of the pioneers of advanced liver transplants. He spent nearly 20 years at the University of Alabama at Birmingham before moving to Texas in 2011.
Some former colleagues described Dr. Bynon as shy and proud, while others called him talented and dedicated.
“In my experience, everything he did was about the patient,” said Dr. Brendan McGuire, the medical director of liver transplants at that Alabama program, who worked with Dr. Bynon for more than a decade. “Once he transplants someone, that person is his patient for life.”
On its LinkedIn page, the University of Texas Health Science Center once featured a photo of a billboard with Dr. Bynon. The sign reads, “Dr. Bynon is giving transplant patients new life.”
Dr. also served. Bynon on the Membership and Professional Standards Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which investigates malpractice in the transplant system.
Most recently, in December, Dr. Bynon made headlines for performing a kidney transplant for former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes of Texas.
The closing of the programs at Memorial Hermann surprised many in the transplant community because it is very rare for a program to be suspended due to ethical issues.
At the time it closed its programs, Memorial Hermann had 38 patients on its liver transplant waiting list and 346 patients on its kidney list, according to the hospital.
Officials said they are contacting those patients to help them find new providers.
Roni Caryn Rabin contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
