#Texas #Surgeon Is Accused of Secretly Denying Liver #Transplants
A #Houston #hospital is investigating whether a #doctor altered a #transplant list to make his patients ineligible for care. A disproportionate number of them have died while waiting for new #organs.
#law #medicine #ethics #OrganTransplants
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/us/organ-transplants-houston.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
For decades, Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., a #transplant #surgeon in #Texas, gained accolades & national prominence for his work, including by helping to enforce professional standards in the country’s sprawling #OrganTransplant system.
But ofcls 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.
#MemorialHermann-Texas Med Ctr in #Houston, where Bynon oversaw both liver & kidney #transplant prgs, abruptly shut those down in the past wk while looking into allegations.
Thurs, the #medical ctr, a UTexas teaching #hospital, said it had found evidence a #doctor in its liver transplant prg had effectively denied patients transplants by changing recs. Ofcls ID’d the dr as Bynon, who is employed by U #Texas #Health #Science Ctr & has lead Mem Hermann’s abdominal transplant prg since 2011.
It was not clear what could have motivated Dr. Bynon to possibly tamper w/the records.…
…In recent yrs, a disproportionate number of #MemorialHermann patients have died while waiting for a liver, data shows. Last yr, 14 patients were taken off the center’s waiting list because they either died or became too #sick, & its mortality rate for people waiting for a #transplant was higher than expected, acc/to the Scientific Registry of #TransplantRecipients, a research grp.
…Ofcls began investigating after…a complaint. An analysis found what the #hospital called “irregularities” in how #patients were classified on a #WaitingList for liver #transplants. When #doctors place a patient on the list, they identify types of #donors they would consider, incl’g age & weight.
Hospital ofcls said they found patients had been listed as accepting only donors w/ages & weights that were impossible—for instance, a 300-lb toddler—making them unable to receive any transplant.
Nonilex