The kidney and liver transplantation programmes of a major hospital in Houston, Texas, have been suspended while authorities investigate claims that the surgeon in charge changed patients’ donor acceptance criteria to make them ineligible.
The physician, who has been identified by the New York Times as J Steve Bynon Jr, made “inappropriate changes” that “effectively inactivated the candidates on the liver transplant waiting list,” Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center said in a statement.
These changes involved setting criteria to make it seem that recipients were only willing to take organs from impossible donor candidates, such as 300 lb (136 kg) toddlers, a hospital source told the Houston Chronicle .
The hospital’s statement did not name the doctor but said he had …
Joseph Whittington shared his story about his father, Jerry Whittington. He was diagnosed with non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver and placed on a transplant list in January 2023 but was taken off months later. His father died in January 2024 at 64-years-old.
Three families of people who died on the waiting list for liver transplants at Memorial Hermann Hospital have taken legal action against the surgeon accused of altering patient data.