{"id":637892,"date":"2026-05-12T04:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/637892\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:46:14","slug":"transplant-surgeon-dr-j-stevenson-bynon-wants-dismissal-of-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/637892\/","title":{"rendered":"Transplant surgeon Dr. J. Stevenson Bynon wants dismissal of charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Houston surgeon accused of\u00a0improperly preventing\u00a0his\u00a0patients<\/a> from receiving organ transplants\u00a0claims\u00a0he was trying to help\u00a0them\u00a0and that\u00a0his actions were consistent with COVID-era\u00a0transplant\u00a0guidelines, according to court documents filed last week.<\/p>\n

Dr. J. Stevenson Bynon acknowledged in a court filing that he altered a nationwide database to effectively remove five\u00a0of his\u00a0patients from the waiting list for liver transplants.<\/p>\n

But he claims to have made the changes because his patients were too sick for a transplant. He modified their medical records to improve their chances of receiving a new organ once their health improved, Bynon and his attorneys argued in a motion to\u00a0dismiss\u00a0the charges against him in federal court.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Bynon is a good, honest, and extraordinarily talented organ transplant surgeon,\u201d Bynon\u2019s attorney,\u00a0Samy Khalil, said in a\u00a0statement. \u201cHe has saved thousands of lives over 40 years. His intentions were always good, and his\u00a0actions always lawful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The statement went on to say that \u201cnot one\u00a0of his patients was harmed,\u201d and that the government is \u201cstretching the law beyond any reasonable\u00a0recognition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0court filing\u00a0represents\u00a0the\u00a0most detailed explanation\u00a0Bynon or his attorneys have\u00a0offered\u00a0for\u00a0why he altered the transplant database since the allegations\u00a0came to light\u00a0two years ago.\u00a0Memorial Hermann Health System inactivated its abdominal transplant program in 2024 after discovering that Bynon made \u201cinappropriate changes\u201d to the database, forcing hundreds of patients\u00a0in need of\u00a0liver and kidney transplants to be moved to waiting lists at other hospitals.<\/p>\n

Bynon,\u00a066, is charged in federal court with five counts of making false statements in health care matters. He has pleaded not guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0indictment\u00a0accuses Bynon of making false statements that\u00a0rendered\u00a0five of his former patients functionally ineligible to receive liver transplants. Two patients later died before they could receive transplants, and a third died after Bynon determined the patient\u2019s anatomy was too complex to perform the surgery, the\u00a0indictment\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Bynon was employed by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, which publicly defended him after the allegations first\u00a0came to light\u00a0in April 2024. Bynon\u00a0held dual positions as head of abdominal transplantation at both UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann but is no longer serving in the roles.<\/p>\n

\nBynon claims he followed guidelines\n<\/p>\n

Bynon acknowledged in the recent court filing that he altered his patients\u2019 donor matching criteria\u00a0in a way that severely limited the donor organs to which each patient could be matched. However, he claimed his actions were consistent with\u00a0guidance\u00a0the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit that oversees the transplant database, put out during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The guidance, which was in effect from 2020 to 2026, was intended to allow patients to continue\u00a0to\u00a0accrue\u00a0time on the waiting list while they had COVID-19,\u00a0according to the\u00a0motion.\u00a0The criteria included\u00a0setting donor age limits to a minimum of 98 years and a maximum of 99 years,\u00a0according to the\u00a0motion, which included a screenshot of the policy\u00a0from a UNOS newsletter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for\u00a0UNOS\u00a0declined to comment\u00a0for\u00a0this story.<\/p>\n

The motion does not say whether any of Bynon\u2019s five patients had COVID-19 when he altered their donor acceptance criteria. Bynon added the five patients to the waiting list between February 2023 and December 2023, and his changes to the database made them functionally ineligible to receive transplants for periods ranging from\u00a038 days\u00a0to\u00a0189 days, according to the\u00a0indictment\u00a0against Bynon.<\/p>\n

Inspection records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide more detailed examples of how Bynon changed transplant records, according to earlier reporting in the Chronicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While one patient was hospitalized in November 2023 with sepsis, a life-threatening condition, the surgeon changed the criteria so the patient would only receive an organ offer from a child under 6 years old who weighed between 70 and 200 pounds, according to the documents. Months later, he changed the settings back to\u00a0less restrictive criteria, the documents say. That patient remained active on the waiting list at the time of the April 4 inspection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bynon\u2019s motion claimed that other U.S. hospitals alter donor acceptance criteria \u2014 a practice referred to as an \u201cinternal hold\u201d \u2014 so patients can continue to accrue time on the waiting list while they are too sick for a transplant.<\/p>\n

Organ transplant guidelines typically require\u00a0patients who are\u00a0too sick for surgery to be temporarily inactivated from the waiting list. Bynon\u2019s motion argues that could have negatively affected his patients\u2019 chances of receiving a transplant in the future, because\u00a0liver\u00a0transplant candidates do not\u00a0accrue\u00a0time on the waiting list while they are inactivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer a liver patient has been active on the waitlist, the more favorable that\u00a0patient\u2019s\u00a0place\u00a0on the waitlist,\u201d the motion said.<\/p>\n

Experts previously told the Houston Chronicle that there are\u00a0legitimate reasons why a doctor would prevent a patient on the waiting list from receiving a transplant.\u00a0However,\u00a0several individuals should be informed of the decision<\/a>, including the patient and the rest of the transplant team.<\/p>\n

None of the five patients, their\u00a0families\u00a0or their care\u00a0teams\u00a0were aware of the changes to their donor acceptance criteria,\u00a0according to the\u00a0indictment\u00a0against Bynon. Each patient continued to receive Medicare benefits and other health services as if they were eligible for the surgeries,\u00a0according to the\u00a0indictment.<\/p>\n

\nIssues with the transplant database\n<\/p>\n

Memorial Hermann voluntarily halted all abdominal transplants in March 2024 after it discovered the changes to the transplant database, though it noted the problems were confined to the liver program.\u00a0The hospital had about 40 patients on\u00a0its\u00a0liver transplant\u00a0waiting list and about 300 on\u00a0its\u00a0kidney transplant\u00a0waiting\u00a0list.\u00a0Many of them were moved to waiting lists at other hospitals.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which oversees organ allocation for transplants, levied its most severe sanction against Memorial Hermann by declaring the hospital a \u201cmember not in good standing.\u201d The sanction placed the program under increased oversight and limited its influence in crafting transplant policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Memorial Hermann reactivated its abdominal transplant program in April 2025 after instituting several changes, including removing physicians\u2019 ability to alter the database. Dr. Mark Hobeika, a former transplant surgeon at Houston Methodist Hospital, was chosen as the program\u2019s new director.<\/p>\n

Bynon is also a defendant in a lawsuit that\u00a0accuses him of altering the organ transplant database<\/a>\u00a0in a way that prevented former Memorial Hermann patient Robert Osuna from receiving a liver transplant.\u00a0The lawsuit is still pending in Harris County District Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Houston surgeon accused of\u00a0improperly preventing\u00a0his\u00a0patients from receiving organ transplants\u00a0claims\u00a0he was trying to help\u00a0them\u00a0and that\u00a0his actions were consistent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[270899,248016,97,252,253],"class_list":["post-637892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-hc-crime","tag-hc-virus","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}