A Texas hospital has shut down its organ transplant program after discovering that a physician allegedly made “inappropriate adjustments” to medical data that might have made sure sufferers ineligible for operations.
The Houston-based Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Heart, which beforehand operated a kidney and liver transplant program, has paused this system whereas an investigation unfolds into alterations made to a affected person database. In a statement shared with the Houston Chronicle, the hospital stated that the adjustments impacted sufferers on a ready record for liver transplant operations.
Citing hospital officers, The New York Instances has identified a extremely esteemed transplant surgeon, Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., because the particular person alleged to have made the adjustments to the database. The Instances says that Bynon works for the College of Texas Well being Science Heart at Houston however is underneath contract to steer Hermann’s belly transplant program.
In keeping with the Instances, the adjustments concerned “unattainable” traits attributed to sufferers that made them ineligible for transplants:
When medical doctors place a affected person on the record, they have to determine the sorts of donors they’d take into account, together with the particular person’s age and weight. Hospital officers stated they discovered sufferers had been listed as accepting solely donors with ages and weights that had been unattainable — as an illustration, a 300-pound toddler — making them unable to obtain any transplant.
There’s little readability about what might have motivated the physician to make these adjustments. When reached for remark by Gizmodo, UTHealth offered a press release that reads, partially:
Dr. Steve Bynon is an exceptionally proficient and caring doctor, and a pioneer in belly organ transplantation. In keeping with the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, Bynon’s survival charges and surgical outcomes are among the many finest within the nation, even whereas treating sufferers with higher-than-average acuity and illness complexity…Our school and employees members, together with Dr. Bynon, are helping with the inquiry into Memorial Hermann’s liver transplant program and are dedicated to addressing and resolving any findings recognized by this course of.
Hermann-Texas Medical Heart didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The incident is now underneath investigation by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies. “We acknowledge the severity of this allegation,” the H.H.S. advised the Instances. “We’re working diligently to handle this problem with the eye it deserves.”
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