A prominent surgeon from Texas is under federal scrutiny for allegedly obstructing organ transplants by altering patient criteria and manipulating waitlists at his hospital. The Justice Department has revealed that cases included an instance where a 300-pound toddler was inaccurately listed as a necessary liver donor.

John Bynon Jr., aged 66, faces five counts of providing false statements concerning healthcare matters. According to a press release by the DOJ, Bynon allegedly left patients at Memorial Hermann Health System’s Texas Medical Center in Houston without their knowledge, effectively barring them from receiving critical organ transplants. This misconduct was reportedly first uncovered in 2024.

The indictment claims that although patients were eligible to receive organs through the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), Bynon falsified medical records, disqualifying them from receiving donations. As stated in the DOJ release, neither the patients, their families, nor their medical teams were aware of this misinformation. Consequently, many patients were unknowingly ineligible to receive organ offers for extended periods.

UNOS, the organization responsible for managing the nation’s organ transplant system, is a federal contractor, as reported by The New York Times.

One of the affected patients, Daniel Rodriguez Alvarez, experienced multiple removals and reinstatements from the transplant waiting list over eight months before passing away at Memorial Hermann in April 2024. His son, Daniel Rodriguez-Corrales, expressed to KTRK, a local ABC station, that it seemed as if his family was being toyed with.

Similarly, Richard Mostacci spent an entire year on the hospital’s transplant list before his death in February 2024. Following the announcement of an investigation into Bynon that year, both Mostacci’s and Alvarez’s families sought a restraining order against him.

“We saw him slipping away, slipping away, and there was nothing we could do,” Mostacci’s mother, Susie Garcia, told KTRK. “We trusted the doctors.”

According to a 2024 report by The New York Times, Memorial Hermann allegedly had patients being listed as accepting only donors with ages and weights that were impossible. For example, a patient was reportedly listed as only able to accept a liver from a 300-pound toddler. As a result, a patient would technically be on the waiting list, “but in reality, they’re functionally inactive, and so they’re not going to get that transplant,” according to Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni, the vice chair of the ethics committee of the national organ transplant system, who spoke to the Times.

Bynon was director of abdominal organ transplantation and surgical director for liver transplantation at Memorial Hermann before his alleged actions were discovered.

“Under his care, patients were allegedly activated on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) liver transplant waitlist while awaiting an organ donation,” says the DOJ press release from last week.

“Due to Bynon’s unilateral decision making and false statements, which were unknown to other care providers, patients continued receiving health care benefits, items and services that Medicare paid as if they were eligible to receive donor organ offers,” the release alleges. “Some of Bynon’s patients had dire health outcomes. The indictment alleges two others sought care at alternate facilities following the discovery of the alleged false statements and ultimately received organ transplants.”

The FBI and Department of Health and Human Services conducted the investigation into Bynon. He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted.

“Ultimately, at the center of this case are vulnerable patients who hung their hope of survival on a nationally renowned surgeon now federally charged for manipulating their medical records,” concluded acting special agent in charge Jason Hudson of the FBI Houston Field Office in the DOJ release. “Dr. Bynon is accused of manipulating the criteria of patients on organ transplant waiting lists, thereby allegedly manipulating the patients’ chance of survival.”

Memorial Hermann could not be reached for comment Sunday by Law&Crime.