According to The New York Times, a hospital in Houston, Texas has halted its liver and kidney transplant due to a doctor's manipulation of the database. This would in turn make the patients on the list ineligible for a new organ.
Memorial Hermann- Texas Medical Center has stated that due to some inappropriate changes they have to inactivate the transplant procedures for people awaiting liver transplantation. Although the doctor in question wasn't revealed by the hospital, UTHealth Houston issued a statement emphasizing that Dr. Steve Bynon is skilled at his work and cares for his patients beyond measure.
Later, it was found that Dr. Bynon, Transplant Surgeon of UTHealth Houston was contracted to Memorial Hermann Medical Center. The employees including Bynon are assisting the Hermann Medical Center's liver transplantation program and resolving the ongoing issue. Earlier, Hermann Medical Center didn't admit to committing this crime but later reports confirm Bynon did.
According to the data from the Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (2021- current), Memorial Hermann Medical Center has seen several deaths of patients requiring liver transplantation on the waitlist as well as cases of them becoming too sick for transplantation while they're waiting for an organ donation.
On further investigation, it was found that the doctor manipulated details like the age and weight of deceased donors. The hospital said that the manipulation was only found in the liver transplantation program but since there is shared leadership between both the kidney and liver transplantation, they inactivated both on April 3rd.
Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, a medical ethics think tank says that shutting down a transplantation program is a huge deal and they might've thought things through because this will create a lack of trust among patients, donors, and affect society's faith in the organ allocation system of the hospital.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that they cannot comment anything on the member organization but are working to address this serious matter.
Hermann Medical Center has not mentioned how long the transplantation program will be shut but they're actively trying to contact each patient on the organ transplantation waitlist and are ensuring that the patient's needs are looked after. They're also helping the patients to transition into a new transplant program (if needed) in Texas. Many other hospitals in Houston offer transplant programs.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Aditi Madathingal/MSM)
