Current:Home > InvestRelatives of those who died waiting for livers at now halted Houston transplant program seek answers-LoTradeCoin
Relatives of those who died waiting for livers at now halted Houston transplant program seek answers
View Date:2024-12-23 19:47:04
DALLAS (AP) — Several relatives of patients who died while waiting for a new liver said Wednesday they want to know if their loved ones were wrongfully denied a transplant by a Houston doctor accused of manipulating the waitlist to make some patients ineligible to receive a new organ.
Officials at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center have said they are investigating after finding that a doctor had made “inappropriate changes” in the national database for people awaiting liver transplants. Earlier this month, the hospital halted its liver and kidney programs.
Susie Garcia’s son, Richard Mostacci, died in February 2023 after being told he was too sick for a transplant. He was 43. “We saw him slipping away, slipping away and there was nothing that we could do, and we trusted, we trusted the doctors,” Garcia said at a news conference.
She’s among family members of three patients who retained attorneys with a Houston law firm that filed for a temporary restraining order Tuesday to prevent Dr. Steve Bynon from deleting or destroying evidence. Attorney Tommy Hastings said that some interactions with Bynon had caused “concerns about maybe some personal animosities and that maybe he may have taken it out on patients.”
“Again, we’re very early in this investigation,” Hastings said.
Hermann-Memorial’s statement didn’t name the doctor, but the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, or UTHealth Houston, issued a statement defending Bynon, calling him ”an exceptionally talented and caring physician” with survival rates that are “among the best in the nation.”
Bynon is an employee of UTHealth Houston who is contracted to Memorial Hermann. He did not respond to an email inquiry Wednesday.
The hospital has said the inappropriate changes were only made to the liver transplant program, but since he shared leadership over both the liver and kidney transplant programs, they inactivated both.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also said it’s conducting an investigation, adding it is “working across the department to address this matter.”
Neither Hermann Memorial nor UTHealth or HHS had additional comments Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a woman using a different law firm filed a lawsuit last week in Harris County against Memorial Hermann and UTHealth alleging negligence in the death of her husband, John Montgomery, who died in May 2023 at age 66 while on the waitlist for a liver transplant. The lawsuit says that Montgomery was told he wasn’t sick enough, and subsequently, that he was too sick before ultimately being taken off the list.
The death rate for people waiting for a liver transplant at Memorial Hermann was higher than expected in recent years, according to publicly available data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, which evaluates U.S. organ transplant programs. The group found that in the two-year period from July 2021 through June 2023, there were 19 deaths on the waitlist, while models would have predicted about 14 deaths.
While the hospital’s waitlist mortality rate of 28% was higher than expected “there were many liver programs with more extreme outcomes during the same period,” Jon Snyder, the registry’s director, said in an email.
He said that the hospital’s first-year success rates for the 56 adults who received transplants between July 2020 through December 2022 was 35% better than expected based on national outcomes.
veryGood! (76)
Related
- Advance Auto Parts is closing hundreds of stores in an effort to turn its business around
- Say Anything announces 20th anniversary concert tour for '...Is a Real Boy' album
- Turkish President Erdogan visits Greece in an effort to mend strained relations
- Opening month of mobile sports betting goes smoothly in Maine as bettors wager nearly $40 million
- 'Dangerous and unsanitary' conditions at Georgia jail violate Constitution, feds say
- SAG-AFTRA members approve labor deal with Hollywood studios
- Nevada grand jury indicts six Republicans who falsely certified that Trump won the state in 2020
- Texas judge to consider pregnant woman’s request for order allowing her to have an abortion
- Why Kathy Bates Decided Against Reconstruction Surgery After Double Mastectomy for Breast Cancer
- Nearly $5 billion in additional student loan forgiveness approved by Biden administration
Ranking
- Does the NFL have a special teams bias when hiring head coaches? History indicates it does
- And you thought you were a fan? Peep this family's Swiftie-themed Christmas decor
- Russian schoolgirl shoots several classmates, leaving 1 dead, before killing herself
- What Jessica Simpson Did to Feel More Like Herself After Nick Lachey Divorce
- Eva Longoria Shares She and Her Family Have Moved Out of the United States
- Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day: Historical photos show the Dec. 7, 1941 attack in Hawaii
- Ancient 'ghost galaxy' shrouded in dust detected by NASA: What makes this 'monster' special
- What is aerobic exercise? And what are some examples?
Recommendation
-
Deebo Samuel explains 'out of character' sideline altercation with 49ers long snapper, kicker
-
Biden urges Congress to pass Ukraine funding now: This cannot wait
-
New York man wins Mega Millions twice in one night, cashes tickets in one year later
-
Court largely sides with Louisiana sheriff’s deputies accused in lawsuit of using excessive force
-
Gun groups sue to overturn Maine’s new three-day waiting period to buy firearms
-
Meta makes end-to-end encryption a default on Facebook Messenger
-
Wisconsin appeals court upholds decisions denying company permit to build golf course near park
-
Sister Wives' Meri Brown Alleges Kody Didn't Respect Her Enough As a Human Being