A Houston doctor, Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr, has been indicted for falsifying medical records of five patients, making them ineligible for liver transplants. The indictment made public on Thursday shows that three patients died, and two later received liver transplants at other hospitals. Bynon worked as director of abdominal organ transplantation at Memorial Hermann Health System. According to federal prosecutors, patients and their families did not know that Bynon allegedly altered their records. Nicholas J Ganjei, a US Attorney, said, “Dr Bynon is alleged to have betrayed the most sacred duty of a medical professional – to heal.” Bynon's lawyer, Samy Khalil, called the charges “totally misguided” and stated, “Nothing he did was unlawful,” emphasizing his good faith over a 40-year career with over 2,000 organ transplants performed. Memorial Hermann's transplant program was shut down after the accusations surfaced in April 2024 but restarted a year later. The indictment covers changes made between March 2023 and March 2024. Details reveal one patient was denied a donor organ for 149 days and died in February 2024. Another died in December 2023 during liver surgery after being ineligible for about 69 days. A third patient died two days after false donor matching data was entered in December 2023. The other two patients got successful transplants at other hospitals. If convicted, Bynon faces up to five years in prison for each false statement count. In February 2025, Memorial Hermann was declared “not in good standing” by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network due to serious patient safety concerns.