HOUSTON – The allegations Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr. is facing right now are hard to imagine.
Days after Memorial Hermann halted its liver and kidney transplant programs, The New York Times reported that he allegedly denied liver transplants to some of his patients by manipulating information. Going further, officials are now investigating if he was “secretly” altering transplant databases in order to make some of his patients ineligible for liver transplants.
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On Thursday, Memorial Hermann said in a statement it had found evidence implicating Dr. Bynon, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed they are investigating the allegations.
KPRC 2 has been getting comments regarding Dr. Bynon’s demeanor as beloved by patients and colleagues.
UTHealth Houston, for example, in a statement, called Dr. Bynon “an exceptionally talented and caring physician, and a pioneer in abdominal organ transplantation.” One viewer reached out to KPRC 2 saying, “Dr. Bynon is a great surgeon, and has saved many, many, many lives.”
Hearing of a medical practitioner having his reputation challenged like this is reminiscent of Dr. Hasan Gokal. Back in December 2020, he worked for the Harris County Public Health System until prosecutors said he stole a vial containing nine doses from a vaccination site in Humble.
A week later, authorities said Gokal told a fellow Harris County Public Health employee, who then reported him to supervisors, ultimately leading to his termination. He was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing by the Texas Medical Board and even when the Harris County District Attorney’s Office picked up the case, a grand jury declined to indict him.
Like Dr. Bynon, Dr. Gokal had more than 20 years of experience in the medical field. While they do not know each other personally, Dr. Gokal tells KPRC 2 that reading his story gave him flashbacks to his own grueling experience when he made headlines.
“It’s very much, déjà vu,” Gokal said. “Mainly the whole idea of a respected, accomplished medical professional and getting thrown under the bus publicly for something that, may well end up being nothing, for administrative irregularities, is extremely, bothersome. And that was the theme in my story for the most part; rather than looking at the intent and the outcomes, they looked at certain presumed, policy following.”
Even reading up on Dr. Bynon’s story, Dr. Gokal says all he sees are “vague allegations.”
“It makes no sense,” he said. “I went through trying to find if there was anything meaningful going on, and in fact, there’s nothing meaningful out there other than a vague suggestion, allegations. I’m not even sure why this is a story at this point.”
“From what I understand, is that there is an allegation of records being changed to change the criteria for transplant or the level that, how high you are on the transplant list,” Dr. Gokal continued. “We simply don’t know. This is sort of saying, ‘look, there’s, administrative irregularity and there’s a surgeon involved,’ and that’s really all there is to it. I’m not even sure if there’s anything more that’s been put out there, at least at this point. It makes no sense whatsoever.”
While Dr. Gokal’s story gained national attention, and he was eager to share his side of the story, he admits it was a grueling six months he experienced.
“The idea of having everything put on hold—your whole life, everything you’ve worked for, for something that was really completely unnecessary, yeah it’s very tough thing to go through,” he said. “And I do have a lot of sympathy for this gentleman, at this point, and we don’t know anything further about it.”
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For that reason, Dr. Gokal urged Dr. Bynon to do the same and tell his side of the story.
“Go ahead and take the bull by the horns and tell your side of the story as soon as you are able,” he advised. “I’m sure restrictions from the hospital and departments that are investigating, etc., etc., but be fully prepared to speak up and with sincerity if in fact, it turns out that whatever he did was in the best interest of the patients, it really shouldn’t impact him in the long run.”
KPRC 2 has made efforts to reach out to Dr. Bynon but to no avail, which Dr. Gokal says should be expected, at least initially.
“Understandably,” he said. “This happened too, when I first spoke out, it was almost three weeks.”
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As for how the media and general public should treat Dr. Bynon’s story, at least in this current phase, Dr. Gokal says has these thoughts to share:
“Look, at the end of the day, this is an allegation of an irregularity from an administrative standpoint, and there’s a prominent figure at the center of it so they’re bringing him out and putting him on the news,” Dr. Gokal said. “And there’s a certain sense of when someone is prominent and has done something and there’s something attached to them, they bring it out and, project it everywhere and that’s really not fair; It’s not fair to him or his patients, and really should be something, considered until the details of the matter come up.”
“Don’t, write off everything,” he concluded. “Just remember, as long as the patient was at the heart of his decisions, he did the right thing as a doctor.”