Houston Surgeon Indicted for Falsifying Medical Records

A transplant surgeon from Houston has surrendered to federal authorities following an indictment by a grand jury for allegedly falsifying medical records, which hindered his patients’ access to essential organ donations.

Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr., aged 66, faces five counts of making false statements related to medical matters. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that the indictment was issued on January 14, and it claims that Bynon served as the director of abdominal organ transplants at the Memorial Hermann Health System’s Texas Medical Center.

Prosecutors assert that he entered inaccurate information into patients’ records, rendering them ineligible for organs through a national transplant network. Many patients and their families were completely unaware of these changes and remained ineligible for months without knowing why.

“Dr. Bynon is suspected of betraying the medical profession’s most sacred duty to heal,” remarked U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjay in a statement. “He stole years of hope from the people he trusted most by falsifying records and hindering organ transplant opportunities.”

FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Hudson noted that vulnerable patients placed their trust in the well-known surgeon, who now faces federal charges. “Dr. Bynon is accused of manipulating the criteria for patients on organ transplant waiting lists, effectively altering their chances of survival,” Hudson added.

Reports indicate that some of the criteria entered into the database were impractical. For instance, one patient was listed as needing a liver from a 300-pound infant, while another’s eligibility criteria changed fourteen times over a span of two years. Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor at New York University, stated that this practice is “a form of lying and is itself unethical.”

Daniel Rodriguez Corrales shared his heartache with ABC13, recounting how his father died while awaiting a transplant at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Families were not informed when the transplant program concluded. “At some point, it felt like they were just toying with them,” he expressed.

Furthermore, Memorial Hermann received a “not in good condition” designation from the National Transplant Surveillance Network in February 2025, as reported by Houston Public Media.

If found guilty, Bynon could face up to five years in federal prison along with a $250,000 fine for each charge, as outlined by the Justice Department.