A Texas judge will rule Thursday on whether families of patients who died while waiting for liver transplants can proceed with a lawsuit against Dr. J. Steve Bynon, the former transplant surgeon at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Hospital officials suspended the hospital’s liver and kidney transplant programs earlier this month after discovering a pattern of irregularities in the way donors and recipients were placed on transplant lists.
At least three families are seeking restraining orders to prevent Bynon from altering or destroying evidence that could be connected to future lawsuits against him. The families are questioning the fairness of the organ allocation process and said they haven’t heard from any investigators or hospital officials about their experiences.
“He can’t be here today, but I will fight for him,” Niemma Mostacci said as she spoke for her father, 43-year-old Richard Mostacci, who died in February after a year on the transplant list. “He was a grand champion at barbeque. He went to college, and I was there when he was passing,” she said. “The day before, he was so excited that he was going to live. He was fighting for his life.”
“We saw him slipping away, slipping away, and there was nothing we could do,” Niemma Mostacci’s mother, Susie Garza, said. “We trusted the doctors.”
Robert Osuna’s family said he was scheduled for a transplant in December, but it was canceled at the last minute, and he died that same night. Daniel Rodriguez-Corrales’ father, Daniel Rodriguez Alvarez, died just two weeks ago at Memorial Hermann, the same place he had hoped to get a transplant. Rodriguez-Corrales said his family was never even notified when the transplant program was suspended.
“They put him on and off for six months. Then, for two months, they put him on,” Rodriguez-Corrales said. “It felt at some point they were just toying with them.”
