Family says they weren't notified when transplant program was suspended: 'We trusted the doctors'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A judge will decide on Thursday if families of patients who died waiting for liver transplants will be granted court orders against their doctor, a transplant surgeon at Memorial Hermann.

Dr. J. Steve Bynon is being investigated after being in charge of the hospital's liver and kidney transplant programs.

Hospital officials shut down both programs earlier this month, citing a pattern of irregularities with the way donors and recipients were being put on transplant lists.

Eyewitness News has been reaching out to Dr. Bynon for weeks but has yet to hear back.

At least three families are asking for restraining orders, preventing Bynon from altering or erasing evidence that could be connected to future lawsuits against him.

The families are questioning whether the process was fair 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.

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"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," Richard Mostacci's mother, Susie Garcia, 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."

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