Man Declared ‘Brain-Dead’ Wakes Up As Doctors Prepared To Harvest His Organs

A Kentucky man found himself in a terrifying scenario when he woke up on an operating table as doctors prepared to harvest his organs.

Thomas “T.J.” Hoover was declared brain-dead after overdosing on drugs and transported to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in October 2021.

Natasha Miller, one of the individuals whose job was to preserve donated organs for transplantation at the hospital, told NPR that Hoover seemed ‘very much alive’ when wheeled into the operating room.

“He was moving around — kind of thrashing. Like, moving, thrashing around on the bed,” Miller told the publication.

“And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly,” Miller added.

“Man comes ‘back to life’ as surgeons began the process of harvesting his body parts after they determined he was de*d. Kentucky man TJ Hoover II was thrashing on the table & ‘crying visibly’ as doctors prepared to remove his organs. Before the process, the family raised concerns that Hoover was alive because his eyes seemed open and he looked around while being wheeled to the operating room,” Collin Rugg wrote.

“They were told that it was a ‘common reflex.’ Hoover had been declared ‘brain de*d’ after an overdose. When Hoover started thrashing and crying, he was sedated and doctors *still* planned on going forward with the organ recovery, according to NPR. The transplant was ultimately cancelled leading to several employees quitting,” he continued.

“The Kentucky Attorney General and US Health Services Resources Administration are now reportedly investigating the incident,” he added.

WATCH:

Man comes ‘back to life’ as surgeons began the process of harvesting his body parts after they determined he was de*d

Kentucky man TJ Hoover II was thrashing on the table & “crying visibly” as doctors prepared to remove his organs.

Before the process, the family raised concerns… pic.twitter.com/RRirSjDeD7

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 18, 2024

NPR reports:

The donor’s condition alarmed everyone in the operating room at Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Ky., including the two doctors, who refused to participate in the organ retrieval, she says.

“The procuring surgeon, he was like, ‘I’m out of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,’ ” Miller says. “It was very chaotic. Everyone was just very upset.”

Miller says she overheard the case coordinator at the hospital for her employer, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), call her supervisor for advice.

“So the coordinator calls the supervisor at the time. And she was saying that he was telling her that she needed to ‘find another doctor to do it’ – that, ‘We were going to do this case. She needs to find someone else,’ ” Miller says. “And she’s like, ‘There is no one else.’ She’s crying — the coordinator — because she’s getting yelled at.”

The organ retrieval was canceled. But some KODA workers say they later quit over the October 2021 incident, including another organ preservationist, Nyckoletta Martin.

“I’ve dedicated my entire life to organ donation and transplant. It’s very scary to me now that these things are allowed to happen and there’s not more in place to protect donors,” says Martin.

Terrified organ donor came back to life and thrashed as surgeons prepared to harvest his body parts, witnesses say https://t.co/jkRSce3cDZ pic.twitter.com/wmPzuH5D4G

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 17, 2024

“A former employee of a nonprofit organ recovery group claims she was asked to harvest organs from a person who was still living – and then fired after airing her qualms to members of Congress. Nyckoletta Martin told the Wall Street Journal she was let go by organ collection group KentuckyOrgan Donor Affiliates on September 13. Days before, a letter she wrote to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee was read and discussed on the House floor, after it alleged that there is currently outsized pressure on organ collectors, according to the Daily Mail,” Liz Crokin wrote.

“Singling out the organ-procurement group KODA, she recalled being pressured to retrieve organs from a patient before he died while he was awake and allegedly pleaded for his life. He later left the facility alive, Martin said – choosing not to name him. KODA is one of 56 federally chartered nonprofits tasked with procuring organs for transplant. A spokesperson said the firm ‘strictly adheres’ to laws and national guidelines set in place by the US government. Organ harvesting and trafficking go hand-in-hand with human trafficking,” she added.

A former employee of a nonprofit organ recovery group claims she was asked to harvest organs from a person who was still living – and then fired after airing her qualms to members of Congress.

Nyckoletta Martin told the Wall Street Journal she was let go by organ collection… pic.twitter.com/z3gPGOvcgF

— LIZ CROKIN (@LizCrokin) September 27, 2024

Per Daily Mail:

‘What is clear to me from my time at KODA is that the [organ procurement organization] does not operate in patients’ interests,’ Martin, a mom-of-five, wrote in the letter sent to the committee.

‘[The group] regularly engages in unethical activities for the sole purpose of trying to keep its lucrative government contract,’ she added.

The letter went on to claim that when a surgeon refused an officials’ order, Martin and other workers were ordered to find a different surgeon who would do it willingly.

They refused as well, she said – allowing the patient to later leave alive after he recovered.

The patient’s condition and malady was not made clear by what was read, as other statements sent by alleged witnesses saying they have witnessed similar activity were read as well.

All insisted that procurement groups in various states – like KODA – have begun to push workers and surgeons to take organs from patients who were still alive.

A liver transplant surgeon at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Robert Cannon, told the committee how he was allegedly told to procure organs from a spontaneously breathing patient, which he said ‘would have been murder.’

Greg Segal, head of an advocacy group that seeks to reform the organ procurement process, alleged another Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) had given potential organ donors doses of fentanyl to hasten their deaths.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.

View the original article here.