A terrified organ donor came back to life, writhing and crying on the operating room table, as surgeons prepared to remove parts of his body, according to witnesses, one of whom was described as “everyone’s worst nightmare”.
Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II, 36, had been declared brain dead when surgeons went to remove his organs at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky in October 2021, his sister and former employees of Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates he told NPR.
But when doctors went to evaluate his heart health for a transplant, Hoover was supposedly resuscitated.
“He was writhing on the table,” Nyckoletta Martin said, saying the patient was simply sedated.
Then, as surgeons prepared to remove his organs, Hoover began “moving around” and “was visibly crying,” according to Natasha Miller, another former employee.
Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II, 36, had been declared brain dead when surgeons went to remove his organs at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky in October 2021, but he was later resuscitated.
Hoover was rushed to the hospital after a drug overdose that day and was declared brain dead.
But his sister, Donna Rhorer, said she became concerned when Hoover appeared to open his eyes and look around as he was wheeled from the Intensive Care Unit to the Operating Room.
“It was like it was his way of letting us know, you know, ‘Hey, I’m still here,'” he said.
However, she and other family members were told it was just a common reflex.
It wasn’t until Hoover began moving and crying that the surgeons decided not to go ahead with the transplant.
However, Miller said that when his colleague called KODA, which had arranged the transplant, the supervisor told them they were “going to do this case” anyway and that the hospital needed to “find another doctor.”
“It was very chaotic,” he said. “Everyone was very upset.”
In the end, the organ harvesting was canceled and several employees resigned.
He was rushed to the hospital after a drug overdose.
‘That’s everyone’s worst nightmare, right? Being alive during surgery and knowing that someone is going to cut you open and remove parts of your body? Martin said.
“That’s horrible.”
He added that several of the employees who worked on the transplant had to seek therapy afterward.
“It took a toll on a lot of people,” Martin said, “especially me.”
She has since become a whistleblower and sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the incident while it was holding a hearing investigating organ procurement organizations.
“It scares me very much now that these things are allowed to happen and there are no more measures to protect donors,” Martin said.
Nyckoletta Martin has since become a whistleblower and sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the incident while it was holding a hearing to investigate organ procurement organizations.
The hospital insists that ‘the safety of our patients is always our top priority’
But Julie Bergen, president and chief operating officer of Network for Hope, which was formed from a merger between KODA and LifeCenter Organ Donation Network, has denied the incident.
“No one at KODA has ever been pressured to harvest organs from any living patient,” he told NPR.
‘KODA does not recover organs from living patients. KODA has never pressured its team members to do so.”
Since then, Baptist Health Richmond has also insisted that ‘the safety of our patients is always our top priority.’
“We work closely with our patients and their families to ensure that our patients’ wishes regarding organ donation are met,” a hospital spokesperson told NPR.
Julie Bergen, president and chief operating officer of Network for Hope, which was formed from a merger between KODA and LifeCenter Organ Donation Network, denied that she pressured the surgeons to carry out the transplant.
Other organ donor advocates have argued that such errors are rare, and criticized Martin and other whistleblowers for discouraging operations.
‘For more than five years, our nation’s organ procurement organizations (OPOs) – the nonprofit community organizations that work with grieving families every day to save lives through transplants – have been subject to malicious misinformation and defamatory attacks based on rumors, creating a false narrative that donation and transplantation in the US are untrustworthy and broken,” wrote the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations in a open letter on October 3.
“It ignores the fact that there has been 13 years of steady growth in organ donation by OPO, leading to a record 43,000 organs transplanted and lives saved through deceased donation last year.”
Dr. Robert Truog, a professor of medical ethics, anesthesia and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, also said incidents like the one Hoover experienced are “horrible” and “should be followed carefully.”
“But I really wouldn’t want the public to believe that this is a serious problem,” he said. “I think these are exceptional events that hopefully we can get to the bottom of and prevent them from happening again.”
Since then, Hoover has had problems with memory, walking and talking, his sister said.
Donna Rhorer, his sister, has become his legal guardian.
The Kentucky Attorney General and the U.S. Health Services Resources Administration are now investigating the terrifying incident.
Meanwhile, Rhorer says her brother has had problems with memory, walking and talking ever since, and she had to become his legal guardian.
“I feel angry,” she said.
‘I feel betrayed by the fact that people told us he was brain dead and then he woke up.
“They’re trying to play God,” he said. “They’re almost, you know, picking and choosing: They’re going to take this person to save these people.”
“And you lose a little faith in humanity.”
