Hospital Was About to Take His Organs. He Wasn't Dead

The Kentucky man's body had made it as far as the operating room where they were to harvest his organs when Natasha Miller says she realized a problem: The dead donor wasn't dead. It was October 2021, and she had been tasked with preserving the donated organs for transplantation. But the man who was to supply those organs was "moving around—kind of thrashing," she tells NPR of that day at Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Ky. "And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly." The procedure did not move forward—the two doctors who were to remove the organs backed out, and Miller describes a "very chaotic" and upsetting scene. More on what allegedly happened, and the fallout:

• The patient: Donna Rhorer says the would-be donor was her brother, Anthony Thomas "TJ" Hoover II. They were told the 36-year-old had overdosed and was brain dead. Rhorer says that as he was being taken to the OR, she saw his eyes open. "He was tracking. His eyes were tracking us," she tells WKYT. "We were told it was just reflexes, just a normal thing. Who are we to question the medical system?" Rhorer is now Hoover's caretaker.
• What Miller says she heard: Miller worked for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) and says that when the case coordinator called KODA to discuss the situation, the coordinator was allegedly told to "find another doctor to do it." Miller recalled the coordinator responded, "'There is no one else.' She's crying—the coordinator—because she's getting yelled at."
• From another KODA employee: Nyckoletta Martin, who also worked as an organ preservationist for KODA, wasn't present in the OR, but says she had read the case notes, and found them concerning. Prior to harvesting, cardiac catheterization is carried out to evaluate the health of the heart. Per the case notes, "The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table," Martin says.
• KODA's stance: "No one at KODA has ever been pressured to collect organs from any living patient," it said in a statement. "KODA does not recover organs from living patients. KODA has never pressured its team members to do so."
• An investigation: Martin shared her concerns via a letter to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, which in September held a hearing on organ procurement organizations. The Kentucky state attorney general's office says the allegations are being reviewed. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration is said to be investigating as well.

(More organ harvesting stories.)