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.
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.
"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.