A nightmarish incident unfolded at a US hospital when an organ donor woke up on the operating table just as doctors prepared to remove his heart. According to the New York Post, the incident took place in October 2021 when the organ donor, identified as Thomas T.J. Hoover, was taken to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky due to cardiac arrest following a drug overdose. Doctors declared him braindead and proceeded to conduct tests to see whether his organs were worth harvesting. However, when Mr Hoover was wheeled into the operating room, staff members noticed he was still showing signs of life.
“He was moving around – kind of thrashing. And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly,” Natasha Miller, a staffer involved in organ preservation, said, per the Post.
The donor’s condition shocked several people in the operating room and caused two doctors tasked with the procedures to refuse to participate. But what was more shocking was when the case coordinator for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) requested new doctors to proceed with the organ retrieval, Ms Miller claimed.
“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’,” Ms Miller said.
Another KODA worker said that while reviewing Mr Hoover’s case she made a jarring discovery. Nyckoletta Martin claimed that she was shocked to find out that the donor had previously shown signs of life as doctors examined his heart to see if it was viable for transplantation. “The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table,” Ms Martin said.
According to case file records, the doctors merely sedated the struggling Mr Hoover when he started thrashing around and then proceeded with their plans to harvest his organs.
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Separately, the donor’s sister, Donna Rhorer, said her brother opened his eyes while being wheeled from an intensive care unit and into an operating room, but were told that the moment was reflexive and didn’t mean he was alive. “It was like it was his way of letting us know, you know, ‘Hey I’m still here’,” she said.
The procedure was ultimately cancelled. The Post reported that this incident has caused several members of the KODA team to resign their positions. However, KODA officials have denied that any member of the organisation instructed doctors to proceed with an organ-harvesting operation on a living patient.
Kentucky’s state attorney general said investigators were reviewing the matter. The Fed’s Health Resources and Services Administration is also investigating the allegations.
Mr Hoover is currently living with his sister. He has made a full recovery but he still has some issues with his memory, walking, and talking.
