Transplant donor wakes up on operating table as doctors prepare to remove his heart in nightmare scenario: witnesses

A nightmare scenario played out at a Kentucky hospital as a transplant donor woke up on the operating table just as doctors were preparing to remove his heart, according to witnesses.

Thomas T.J. Hoover was taken to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky in October 2021 after overdosing on drugs. Doctors declared him brain-dead and proceeded to conduct tests to see whether his organs were worth harvesting, NPR reported.

Natasha Miller was one of the people tasked with preserving organs at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital that day. She told the publication that when nurses wheeled Hoover, 36, into the room, he seemed still very much alive.

“He was moving around — kind of thrashing,” Miller told NPR. “And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly.”

His condition shocked several people in the operating room and caused two doctors tasked with the procedures to refuse to participate.

Most sickening of all, Miller says she overheard the case coordinator for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates callously request new doctors to perform the unethical procedure.

“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 told the outlet.

Another KODA worker says that while reviewing Hoover’s case, she made a jarring discovery. Nyckoletta Martin says she was shocked to find out that the donor had previously showed 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,” Martin says. According to case file records, the Hippocratic oath takers merely sedated the struggling Hoover when he arose — and proceeded with their plans to harvest his organs.

The incident caused several members of the KODA team to resign.

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

Hoover’s sister says the overdose victim opened his eyes while being wheeled from an intensive care unit and into an operating room — but she was told that the movement was reflexive and didn’t mean Hoover was still alive.

“It was like it was his way of letting us know, you know, ‘Hey, I’m still here,’” Donna Rhorer, Hoover’s older sister and current legal guardian, told NPR.

KODA officials have denied that any member of their organization 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 federal Health Resources and Services Administration is also investigating the allegations.

Hoover survived and is currently living with his sister. He has made a marvelous recovery though he still has some issues with his memory, walking and talking.