An organ donor had his worst nightmare played on him when he was being wheeled alive to the theater and the doctors were about to start the process of harvesting his organs.
It happened to 36-year-old Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II after he passed out following a drug overdose. As the doctors prepared to start removing his organs, the terrified man who was still alive and conscious started thrashing and crying on the operating table, despite being declared brain dead.
Though the news was just reported by NPR, it actually happened in October 2021 at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky.
According to the recent report, the specialist in charge of preserving the organs, Natasha Miller, was the first person that noticed that the patient was full of life and in her words; was moving around and thrashing on the bed. When she went closer to him, she discovered that the “braindead” patient was visibly crying.
The discovery alarmed everyone and the doctors who were supposed to carry out the operation instantly refused to go ahead.
However to Miller’s shock, when the report got to the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), the supervisor in charge yelled that they needed to carry on with the organ retrieval and in fact, should find another doctor to perform the operation since the ones on the ground have refused to do so.
Though the operation was eventually canceled and never held, the inhumane show from the organ donor organization led some of the KODA staff to resign.
Miller continued that KODA management’s actions horrified her and led her to check previous records where she discovered that the patient had actually woken up earlier that day and was sedated when doctors tried performing a procedure to check how healthy his heart was and its suitability for a transplant.
The patient’s sister also said she witnessed signs of life from her brother as he was been wheeled that day. According to her, Thomas opened his eyes and looked around as a way of letting them know he was still alive and knew what was happening.
However, the doctors told her that it was just a common reflex.
A few years later, Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II would make a full recovery. A video shared online showed the supposedly brain-dead organ donor eating, drinking, standing, and talking.
Video below:
