452

Case of Anthony Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II is under investigation by state and federal government officials

A man who had gone into cardiac arrest and been declared brain dead woke up as surgeons in his home state of Kentucky were in the middle of harvesting his organs for donation, his family has told media outlets.

As reported Thursday by both National Public Radio and the Kentucky news station WKYT, the case of Anthony Thomas "TJ" Hoover II is under investigation by state and federal government officials. Officials within the US's organ-procurement system insist there are safeguards in place to prevent such episodes, though his family told the outlets their experience highlights a need for at least some reform.

...

WKYT reported that Rhorer only learned the full details of her brother's surgery at the hands of Baptist and the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (Koda) in January. That's when a former employee of Koda contacted her before sending a letter to a congressional committee that in September held a hearing scrutinizing organ-procurement organizations, NPR reported.

The letter's author said she saw Hoover begin "thrashing" around on the operating table as well as start "crying visibly", according to NPR.

(page 2) 39 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] IMALlama@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

This whole thing is nuts to me. From the way the article reads, the patient was likely still breathing and had a heartbeat. I get wanting to keep organs fresh, but this seems... non ideal

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 11 points 1 day ago

Nah that's not unusual. Brain trauma or degradation can and often does leave someone with a beating heart but little to no hope of ever being conscious again - hence the term brain death.

[-] deur@feddit.nl 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We are our brain activity and once that's gone for good all that's left is the biological machine that we live within.

A heart will beat as long as it doesn't die or otherwise suffer some other structural failure. They attach brain dead patients to a ventilator to continue respiration to keep the now-vacant body alive. It's a shame someone severely fucked up and compromised the safety and trust of the process in this case but don't let this confuse you into thinking there's no basis for the transplant to occur in the presence of a heartbeat.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago
[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Right? Apparently we can't even die in hospitals anymore.

[-] littlewonder@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That costs extra.

[-] oce@jlai.lu 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Coincidentally, shortly after the event, KFC announced a nuggets shortage.

[-] atempuser23@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Having read the article I’m not 100 percent certain if the patient is dead or being cared for at home.

Cases like this are why families keep people on life support.

[-] jadedwench@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The patient is alive and under guardianship of his sister. He was able to dance with her at her wedding last year. Sounds like he has brain damage, as he has trouble with his memory, walking, and talking, but is a far leap from anything considered dead or a vegetable. I get that people think poorly of people who OD, but we don't know this person or on what level of destruction they were on. I find it hard in this day and age to judge someone who wants to check out of reality.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Chozo@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

The patient is alive.

[-] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Welp. I read this shit right before bed. Guess I know what I'll be dreaming about later tonight. New nightmare unlocked!

[-] HorikBrun@kbin.earth 4 points 1 day ago

It's the book/movie Coma all over again.

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 day ago

If Trump gets elected, I fully expect a House of the Scorpion type deal to keep the fossil alive

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

This is literally a Mars Volta album

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That explains why I'm so fucking bored today.

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

Why are we harvesting organs from someone who OD’d to begin with? Wouldn’t that be problematic for the organ recipient?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›
this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
452 points (98.5% liked)

News

23190 readers
2898 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS