A horrifying scenario unfolded at a Kentucky hospital when a transplant donor woke up on the operating table just as doctors were about to remove his heart.

Thomas T.J. Hoover was admitted to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in Kentucky in October 2021 after overdosing on drugs. According to NPR, doctors pronounced him brain dead and conducted tests to see whether his organs were worth collecting.

Natasha Miller was one of the people responsible for saving organs at Baptist Health Richmond Hospital that day. She told the publication that when nurses wheeled Hoover, 36, into the room, he appeared to be 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 stunned several people in the operating room, prompting two doctors assigned with the operations to refuse to participate.

Most horrifying of all, Miller claims she overheard the case coordinator for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates requesting fresh doctors to undertake the immoral practice.

"So the coordinator contacts the supervisor at that moment. And she claimed that he told 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 reported to the publication.

Another KODA employee claims that when evaluating Hoover's case, she uncovered a shocking finding. Nyckoletta Martin says she was surprised to learn that the donor had previously shown signs of life as doctors evaluated his heart to see whether it was suitable for donation.

"The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table,”  Martin explains. According to case file records, the Hippocratic oath takers simply sedated the struggling Hoover when he awoke and then proceeded with their intention to collect his organs.

Team members submit their resignation


Following the incident, several members of the KODA team resigned from their positions, as reported by The New York Post.

"I've dedicated my entire life to organ donation and transplant," said Martin to 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 claims that the overdose victim opened his eyes while being transported from a critical care unit to an operation room, but was told that the movement was reflexive and did not indicate 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 guardian, told NPR.
KODA staff members have denied that any member of their organisation directed medics to carry out an organ harvesting procedure on a living patient.

Kentucky's state attorney general stated that authorities were looking into the situation.

The federal Health Resources and Services Administration is also looking into the complaints.

Hoover survived and is now living with his sister. He has made an excellent recovery, though he still has problems with memory, walking, and communicating.