The Organ Donation Cases Involving Patients Who Began Waking Up

The Trump administration is shutting down an organ donor group after finding “patients placed on the organ donation pathway who should’ve never been there.”

“We found patients placed on the organ donation pathway who should’ve never been there,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday. “We found cases with a donation process continued, despite signs that patients were not appropriate organ donors.”

One of those cases involved TJ Hoover, a man who almost had his organs harvested after he was declared dead. In 2021, Hoover was taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest after an overdose. He woke up a couple of days later on the operating table to his chest being shaved and hospital staff discussing how they would take his organs. Donna Rhorer, TJ’s sister, said she became concerned something wasn’t right when TJ appeared to open his eyes and look around the room.

“It was like it was his way of letting us know, you know, ‘Hey, I’m still here,'” Rhorer said during an interview. When Rhorer brought it up to medical professionals, she said she was told that it was just a common reflex.

Kennedy announced the decertification and shutdown process for Network for Hope, an organ donor group serving Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. Out of the nearly 350 organ donation cases reviewed, over 100 were flagged with concerning features, including patients showing clear signs incompatible with organ donation. At least 28 of the patients may not have been deceased when organ procurement was initiated, and multiple patients appeared to exhibit pain or distress as they were being readied for surgery.

Network of Hope plans to appeal the decision, with the organization saying, “More than 3,000 people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant will be negatively impacted by the decision today.”

Two agencies under the Health and Human Services Department conducted independent investigations, but both Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) determined the network failed to correct deficiencies, ultimately leading to the decertification process.

“Today’s action to begin the decertification process sends a clear message, not just to organ transplant organizations, but to every provider that participates in CMS programs: If you can’t be trusted to safeguard patients and be responsible stewards of American taxpayer dollars, we’ll find organizations that can,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The Trump administration is also establishing a misconduct reporting system to give patients and providers in organ retrieval a direct channel for safety concerns, a transparency tool that shows when organs are allocated outside the standard match list, and establish Organ Procurement Transplantation Network Officers who will oversee and investigate patient safety events in real time.