TJ Hoover was declared brain dead after suffering an overdose in October 2021, but his sister Donna Rhorer says doctors attempted to harvest his organs while he was still showing signs of life.

TJ Hoover was declared brain dead after suffering an overdose in October 2021, but his sister Donna Rhorer says doctors attempted to harvest his organs while he was still showing signs of life.

Rhorer says TJ’s eyes were open and tracking movement during his honor walk, when family members gather to say goodbye before organ donation surgery.

“Almost immediately as soon as his honor walk started, his eyes were opened, and they were tracking, looking around at the people that were there,” Rhorer said.

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    26 days ago

    This smells all kinds of weird.

    “Almost immediately as soon as his honor walk started, his eyes were opened, and they were tracking, looking around at the people that were there,” Rhorer said.

    …and you didn’t draw attention to that? That’d be a pretty solid cue to stop the honor walk and get the doc over. Also none of the techs/nurses/doctors noticed??

    TJ’s declaring physician believed he showed too many signs of life to continue with the surgery, but KODA wanted to proceed anyway.

    …and you still declared it, and didn’t raise a stink with patient advocacy or the head of the hospital? Or the individual surgeons on the harvest team?

    They also don’t mention how far they got in the surgery. Like was the anesthesiologist starting to intubate him and noticed his eyes moving and called for a stop before n incision was made? Or were they a kidney or two into the operation?

    I’ve been scrubbed into two organ harvest surgeries; I’ve been scheduled for five - the other three canceled because the patient didn’t meet the super strict criteria as they died. Hospitals are all about covering their ass to avoid situations like the one reported. They’ll push you to cut corners on things like room turnover time (which is still fucked) but not things that put them in situations like this.

    I’m not familiar with KODA or “Network for Hope”, so maybe they’re just extra shitty, but take this one with a mountain of salt.

    Organ harvests are super important procedures - we don’t just have a backstock of healthy livers in the OR core; there’s a backlog of deathly ill patients clinging to the hope that their phone rings with news of a match. People are already hesitant to sign up as donors because surgery is genuinely scary as fuck; we don’t need half-assed journalism pouring fuel on that fire. If shit is actually happening, by all means report on it, but give enough details to make it credible… or if it’s a nothingburger that you’re hyping up for clicks, maybe shut the fuck up, cuz that’ll prolong peoples’ misery / get them killed.

      • Aimeeloulm@feddit.uk
        2·
        26 days ago

        And he’s not medically qualified to give that kind if diagnosis /s

        Patient: I’m not dead! Surgeon: I’m a surgeon and I say your dead, lay still and be quiet as I harvest your organs mr smith.

    • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      26 days ago

      I don’t know why there are never any business school shooters (I mean obviously it’s because people who go to them are out to take as much for themselves as possible, but you know what I mean)

      • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        27 days ago

        That’s actually a good point, even if a bit macabre. Luigi took out a health insurance ghoul. Business majors doom us all. I’m not the only one to draw that conclusion.

        I dont see a way out of this mess without people dying so I dont let myself have a gun. But not everyone who thinks this way places the same shackles on themselves.

        So why isnt that more common?

  • papertowels@mander.xyz
    4·
    26 days ago

    If anyone would like to learn more about the powers that be that resulted in this disaster, here’s an article that goes over how the orgs that manage organ donation, inducing pressure on medical staff and introduce a conflict of interest.