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

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.

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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.

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.caEnglish
    2494·
    29 days ago

    Just to be clear, they had not actually started harvesting anything.

    The nurses and doctors noticed as he was wheeled into the operating room and called it off, a bunch of them ended up in therapy over the situation.

    Someone fucked up by declaring him brain dead clearly. He does however have significant brain damage from the drug overdose that initiated the whole situation.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
      434·
      29 days ago

      This article says he was considered brain dead for three years. Where are you getting your extra info from?

      This is scary either way.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        353·
        29 days ago

        She was caring for him for three years.

        You cannot be brain dead for three years. Brain death is legal death. Once you are declared brain dead, you are officially a cadaver and won’t be going home. You are going to the morgue that day, with possibly a brief initial stop in the operating room if you’re an organ donor.

        • Lichtblitz@discuss.tchncs.de
          172·
          29 days ago

          That’s not the case (at least in Germany). Being brain dead does not replace the conscious decision on when to disable life support.

        • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
          4·
          27 days ago

          That’s not correct. When a person is declared dead but is maintained for organ harvesting, a tech is brought in to keep the body stable to best preserve all organs being taken. Think ICU, but focused on saving the organs with not much concern for the brain. Breathing, BP, and heart rate are optimized for organ survival until a surgical team can be set up for harvesting. A colleague did it for a while, and said it was depressing and a lot of sitting around watching the monitor and tweaking drips until they could arrange surgery. When my brother died, we donated what we could, but a lot of his organs were non-viable due to his illness… still, every little bit helps.

          I’d like to lighten up the mood by commenting the guy is lucky this happened in Kentucky… everyone knows the standard for being brain dead is much lower there. :)

      • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.caEnglish
        11·
        29 days ago

        If you think google his name you can see a picture of him riding in a car with his sister in 2023 so he’s clearly not braindead.

    • Rookwood@lemmy.world
      940·
      29 days ago

      Seems like they must have fucked up multiple times. I’m thinking it was probably the nurses that blew the whistle on this and stopped the whole thing.

      • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.caEnglish
        633·
        29 days ago

        The articles about this specify that it was the doctors that refused to perform the operation.

        • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
          8·
          29 days ago

          It’s usually a team effort. Usually when we’re disagreeing it’s some tiny little thing like how much sedation or pain or anxiety medication is needed, or which specific modality of treatment is indicated for something. The pain and anxiety thing can also go either way, sometimes it’s the nurses wanting more meds for the patient and sometimes they’re thinking less should be used and same for the doctors. And the other common disagreement is usually a disagreement of statistics vs lived experience, so the doctors are looking at the big picture of how things play out across large populations in places across the country or even world, vs nurses are thinking more in terms of their specific population and environment and what their specific team is trained and experienced at pulling off. Big picture vs individualized. There’s also some overlap though, they’re pushing more nurses especially in higher ed to learn more about stats and they’re pushing doctors to individualize things to their patients and teams.

          This is all to say that there are a lot of extreme moments where we’ll both just look at each other like what in the actual fuck is happening. We don’t always agree on the exact solution but we can usually at least come to a rapid consensus that what is currently happening is unacceptable.