Kentucky man wakes up before organ donation, sparks investigation
Published 28 October 2024
A Kentucky man who was pronounced brain dead and prepared for organ donation woke up before he was set to undergo the procedure, and the incident has sparked an investigation and led several people to quit their jobs.
Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II, 36, woke up multiple times before he was scheduled to donate his organs in October 2021 in Richmond, Kentucky, Nyckoletta Martin, an organ preservationist with Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates who quit her job over the incident, told USA TODAY.
"It was a big mess," Martin said.
During his honor walk, a "ceremony of respect where people gather in the halls of the hospital as a donor is moved to the room where the recovery surgery begins," according to Health and Resource Administration, he woke up and began tracking his family members with his eyes.
When his family noticed, they were told it was a normal reflex.
His sister, Donna Rhorer, "knew something was wrong because he was looking right at her," said Martin.
While a cardiac catheterization was being performed to test if his heart was healthy enough to be donated, he woke up.
"He woke up in response to pain during that cardiac tap," she said. "Because when they go up through the arteries, it's really painful."
After he woke up, he was sedated.
"They shouldn't have given him any more medication," said Martin. "They should have just halted everything and took him back to the ICU at that point, but they didn't. So that's like the first red flag."
The test was done at 9 a.m., and the honor walk was supposed to happen the same day at around 4 p.m.