Kentucky Man’s Organs Were Nearly Harvested. Then Doctors Realized He Was Still Alive

The organs of a Kentucky donor who had been declared dead were ready to be harvested — but then doctors made a startling discovery: he was still alive.

“He was moving around — kind of thrashing. Like, moving, thrashing around on the bed,” Natasha Miller, an organ preservationist in the operating room during the alarming October 2021 incident, told NPR. “And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly.”

Miller, who works at Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), told the outlet that two doctors refused to perform the organ retrieval after realizing that the donor had wrongly been declared dead.

“The procuring surgeon, he was like, ‘I’m out of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,’ ” Miller said. “It was very chaotic. Everyone was just very upset.”

The patient was 36-year-old Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II, who had been admitted to Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Kentucky earlier that day . . . Ultimately, the organ retrieval was canceled. Hoover now lives with Rhorer, his legal guardian. (Read more from “Kentucky Man’s Organs Were Nearly Harvested. Then Doctors Realized He Was Still Alive” HERE)