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A Kentucky man was declared brain-dead. Then he woke up, moments before donating his heart, his sister says.

My name is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I have another quick tip for families in intensive care today.

The headline today says it all. How many times have I explained on my podcast that you should never take for gospel if the ICU team says that your critically ill loved one is brain dead? There needs to be rigorous testing taking place by independent parties before a statement like that can be made.

Now without further ado, let me play a video here where this is the reports of what’s happened. Then, there’s two media articles that I want to read out as well, and I will link towards these media articles as well. But let’s play the video from the sister first.

“All I had was my gut instinct, for three years, that something wasn’t what we were told.” On October 25th, 2021, Donna Rhorer’s brother, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II was admitted to Baptist Health Richmond’s emergency room. He was experiencing cardiac arrest and deemed code blue. “We were told on the test that they did that there weren’t reflexes. He had no reflexes, there was no brain activity, no brain waves.”

The following day, Rhorer’s family decided to remove TJ from life support. That’s when they were told he was a registered organ donor. To honor his wishes, the next two days were spent testing TJ’s organs to see what was viable, including a cardiac catheterization to test his heart. “During his honor walk, his eyes started opening up and we’re kind of like, his eyes were tracking, looking around, and we were told by the ICU supervisor that it was just reflexes; it was just a normal thing.”

TJ was then taken into the organ retrieval surgery. “Probably about an hour into, they come out and got us and the doctor… told us that he wasn’t ready — that he had woke up. But we also hadn’t been told that during his heart catheterization that morning, that he woke up then. Because if we did know that, then clearly, we would have known he wasn’t brain dead.”

Rhorer was told to take TJ home and make him comfortable as he wouldn’t live long. Rhorer has been caring for her brother for three years now. “He made several attempts to [say], ‘Hey, I’m here.’ But it was kind of ignored.” 

Rhorer didn’t learn of these details until January of this year, when Nyckoletta Martin, who was working with Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates at the time, contacted her. She and other witnesses came forward this year. Their testimonies were heard before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in September. “It’s not infrequent that something comes up around the donor and whether or not the donor is dead. The problem is that we’ve got 40 years where there has been no oversight at all of the appeals.” 

The Kentucky Attorney-General’s office says they are now looking into this case. In a statement from Baptist Health Richmond, they say, “We work closely with our patients and their families to ensure our patients’ wishes for organ donation are followed.”

Donna says If it can give one other family the courage to speak up or save one other person’s life, then she’s never going to stop telling TJ’s story, “In my heart of hearts, I know something went on. But I kind of compare it, David and Goliath, who am I to go against the medical system? 

In Richmond, Grason Passmore, WKYT.

So, you could hear everything that was said here. Now, I also want to read out the article that’s below the video.

Nearly three years ago to the day, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II was admitted to a Richmond, Kentucky emergency room amid a bout of cardiac arrest. Hoover’s family says they were told he showed no signs of brain activity, and the following day, they decided to take him off life support.

The following day, how can you give patients not time? I’ve made a video recently where I’ve asked the question and answered it. What’s the hurry to kill a patient in ICU? What’s the hurry? This is exactly what’s happening here.

So, then the article continues.

Then, amid a series of procedures to prepare to donate his heart, the unexpected happened:

Hoover woke up.

“Probably about an hour into [the surgery], they come out and got us and the doctor … told us that he wasn’t ready — that he had woke up,” Donna Rhorer, Hoover’s sister, told WKYT News in a televised interview.

It wasn’t the first sign of activity that Hoover showed, Rhorer says. The family would eventually learn that during a cardiac catheterization procedure earlier, also known as an angiogram, there were also signs of activity. She also said that during the ceremonial honour walk to commemorate Hoover’s imminent organ donation, his eyelids appeared to open.

“His eyes were tracking; looking around,” Rhorer said. “We were told by the ICU supervisor that it was just reflexes; it was just a normal thing.”

Rhorer took Hoover home to care for him. Though WKYT reports she was told at the time he didn’t have long to live, Hoover is alive today, three years on from the episode.

That’s why I’m saying over and over again, you have to question everything. You have to. This is another reason and example why you have to question everything. No one’s infallible, and you can see why a second opinion is so important in those life-or-death situations that you simply can’t afford to get wrong.

So, the article continues.

According to Seth Karp, Surgeon-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, it’s not the only time something like this has happened.

“It’s not infrequent that something comes up around the donor and whether or not the donor is dead,” he told a U.S. congressional committee at a hearing in September.

Rhorer didn’t learn some of the details of the case until earlier this year, WKYT reports, when she was made aware of the group Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates by Nyckoletta Martin, who testified in the September hearing.

“He made several attempts to [say], ‘Hey, I’m here.’ But it was kind of ignored,” Rhorer said in the interview.

WKYT reports that Baptist Health Richmond, where Hoover was admitted, said in a statement that personnel “work closely with our patients and their families to ensure our patients’ wishes for organ donation are followed.”

The Kentucky Attorney-General’s office has said they are reviewing the case, WKYT reports.

Rhorer says if it encourages other families to speak up, or if it could save another life, she doesn’t plan to stop telling Hoover’s story.

“In my heart of hearts, I know something went on,” Rhorer told KWYT. “All I had was my gut instinct, for three years, that something wasn’t what we were told.”

So, there’s another article that I want to quickly read out in the same case. It’s on the Science Alert website. It says, “Man Declared Brain Dead Wakes Up as Organs About to Be Removed“ from the 22nd of October 2024.

A case of a Kentucky man waking up as his organs were about to be harvested for donation has called into question the protocols used by US hospitals and organ donation networks to qualify death.

Whistleblower Nyckoletta Martin outlined the horrifying case in a letter addressing the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s September hearing on the nation’s organ procurement and transplantation system.

While employed as an organ preservationist for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), Martin had allegedly reviewed case notes on the October 2021 surgical procedure.

According to a report by the US public broadcasting organization National Public Radio (NPR), those case notes indicated the donor had shown signs of life following a clinical test to evaluate the heart’s fitness for transplant purposes.

“The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization,” Martin told NPR’s Rob Stein. “And he was thrashing around on the table.”

The patient at the center of the incident is 36-year-old Anthony Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II, who had been rushed to Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, following a drug overdose.

Declared brain dead in the wake of a cardiac arrest, TJ was removed from life support and prepared for organ donation in accordance with his wishes. 

TJ’s sister Donna Rhorer was by her brother’s side following his passing. Along with other family members, Rhorer recalled seeing TJ’s eyes open and look about on the way to the theater; to be told by staff this was a common reflex.

It was only later when TJ displayed more exaggerated movements on the operating table and “was crying visibly” that medical staff in the room became alarmed.

In a chaotic and emotionally charged response to the situation, surgeons declined to continue the procedure even as KODA allegedly requested another doctor to follow up – something which KODA denies.

“The procuring surgeon, he was like, ‘I’m out of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” organ preservationist at the hospital Natasha Miller told NPR.

“It was very chaotic. Everyone was just very upset.”

Thankfully TJ remains alive and in the care of his sister, though according to the NPR report, he has ongoing problems with his speech, memory, and movement.

The case is under investigation by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Baptist Health Richmond issued a statement through NPR affirming the safety of its patients is its highest priority, while KODA maintains the case hasn’t been accurately represented.

In a statement issued in September, KODA wrote that “if a patient’s condition improves or they do not experience cardiac arrest within an established period of time for donation, the family is informed that the donation cannot take place, and the patient remains under the care of the hospital. This is exactly what occurred in the case at issue.”

Determining the likelihood that a patient could regain some degree of consciousness in the future depends largely on meeting a list of criteria concerning the state of brain function that balances certainty against various other needs and concerns.

Setting the criteria too strict means patients who have vanishingly small chances of recovery could occupy resources – be it hospital beds, ventilators, or even organs – that could see another patient survive. Too lax, and rare events like this one become less rare, shaking the public’s confidence in the medical system.

“That’s everybody’s worst nightmare, right? Being alive during surgery and knowing that someone is going to cut you open and take your body parts out?” Martin told NPR. “That’s horrifying.”

Organ transplantation is currently a significant health issue in the US, with the current administration undertaking reforms in the system to improve accountability and transparency.

Not only have concerns been raised about the potential for errors such as these, but accusations of inequality in donation, excessive wait times, and wastage in donated organs have been leveled at existing networks.

More than 46,000 organ transplants were successfully carried out in the US last year. That’s barely a fraction of some 100,000 patients awaiting transplants, though none would be possible if not for the gracious gifts of a stranger, or the devotion of medical staff whose experience, care, and vigilance make donation safe and ethical.

Just why TJ became such a seemingly rare statistic is a matter for investigators to determine and ensure it truly becomes even rarer still.

Well, you would find videos and blog posts from me over the years where I say that hospitals are telling families that their loved one is brain dead, and they have not done any testing whatsoever. The first question for me in this case is what has gone wrong in the testing? Has there even been any testing?

Also, I have also seen over and over again that intensive care teams use the word “brain dead” whilst wanting to describe brain damage just to make the case look worse than it actually is because families don’t understand the terminology. You need to understand the terminology. That’s why you need a second opinion. You can’t fly blind when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care, you just can’t, you can’t afford to.

So, I hope that illustrates that the medical system is not infallible and that you need to leave no stone unturned, that whatever they’re telling you, you got to second guess, and you have to question their agenda. One of their agendas is to get ICU beds emptied as quickly as possible, whether that’s by letting someone die, whether that’s by discharging them to an LTAC in the U.S. in particular or discharging them to another hospital. The goal is the same, empty the ICU bed as quickly as possible. The ICU bed is the most sought-after bed in a hospital.  

Also, just another word of caution, the article says, “If someone is brain dead, they shouldn’t be taking up resources.” Well, brain dead is a terminology that’s been designed and used by the state and by the medical system. Now, I’m not here to judge. But what if certain religions or cultures do not agree with brain dead and consider someone as being alive? I’m just putting it out there. Just because someone is “legally dead” when someone is brain dead doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with that. Just putting that out there.

So, I have worked in critical care nursing for 25 years in three different countries where I worked as a nurse manager for over 5 years in ICU. I’ve been consulting and advocating for families in intensive care since 2013 here at intensivecarehotline.com. I can confidently say that we have saved many lives with our consulting and advocacy here at intensivecarehotline.com and you can verify that. If you go to our testimonial section at intensivecarehotline.com, read what our clients say. Or you go to our intensivecarehotline.com podcast section where we’ve done some client interviews. You can verify through the podcast what our clients say and that we’ve saved their loved ones’ lives.

We have helped hundreds of members and clients over the years, and we can help you as well. That’s why we created a membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care, and you can become a member if you go to intensivecarehotline.com if you click on the membership link, or if you go to intensivecaresupport.org directly. In the membership, you have access to me and my team, 24 hours a day, in the membership area and via email, and we answer all questions intensive care related. 

In the membership, you also have exclusive access to 21 eBooks and 21 videos that I have personally written and recorded, sharing all my 2.5 decades worth of ICU and critical care nursing experience with you so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, control, power, and influence, making sure your loved one gets best care and treatment always.

I also do one-on-one consulting and advocacy over the phone, Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, whichever medium works best for you. I talk to you and your families directly. I handhold you through this once in a lifetime situation that you simply can’t afford to get wrong. I also talk to doctors and nurses directly. When I talk to doctors and nurses directly, I ask all the questions that you haven’t even considered asking but must be asked when you have a loved one critically ill in intensive care.

I also represent you in family meetings with intensive care teams.

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Thank you so much for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.

Take care for now.