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Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Terrifying hospital loophole that allows doctors to remove your organs while you're still ALIVE
As Anthony Thomas 'TJ' Hoover II was wheeled into surgery to harvest his organs, his eyes flitted back and forth and began to open. Despite doctors declaring the 36-year-old dead, Hoover's brain was becoming more and more active- and as he was taken into the Kentucky operating room, he began thrashing on the bed and crying, patient records show, and was very much alive. Doctors halted the surgery only after arguing with the team responsible for procuring Hoover's organs, who wanted to continue anyway. Hoover's case prompted a years-long federal investigation into Kentucky's organ donation procurement nonprofit, whose team reportedly scrambled to find a surgeon willing to harvest the organs of a living man when the first surgeon backed out. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) investigation delved into about 350 cases involving Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) in which plans for organ retrievals were ultimately scrapped because declared-dead patients began waking up. In 73 cases, federal investigators found organ harvesting should have been stopped sooner as patients showed improving consciousness and signs of pain or distress, according to the New York Times. While most patients are deemed eligible to donate organs after being declared brain dead, these patients had experienced circulatory death - when the heart stops functioning and blood and oxygen no longer circulate in the body. Opponents of donation after circulatory death (DCD) argue the practice has looser criteria for declaring someone dead, leading to the potential for someone who is not definitively dead being taken off of life-sustaining measures for premature donation. DCD has been steadily becoming more common over the years, and involves recovering organs after the heart stops, though some brain activity may remain. Traditionally, most organ donations come from patients declared brain dead, the complete and irreversible loss of all brain function - though patients may be hooked up to machines that keep the heart and lungs working. Because heart and lung function is maintained with machines, organs remain viable for transplant. With circulatory death, death is declared when circulation and respiratory function has stopped - even though they haven't been declared brain dead. When hospitals identify patients nearing death who might be eligible donors, they notify organ procurement organizations (OPOs) such as KODA. An OPO representative then visits the hospital to assess whether the patient shows signs of imminent brain death. If brain death is unlikely but the patient cannot survive without life support and the family is considering withdrawing care, the case may be appropriate for DCD. In these situations, the OPO works closely with the family and medical team to coordinate end-of-life plans and organ donation. DCD helps increase the number of available donors, offering hope to more than 103,000 Americans waiting for life-saving heart, kidney, lung, and other organ transplants. But the practice has proven to be an ethical minefield. While organ procurement organizations like KODA insist they do not harvest organs from live patients, federal officials and activists say Hoover's case was not a one-off. DCDs have become increasingly common as a way to meet the needs of a growing number of people on national waiting lists. The number of organs recovered from DCD Donors in 1993 was 112. By 2021, over 10,000 recovered organs came from DCD donors. The federal inquiry into Kentucky's organ procurement practices began last fall when the House Energy and Commerce Committee learned of Hoover's experience. Hoover was rushed to the hospital after a drug overdose in October 2024. He was unresponsive in the hospital. For two days after Hoover's family agreed to donate his organs, KODA officers tested the man's organs and lined up transplant surgeons and recipients. During one exam on his heart, Hoover was 'thrashing on the bed,' according to patient records, and was sedated to prevent further motion. His sister, Donna Rhorer, remembered watching him being wheeled to the operating room as his eyes moved and tracked where his sister was, keeping his gaze in her direction. She and the rest of the family were told this was a common reflex. 'It was like it was his way of letting us know, you know, "Hey, I'm still here,'' Rhorer told NPR. The hospital staff 'was extremely uncomfortable with the amount of reflexes patient is exhibiting,' case notes read. 'Hospital staff kept stating that this was euthanasia.' A procurement organization coordinator assured them it was not. A former KODA employee told the New York Times that had it not been for that doctor who called off the procedure, 'we absolutely 1,000 percent would have moved forward.' Natasha Miller, who used to work for KODA as an organ preservationist, told NPR last year that, at the time, the organ procurement case coordinator was scrambling with her boss about what to do next as Hoover thrashed and cried. Miller said: 'So the coordinator calls the supervisor at the time. And she was saying that he was telling her that she needed to 'find another doctor to do it' – that, 'We were going to do this case. She needs to find someone else.' 'And she's like, 'There is no one else.' She's crying — the coordinator — because she's getting yelled at.' Three other former KODA employees have attested to seeing similar cases. Patients are typically taken to the operating room, where doctors remove them from life support and wait for the natural dying process to wrap up. The organs are only transplantable if the patient dies within an hour or two. Strict rules are in place barring any procedure from beginning before a patient dies. But the HRSA investigation, as reported by the Times, shows that KODA employees repeatedly pressured families to green-light organ harvesting, improperly took over cases from doctors, and tried to push hospital staff to pull patients from life support even amid indications that patients were becoming more aware of their surroundings. KODA employees also failed to recognize that hospital-administered sedatives or illegal drugs could mask a patient's actual neurological condition, making them appear in worse shape than they are. In another case, in December 2022, a 50-year-old man who had suffered an overdose began stirring in his bed less than an hour after being removed from life support. He woke up and started looking around. The retrieval attempt was not immediately scrapped nor was the patient given any explanation as to what was going on, 'but was becoming more aware by the minute,' a doctor's notes said. The attempt wasn't called off for another 40 minutes, the point at which his organs were no longer viable. In the ICU, he was awake and speaking with his family, though the patient died three days later. KODA, now Network for Hope after a merger, said it 'is disappointed in the New York Times story that declines to include factual clarifications and critical context about organ and tissue donation. 'Network for Hope remains committed to transparency and to the mission of saving lives. That commitment has not changed. The only people hurt by inaccuracies in journalism are those who are awaiting a second chance for life. 'Network for Hope is in full compliance with all requirements of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We are fully committed to transparency and accountability to their regulations regarding Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) donation.'
Fox News
28-04-2025
- Health
- Fox News
How a DOGE review can actually improve the programs that fight HIV/AIDS
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been aggressively overhauling the bloated and cumbersome U.S. federal bureaucracy by re-examining contracts, questioning what taxpayer dollars are funding and who that funding is going to. The public health sector hasn't been immune, with the Trump administration poring over the layers of bureaucracy and freezing or canceling millions in grants. Countless programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including those designed to target the treatment and spread of HIV/AIDS, are, or will be, in the crosshairs. As a former White House director of national AIDS policy who was one of the chief architects of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the first director of the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and as an LGBT conservative with a career in medicine, business, and public health, I believe HIV/AIDS advocates should embrace and support such a review. While it is critical that the United States' demonstrably effective long-standing strategy tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the resources dedicated to it, remain intact, many of these federal programs have not been re-evaluated in years, nor have they been audited for waste, fraud or abuse. Advocates in support of maintaining the United States' aggressive approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic should welcome the review of HIV/AIDS specific initiatives to ensure that they are optimally designed to meet the needs of the current epidemic. Take the Ryan White CARE Act, for example, which funds essential healthcare services for uninsured and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. The program, which received $2.5 billion in federal funding in FY 2024, hasn't been reauthorized by Congress since 2009. In that time, the expansion of healthcare coverage through Medicaid substantially reduced the number of people who needed Ryan White support for medical care and pharmaceuticals, yet its budget continued to grow. A reauthorization process would allow for a close look at spending priorities embedded in Ryan White - an initiative that was designed before highly effective HIV/AIDS therapy was even available. Surely, the HIV/AIDS community would do well to see if that funding might be better reallocated elsewhere, such as toward substance abuse and mental health services, or other needed care. DOGE can also remedy unnecessary bureaucratic overlap. The Ryan White program is run through the HRSA, and the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, started by Trump during his first term, is run through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Despite the programs' complementary missions, they are siloed off into separate entities with their own budgets and staff, resulting in unnecessary administrative overhead costs and potentially wasteful spending. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to streamline these two initiatives into one program run through the HRSA to consolidate the resources and make them more efficient. Advocates for a strong public health response to HIV/AIDS should be open to considering these kinds of commonsense reforms and not wringing their hands or fearmongering to voters. While efficiency is needed, it would be a grave mistake to deprioritize funding for the HIV/AIDS epidemic as national policy. While new cases of the disease are on the decline in the U.S. due to advances in treatment and prevention efforts, data has shown that cutting those efforts leads to spikes in new infections, which in turn burden the healthcare system with costlier care and treatments down the line. Another critical pillar of the U.S. approach to the epidemic is PEPFAR, which funds HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care globally. PEPFAR's value is not only as a cost-effective success in saving millions of lives but also as a means of exerting significant diplomatic influence with dozens of partner nations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio granted PEPFAR a waiver from the initial suspension of global health initiatives in the first days of the Trump administration. That does not mean that PEPFAR should be immune from an audit for inefficiency. Like all federal programs, there must be improvements that can be made and waste that can be cut. PEPFAR's strategy and tactics, however, are undeniably working with an incredible return on investment. Keeping the program efficiently funded should be a bipartisan priority. It's easy to panic over reports of specific cuts or reorganizations to HIV/AIDS programs. Opponents of the Trump administration have every reason to fearmonger around the issue, as federal funding for prevention efforts is generally popular. But, if we genuinely care about the fight against HIV/AIDS, we must recognize that these programs, like the federal government itself, are not perfect. These HIV/AIDS programs are long overdue for auditing, evaluation and perhaps reorganization, and as long as our commitment to fighting the disease remains intact, the United States' efforts will be stronger for it.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump admin planning to consolidate HIV programs, slashing 'overhead' and DEI: official
The Trump administration is planning to make cost-saving cuts by merging two similar HIV/AIDS prevention programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an administration official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. The cuts will pertain to administrative costs and DEI-related spending. The tentative proposal, which is still "a concept of a plan," is to merge them into one program under HRSA to streamline efficiency – in line with the administration's downsizing of federal government agenda – as having two separate programs doing similar functions doesn't make sense, the official said. "One of those things is still very preliminary, but obviously, you don't need two $1 billion budgets for this, with $1 billion going to the CDC and $1 billion going to HRSA," the official said. "Some of that will go toward paying the administrative overhead costs and that sort of thing." Both the CDC and HRSA are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hospitals Warned They Must Protect Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation: Hhs Agency Memo "If this goes through, that will be more definitive… like with examining DEI spending with these two programs," the official said. The Trump administration has already moved to slash federal funding of DEI programs and initiatives in one of his early executive actions titled, "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing." Read On The Fox News App While the CDC has a department dedicated to the prevention of HIV and other infectious diseases, HRSA also runs a program called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), which provides medical care for low-income people with HIV. During his first term, in 2019, Trump launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, with the aim of reducing cases of HIV by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. The initiative is operated by the CDC. Trans Air Force Sergeants Take Trump Admin To Court, Say It's 'Not Possible' To Serve As Women The proposal, which is still being worked on this week, comes amid big government shake-ups across several federal sectors at the direction of Trump and the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with thousands of workers let go in mass firings in recent article source: Trump admin planning to consolidate HIV programs, slashing 'overhead' and DEI: official
Fox News
19-03-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Trump admin planning to consolidate HIV programs, slashing 'overhead' and DEI: official
The Trump administration is planning to make cost-saving cuts by merging two similar HIV/AIDS prevention programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an administration official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. The cuts will pertain to administrative costs and DEI-related spending. The tentative proposal, which is still "a concept of a plan," is to merge them into one program under HRSA to streamline efficiency – in line with the administration's downsizing of federal government agenda – as having two separate programs doing similar functions doesn't make sense, the official said. "One of those things is still very preliminary, but obviously, you don't need two $1 billion budgets for this, with $1 billion going to the CDC and $1 billion going to HRSA," the official said. "Some of that will go toward paying the administrative overhead costs and that sort of thing." Both the CDC and HRSA are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "If this goes through, that will be more definitive… like with examining DEI spending with these two programs," the official said. The Trump administration has already moved to slash federal funding of DEI programs and initiatives in one of his early executive actions titled, "Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing." While the CDC has a department dedicated to the prevention of HIV and other infectious diseases, HRSA also runs a program called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), which provides medical care for low-income people with HIV. During his first term, in 2019, Trump launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, with the aim of reducing cases of HIV by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. The initiative is operated by the CDC. The proposal, which is still being worked on this week, comes amid big government shake-ups across several federal sectors at the direction of Trump and the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with thousands of workers let go in mass firings in recent weeks.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Wyden, Sanders: Federal layoffs threaten organ transplant system modernization
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are expressing concern to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that recent layoffs at U.S. health agencies are threatening the modernization of the organ transplant system. The pair of lawmakers asked Kennedy in a Wednesday letter to disclose which staff at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), tasked with implementing improvements to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), were impacted by layoffs. 'We share the concern raised in a letter to you by the National Kidney Foundation that indiscriminate lay-offs of probationary employees initiated by HHS on Friday, February 14, 2025 has already resulted in the termination of key personnel hired to implement OPTN modernization initiatives,' Wyden and Sanders wrote to Kennedy. With the rounds of terminations of workers from federal agencies, some who were brought on by the HRSA to help apply the 2023 'Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act,' were also reportedly affected. 'To allow those efforts to pause or cease altogether would calcify the issues within the organ transplant system which spurred this effort in the first place, and would amount to a failure to implement federal law,' the senators said. Sanders, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member, and Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member, asked Kennedy how much of the staff charged with implementing improvements in the organ and transplantation system were let go or placed on leave since President Trump's administration kicked off on Jan. 20. The duo also asked the new HHS head how he intends to provide 'adequate staffing and relevant experience and expertise to ensure continued improvements to the nation's organ donation and transplantation system in keeping with the intent of the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act in 2023?' Groups, including the National Kidney Foundation, have called for the workers to be brought back, saying the layoffs 'stand in direct opposition to the goals of transplant system reform to improve efficiency, transparency, and the ability of government to respond to the needs of people who rely on the system.' Wyden and Sanders asked the HHS leader to respond by March 5. The Hill has reached out to HHS for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
