You always hear about these incredibly strange things happening while people are in the hospital, but this story really takes the cake. A man who went into cardiac arrest after overdosing on drugs was declared brain dead in Kentucky in 2021. Upon advisement from doctors, he was removed from life support and his family was given notice that he had given permission to be an organ donor in event of his death. When the medical team was getting ready to harvest his organs, he woke up and began crying and reacting to what was going on in the room. How utterly terrifying.
In a shocking twist of events, a man declared brain dead woke up prior to organ donation.
According to Inside Edition, a man named TJ Hoover from Kentucky woke up on an operating table as a team of medical staff were about to harvest his organs.
As the surgery prep was taking place, Hoover began weeping, thrashing, and even pulled his knees to his chest. As if he hadn’t been through enough, Hoover was initially taken to the hospital after suffering a heart attack due a meth and heroin overdose.
Donna Rhorer, Hoover’s sister, recounts that in October 2021, her brother was taken to Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, and doctors soon told their family that his brain “lacked any reflexes or brain activity,” The Guardian reported. They opted to put him on life support and prep him for organ donation, which was Hoover’s wishes in the event of his death.
They performed a special ceremony to say goodbye to their beloved family member only to have things drastically change in a heartbeat.
A doctor soon emerged and said that TJ Hoover “wasn’t ready.”
Rhorer noticed that prior to him being taken into surgery, her brother’s eyes opened up and he “seemingly tracked his loved one’s movements,” but she was told that it was just normal “reflexes,” The Guardian reported.
After about an hour after Hoover had been taken into surgery, a doctor came out and said explained that he “wasn’t ready” and he had woken up.
After a lengthy stay in the hospital, Rhorer brought her brother home to care for him, even though she was instructed that he likely wouldn’t live long after what he had been through. When this story was published in October 2024, Rhorer had been caring for her brother for three years as he experienced trouble walking, remembering things, and talking, per The Guardian.
Hoover’s signs of life were ignored and it appears that the family was lied to by the organ procurement organization.
Once Hoover had been declared brain dead, his family heard from an organization that was then called Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, or KODA, about “all the lives he could save” if they moved quickly and donated his organs, CNN reported.
After everything that happened with Hoover on the operating table prior to the organ donation surgery beginning, former employees of KODA working on Hoover’s case have said it was a “disaster” that someone who was “making eye contact, shaking his head ‘no’ and thrashing on the table” was even in that operating room to begin with, per CNN.
CNN reported that throughout the review of Hoover’s case, there’s also been allegations that there was “pressure to harvest his organs despite signs that he was aware and resisting.” Rhorer also recounted that when her brother was taken off life support, she thought it would be medical staff doing so, but “representatives from KODA arrived” instead.
Though Hoover is in physical therapy and has made strides, Rhorer shared that her brother has “survivor’s guilt,” because, ultimately, “he’s not supposed to be here,” per CNN.
What an incredibly traumatizing thing to have to go through.
READ NEXT: Beloved News Anchor Steps Down After Revealing Heartbreaking Health Diagnosis
