Case of Anthony Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II is under investigation by state and federal government officials

Case of Anthony Thomas ‘TJ’ Hoover II is under investigation by state and federal government officials

A man who had gone into cardiac arrest and been declared brain dead woke up as surgeons in his home state of Kentucky were in the middle of harvesting his organs for donation, his family has told media outlets.

As reported Thursday by both National Public Radio and the Kentucky news station WKYT, the case of Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II is under investigation by state and federal government officials. Officials within the US’s organ-procurement system insist there are safeguards in place to prevent such episodes, though his family told the outlets their experience highlights a need for at least some reform.

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WKYT reported that Rhorer only learned the full details of her brother’s surgery at the hands of Baptist and the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (Koda) in January. That’s when a former employee of Koda contacted her before sending a letter to a congressional committee that in September held a hearing scrutinizing organ-procurement organizations, NPR reported.

The letter’s author said she saw Hoover begin “thrashing” around on the operating table as well as start “crying visibly”, according to NPR.

  • Ranvier
    36·
    2 days ago

    Really want to know exactly who declared brain death? For instance in the article the family talks about seeing eye movements and being told they’re "just reflexes."Yeah that may be, but reflexes involving the eyes are cranial nerve reflexes, they go through the brain. There can’t be brain death if they are there. That’s a brain function. Testing to make sure all cranial nerve reflexes are absent (gag, apnea, vestibular, etc) is one of the basic pieces of brain death testing.

    There’s a lot of confusion in popular media between brain death and persistent vegetative state. In a persistent vegetative state there’s still many brain functions going, but troubles maintaining consciousness. Brain death testing when properly done there is extensive testing done by a neurologist or someone with a similar background to show no brain function at all remains before it can be declared brain death, no matter how basic, even the simplest of brain reflexes. It’s not just one test but a whole series of testing with different modalities.

    Would really like to know what happened here to cause such a colossal mess. Or nearly did, the doctors stopped before doing anything at least.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
      15·
      2 days ago

      I suspect that when they declared him brain dead, it was too early in recovering from the overdose that his reflexes weren’t normal yet.

      Drug interactions and drug metabolism are complete unknowns, as I strongly suspect this guy did not have genomic testing done before they administered narcan or whatever antidotes they needed to push.

      • Ranvier
        6·
        1 day ago

        This isn’t something that gets done like after a few hours or a day or something. It takes quite some time to get through cooling protocols, warming again, complete all the testing, geting everything stable. Talking like a week plus at the quickest. And cranial nerve reflexes are just one thing of many different tests done. And to boot, it sounds like from the article they knew he had cranial nerve reflexes, which anyone halfway competent should know, means there is certainly not brain death. Really want to know what this hospital was doing that they messed up so badly.