‘Brain dead’ Kentucky man, 36, wakes up before organ donation, in case it shocks the nation

The family of a man who woke up as surgeons prepared to harvest his organs has revealed tragic new details about a case that shocked America.

In 2021, Thomas “TJ” Hoover II, now 36, was declared brain dead after an overdose sent him to Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Kentucky.

Donna Rohrer, his sister and primary caregiver, has now revealed that he started using drugs due to anxiety, depression and PTSD that developed in response to seeing dead bodies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

Hoover had also previously lost two brothers to overdoses, and struggled to hold down a job and find a sense of purpose. Just months before he was hospitalized, his mother died.

On his late mother’s birthday, Hoover took unspecified medication and fainted while loading his car. When EMTs arrived to care for him, he had no pulse.

Days later, after doctors found no signs of brain activity, Hoover’s family made the decision to remove his life support and allow his organs to be harvested for donation, according to his wishes.

But as he was wheeled into the operating room, Hoover woke up, and since then his story has spread across the country and appears to have led to a wave of people removing their names from organ donor databases.

For a week after reports of Hoover’s story went live, about 170 people a day removed themselves from organ donor registries.

That is ten times more than the number of people who moved away in the same period in 2023.

Representatives of Gift of Life Michigan, a state-specific organ donation network, told the Associated Press that some of the people who removed their names specifically mentioned Mr. Hoover’s case.

This adds even more stress to what is already a stressed system – with an estimated 17 people in the US dying every day while waiting for an organ transplant.

Since 2021, Rhorer and whistleblowers from the hospital have put the lid on what happened that day.

They allege that doctors told family members that scans showed no activity in Hoover’s brain and asked if they would grant his wish to become an organ donor.

The family agreed to take him off life support and send him for organ donation once he passed away.

From there, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) officials stepped in to coordinate the transplant.

Natasha Miller, who was working for KODA at the time and was in the room during Hoover’s near surgery told CNN that shortly after Hoover was wheeled into the transplant room, he began to struggle even as his body was shaved and he was covered with a surgical drape.

She said she saw tears rolling down his face and in a shocking new report, she said she saw him shaking his head no.

Miller said, “Nobody liked doing the case from the hospital.”

Then Miller said dispatchers called managers at KODA to tell them the business had to be closed.

Miller alleged that senior executives at the organization personally pressured Baptist Health staff to continue with the operation.

Rhorer and the rest of Hoover’s family only learned what happened in the operating room when Nycki Martin, then a surgical conservator for KODA, reached out after seeing Rhorer post about the “miracle” on TikTok.

Martin shared details with Rhorer about what happened on the operating table and the doubts expressed by medical staff in preparing Hoover for the surgery.

Rhorer said that if she and her family had known there were doubts about his consciousness, “we would never have sent him to have his organs harvested.”

In response to comments from Martin, Miller and Rhorer, representatives from Network for Hope, the organization that has absorbed KODA since the 2021 incident, denied the incident.

Their President and Chief Operating Officer Julie Bergen, told NPR: “No one at KODA has ever been pressured to take organs from a living patient.

‘KODA does not recover organs from living patients. KODA has never forced its team members to do this.’

Baptist Health Richmond hospital has also insisted that “the safety of our patients is always our top priority.”

“We work closely with our patients and their families to ensure that our patients’ organ donation wishes are met,” a hospital spokesperson told NPR.

The claims against KODA and the hospital are being reviewed by the Health Resources and Services Administration, the national agency that regulates transplants.

As the consequences of that October day continue to unfold, Hoover moves on with his life.

Rhorer took her brother home to live and helped him regain his strength so he could undergo physical therapy.

Despite his doctors’ bleak prognosis, Hover was well enough to walk Rhorer down the aisle in May 2023.

He still has difficulty balancing, speaking, seeing and some short-term memory limitations. Rohrer told FOX56 that he used to enjoy going to the woods, camping and watching deer, hiking, “anything outdoors,” so the limited mobility is a challenge.

Still, she is grateful. She told CNN that she wants people to know that organ donation is “a beautiful thing,” adding, “What can you give someone that is more precious than love?” But at the same time, it should not be abused.”