- Here’s one sadly true horror story to send a chill down your spine.
What’s the most horrible situation you can imagine? It may not be this specifically, but waking up as someone is cutting you open and removing your organs must rank pretty high on anybody’s list.
That’s a fate that one Kentucky man narrowly avoided.
After going into cardiac arrest, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover was declared brain dead. Doctors told his family there was no hope of him coming back, so they decided to pull the plug.
Hoover was a registered organ donor, so it was decided that his squishy parts would go to those in need. His body was ferried to the operating room and the surgeons started pulling out their scalpels.
And then Hoover woke up.
He didn’t just sit up, though. Instead, the terrified man, obviously realizing what was about to happen, began “thrashing” about, with tears streaming down his face.
At that point, it would be hard for even the most in-denial doctor to say this man is not alive. Hoover barely dodged a fate worse than death.
Now, his family has gone public with his story to try to enact reform in the organ harvesting process. Above all, they want to ensure no one else finds themselves in the same situation — or that one unspeakable step further.
No Brain Activity
On October 25, 2021, Donna Rhorer rushed her brother, TJ Hoover, to the Baptist Health Richmond Hospital’s emergency room in Richmond, Kentucky. Hoover was in a life-threatening condition due to a drug overdose and the doctors soon determined he was experiencing cardiac arrest.
With emergency aid, the man pulled through — in a way. The following day, Rhorer and the rest of Hoover’s family were told he was alive but brain dead.
“October 26, we were told there were no reflexes, he had no reflexes, there was no brain activity, no brain waves,” Rhorer told WKYT.
It was a terrible situation for the family, but they decided to take Hoover off life support. They were told Hoover would not be waking up again, so what were they going to do?
The family was also told that Hoover was a registered organ donor. To honor his wishes, the doctors received permission to harvest Hoover’s organs.
And that’s when things got… Concerning.
Dead Man Watching
Over the next two days, medical personnel at the hospital examined Hoover’s organs to determine their viability for donation. One procedure they carried out as part of the process was cardiac catheterization — inserting a catheter directly into the heart.
Nyckoletta Martin, an organ preservationist at Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), told NPR that Hoover’s case files show he wasn’t as brain dead as he should’ve been during the procedure.
“The donor had woken up during his procedure that morning for a cardiac catheterization. And he was thrashing around on the table,” Martin said.
However, Hoover was sedated and the process carried on. In the end, the people in power decided Hoover was a-ok for organ harvesting.
So, he received his honor walk — the ceremonial transportation of the body to the operating room. Rhorer and some of Hoover’s other family were present for the walk, and they noticed something was off.
As he was pushed past them, Hoover opened his eyes and began looking from person to person.
“His eyes were tracking us around. We were told it was just reflexes, just a normal thing. Who are we to question the medical system?” Rhorer said.
And so, Hoover went into the operating room for his organ retrieval surgery.
‘He Was Visibly Crying’
In the operating room was Natasha Miller, another organ preservationist for KODA. It’s her job to put the organs into ice once they’re pulled out.
Miller realized immediately that Hoover’s organs had no business leaving his body. The man was moving — scratch that, he was clearly in panic.
“He was moving around … Thrashing around on the bed. And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down,” Miller told NPR.
“He was visibly crying,” she added.
The last time we checked, dead men don’t cry. Miller, whose brain was supposed to be as active as a rock on the roadside, was alive and aware he was about to get vivisected — and he was terrified.
Miller wasn’t the only one in the room who knew what was up. The operating doctors immediately threw up their hands and declared they wouldn’t touch Hoover.
“The procuring surgeon, he was like, ‘I’m out of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,’” Miller recalled.
“It was very chaotic. Everyone was just very upset.”
‘Everybody’s Worst Nightmare’
Well, the good news is that TJ Hoover is still alive. He now lives with Rhorer and happily attended her wedding in 2023, sharing a dance with his sister.
But how did this all happen? How was a man, who reportedly showed several signs of life, greenlit for being cut open and having his organs removed?
Well, that’s what Hoover and his family are trying to find out. According to NPR both the Kentucky attorney general’s office and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration have opened investigations into the case.
Whatever their investigations reveal, Martin claims something was swept under the rug. She told NPR that KODA officials had “downplayed” Hoover’s incident, and she stated she was “dismayed” at the cover-up.
“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?” said Martin.
“That’s horrifying.”
Although Hoover is alive, his ordeal — both with the near-miss with vivisection and cardiac arrest — has left him with speech, memory, and balance issues. If asked what he remembers about his time in the hospital, Rhorer says his brother replies with, “Why me?”
“I feel betrayed by the fact that the people that were telling us he was brain dead and then he wakes up. … You kind of lose your faith in humanity a little bit,” said Rhorer.