A horrifying mistake to take organs from a living person was averted, witnesses say

04:12 |

by Brittney Melton

October 20, 2024

Good morning. This week, a women’s marathon world record was broken, the Victoria's Secret fashion show brought big names to the runway after a six-year hiatus, and former President Jimmy Carter cast his ballet early at age 100.

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Spooky season is upon us and unbelievable stories can be exciting to hear — but can be a nightmare to live. This was my first thought when reading about how a man who had been declared dead after a drug overdose was still moving as he was being prepped for surgery to donate his vital organs.

TJ Hoover, left, in a recent picture with his sister, Donna Rhorer.

Hoover Rhorer Family

Sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. Not just for the patient, but the workers as well.

For Natasha Miller, it was a normal day of work until it wasn't. Her job was to preserve donated organs for transplantation, but she quickly noticed something was off. The donor was very much alive, as he was thrashing around on the bed. Everyone in the operating room at Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Ky., including the two doctors who refused to participate in the organ retrieval, was alarmed.

At that time, Miller says she overheard the case coordinator for her employer, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), call her supervisor for advice. "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,' " Miller recalls. "And she’s like, 'There is no one else.' She's crying — the coordinator — because she's getting yelled at."

The organ retrieval was ultimately canceled and the patient, Anthony Thomas Hoover II, is still alive, but some KODA workers later quit over the October 2021 incident. "I've dedicated my entire life to organ donation and transplant. It’s very scary to me now that these things are allowed to happen and there’s not more in place to protect donors," says organ preservationist Nyckoletta Martin.

The Kentucky state attorney general’s office told NPR that investigators are reviewing the allegations. Here is a closer look at where things stand now and what the hospital and KODA have said about the incident.

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The Week That Was

From left: Emma Rady Wanroy and Hannah Johns, who were each adopted from China by U.S. parents.

From left: Emma Rady Wanroy; Hannah Johns

For over 30 years, thousands of children in China have been adopted by people in other countries, with more than half finding homes in the U.S. In September, China announced it was ending its international adoption program, shocking the adoption community and angering families who were still in the process of adopting from the country. But among adoptees, many of whom are now young adults, the news evoked mixed feelings. "I can be grateful, and I can have a great, great relationship with my parents. But I can also still be critical of the systems that caused my adoption," says Hannah Johns. Here’s what Chinese adoptees told NPR about their experiences growing up and their thoughts on this change.

Thanks to COVID-19, our flu shots this year are missing a strain of influenza they've protected against for more than a decade. That's because no confirmed flu cases have been caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. For those who study influenza, this was a shock, as it would be the first documented instance of a virus going extinct due to changes in human behavior, such as widespread physical distancing.

In Bullitt County, Ky., an elementary school is functioning as both an educational facility and a voting site. The district has traditionally hosted voting on Election Day and scheduled it as a day off for students. However, the district has requested not to host three days of early voting, saying that keeping schools open during those days, even with extra security measures, could leave the children vulnerable. On the other hand, the county clerk insists that schools are necessary for early voting. The discussion about finding the right balance between election access and school security is likely to continue in Kentucky and stretch to other states.

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