(By Dr. Eble / The Catholic World Report) – In October 2021, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II suffered cardiac arrest after a drug overdose and was transported to Baptist Health Richmond, a hospital in Kentucky. He was subsequently declared “brain dead.” As he was being transported to the operating room for surgeons to harvest his organs for transplantation, organ procurement organization (OPO) employee Natasha Miller recalled to NPR:
- He was moving around — kind of thrashing. Like, moving, thrashing around on the bed. And then when we went over there, you could see he had tears coming down. He was crying visibly.
The surgeons refused to operate, but the supervisor for the OPO, Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA), ordered the case coordinator: “You will find another surgeon [to harvest Hoover’s organs] or you’ll lose your job because we’re going to complete this case.” CONTINUE