Patient's sister says organ recovery proceeded while he was alive; family urges accountability

Donna Rohr, who identified herself as the sister of patient TJ Hoover, described to HHS officials how her brother showed signs of awareness while an organ-recovery procedure was being prepared and urged immediate accountability. “They prepared to recover his organs while he was still alive,” Rohr said, describing that during an honor walk his eyes were open and he was tracking her; she said staff told her those movements were “just reflexes.”

Rohr recounted that physicians ultimately refused to proceed and that her brother survived, but that the experience left him with nightmares and memory problems and forced her to quit her job to care for him. She urged that people responsible be identified and barred from providing patient care again, and called for action beginning in Kentucky to prevent similar incidents.