() Lawmakers are looking to reform the organ donor system after a government investigation revealed “disturbing practices” at a nonprofit in Kentucky.
A probe into Louisville-based Network for Hope found that organs were nearly harvested from some donor patients who were still alive or showing signs of improvement.
That Health Resources and Services Administration investigation was initiated last year after a 2021 case in Kentucky, where a man was believed to be brain-dead from an overdose.
But doctors were wrong and the organ harvesting surgery was called off moments before he was taken off life support after a physician noticed the man moving and moaning while being taken to an operating room, the New York Times reported.
That man survived, but he’s far from the only patient to narrowly escape.
The HRSA investigation looked into 351 cases in Kentucky in which organ donation was authorized but never completed.
It found that nearly 30% of the instances 103 cases had “concerning features.” At least 28 patients may not have been dead when surgery began, and 73 patients had neurological signs “incompatible with organ donation.”
The report also alleged that consent practices were questionable, and some patients’ causes of death weren’t classified correctly.
“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
“The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable,” he continued. “The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”
Incidents were most common in smaller and rural hospitals, the report found.
Organ transplants are somewhat common, with more than 40,000 surgeries carried out using organs from deceased donors in 2024, according to HRSA data.
Approximately 170 million people across the nation are registered organ donors, which is representative of roughly 60% of the adult population that is eligible to donate.
