Declared dead, he wakes up during the removal of his organs

No, it’s not a horror film, but a true story. In a hospital in Kentucky (USA) a man, declared brain dead, woke up on the operating table while doctors were about to proceed with the …

Declared dead, he wakes up during the removal of his organs

No, it’s not a horror film, but a true story. In a hospital in Kentucky (USA) a man, declared brain dead, woke up on the operating table while doctors were about to proceed with the removal of his organs for donation. As the family told the local television station WKYTAnthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II, 36, was taken to Baptist Health Richmond Hospital in October 2021 due to cardiac arrest after a drug overdose. Since the doctors had reported that the man had no reflexes and brain activity, two days after hospitalization the family agreed to withdraw the medical support that was keeping him alive. When the man was taken to the operating room to evaluate whether or not his organs were suitable for donation, doctors discovered that he was still alive.

“That man was moving, he seemed to be struggling on the bed. And when we got closer, we saw that he was visibly crying”, said nurse Natasha Miller who reported the matter. Thomas survived, and today lives with his sister. Although he recovered quite quickly, he still has some memory, walking and speech problems. The investigation into the absurd affair began from Natasha’s complaint. The case is now under investigation by officials from both the state and federal governments.

The case of Thomas

“During the walk of honor (the one held to honor organ donors in various hospitals around the world), while he was being transported from the intensive care unit to the operating room, his eyes opened, following us – said his sister, Donna Rhorer, now his legal guardian. “It was his way of telling us ‘Hey, I’m still here.’ The doctors told us they were just reflexes, a normal thing the medical opinion?”. The next day Thomas was taken to the operating room to have his organs removed. “After about an hour – continued his sister – the doctor came out, took us aside, and told us that ‘he wasn’t ready’ He actually woke up.”

Waking up in the operating room

“When the nurses took Thomas to the operating room – said Natasha Miller, the nurse in charge of preserving the removed organs that day – he still seemed alive. He was moving, as if he was wriggling. And when we got closer, we saw tears that they came down. He was visibly crying.” Thomas’ condition alarmed all the healthcare workers in the operating room, including the two surgeons who refused to perform the explant procedure.

The man was then discharged, with doctors predicting that he would not live long. Three years later, Thomas is still alive and his sister is taking care of him. “I decided to make the story public – said Thomas’ sister – with the hope that it can give other families the courage to speak, and thus save another life”.

The complaint

Donna Rhorer learned the details of the story only in January this year, when she was contacted by the Koda association (Baptis and Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates) which is responsible for collecting testimonies of similar cases so that justice is obtained and checks are intensified of non-profit organizations that deal with organ procurement. From there a procedure began to verify the correctness of the doctors’ actions.

“The health of patients is of the highest priority,” the hospital said in a statement. “We work closely with patients and their families to ensure that our patients’ wishes regarding organ donation are respected.” For its part, the Koda organization specified that it had “never taken organs from living patients and that no one was ever pressured to do so”. And that they are not “the ones to declare the death but only have the authority to proceed with the recovery of the organs after the health care manager has declared the death”. In any case, the state attorney general and a federal agency are investigating the case to understand if all procedures were followed or if laws were violated.

Cases of apparent death

Although Thomas’ story is somewhat surreal, it is not unique. In 2023, a 76-year-old woman in Ecuador suddenly woke up in her coffin during her funeral, while her loved ones were ready to say their last goodbyes. And, again, in March of the same year another 82-year-old woman, declared dead in a New York nursing home, was found alive a few hours later by the funeral home.

A similar accident had occurred a few days earlier in Iowa (USA): in that case too an undertaker had noticed that a 66-year-old woman with dementia, declared dead and preserved inside a body bag, was panting and he was still breathing.

The causes

In a condition of apparent death, a subject appears dead (“apparently” lacking both brain and cardiac electrical activity) despite still being alive. What could be the causes? According to a scientific article, published on Univadis, which investigates the most common causes of apparent death, a false death certificate may depend on a summary, distracted examination that takes into consideration signals such as the absence of a heartbeat and sounds breathing for a prolonged period of time, fixed dilated pupils and the absence of response to any stimulus (all presumably explicit signs of death). And you may not notice any heart murmurs and weak breathing. However, there may actually be cases in which ascertaining death is more difficult.

Medicines and cold water

According to the scientific article, an overdose of certain sedatives, used for anesthesia in many major surgeries, can lead to decreased responsiveness and suppress breathing and circulation. This can lead to a death-like state, while still protecting the brain from hypoxia (oxygen starvation). Once the drug has completely worn off, people can wake up. Drugs such as diazepam and alprazolam are known to have caused a false declaration of death.

However, even immersion in cold water, the article continues, can lead to apparent death, especially due to the decrease in heart rate. Cases of survival even after prolonged time in water are known. For this reason, in the case of drowning, death is confirmed only after the victim has warmed up. Good recovery of neurological functions has also been documented in victims who remained in cold water for up to 70 minutes.

The “Lazarus phenomenon” and the return of the heartbeat

An event that can sometimes occur (with cases also in Europe) is the so-called “Lazarus phenomenon”, i.e. the spontaneous recovery of circulation within 5 minutes of cardiac arrest, which occurs after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The phenomenon was first reported in the scientific literature in the Lancet in 1982. But why does it happen?

According to one hypothesis, after the resuscitation maneuvers, the pressure in the lungs (increased with the maneuvers) returns to normal, and the blood that flows back to the heart (whose influx decreases with the maneuvers) returns to circulate more easily, giving the new to the club. According to another hypothesis, the drugs that have perhaps been administered to restart the circulation can reach the heart with a delayed burst, again due to the effect of resuscitation. Yet another hypothesis is that some drugs used in resuscitation to lower potassium levels in the blood, the excess of which causes potentially fatal arrhythmias, can restart the heart.

In a coma after an accident, when he wakes up he thinks he is 24 years old: “I thought it was 1980”