Doctors were preparing to remove his heart when this 36-year-old American woke up. Three years later, he is still alive despite serious neurological problems.
Mathis Thomas
Written on 10/21/2024
Drugs, alcohol: the right reflexes to adopt in the event of addiction — Allo Docteurs – Newen Digital
Back from the dead. Although doctors had declared him brain dead following an overdose, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover, an American from Kentucky, woke up in the middle of the surgical operation supposed to allow his organs to be harvested, report American National Public Radio (NPR) and the local news channel WKYT.
Three years after the events, the case of this patient is the subject of an investigation by federal and American government authorities after an alert from his relatives and health professionals. The victim’s sister told local media that her brother was taken to Baptist Health Hospital in Richmond, Kentucky in October 2021 following an overdose.
Also read: Declared dead, she comes back to life at the funeral home, before dying again
No contraindication to sampling
Doctors then informed the patient’s relatives that his brain no longer showed any activity and therefore declared him brain dead. Given that the thirty-year-old was registered on the list of organ donors, the hospital staff quickly embarked on a harvesting operation, despite the reluctance of the victim’s sister.
She assures the chain WKYT that her brother’s eyes then opened regularly and followed the movements of those close to him, a sign, according to her, of cerebral activity still present. “We were told it was just reflexes, a normal reaction“, she says. “Who are we to question the medical system?”
Medical examinations are carried out to ensure the possibility of transplanting his organs. The medical staff then observes no contraindication to the sample, particularly after cardiac tests. However, an hour after the start of the surgical operation to remove his organs, the man wakes up on the operating table.
“He was clearly crying.”
After the patient’s miraculous awakening, the doctors advised his sister to take him home and take care of him, since he would only have a short time to live. Three years later, Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover is still alive, although he has memory, speech and walking problems.
The victim’s relatives only learned the truth about the operation in January 2024, when a former employee of the organ donation center contacted them. The latter told them that she had participated in the operation during which the thirty-year-old “was moving” et “was struggling“Still marked by this story, she also told national radio that the medical team was seeing “tears flowing. He was clearly crying.“, she remembers.
Faced with the media coverage of this tragic case, the donation center placed the blame on the hospital, ensuring that its staff had never collected organs from living patients and that the center was not “not involved in patient care“and don’t”did not declare their death“, a role reserved for medical teams. For its part, the Baptist Health hospital was content to ensure that patient safety was its “highest priority“. The investigation opened by the American authorities should make it possible to clarify the course of the incident, to prevent it from happening again.
