Organ donation group accused of trying to take living man’s organs faces shutdown

The US health department is working to shut down a Kentucky-based organ procurement organization that made headlines over a 2021 incident in which it was accused of trying to harvest a man’s organs while he was still alive.

In an announcement Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had begun the process to decertify the organization, Network for Hope (NFH). Losing its certification would effectively shutter the organization, which serves Kentucky as well as parts of Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. If decertified, another organization will be appointed to coordinate donations in the region.

In a statement, NFH said it “strongly disagrees” with the HHS’s finding and will appeal the decertification decision.

HHS said its decision stems from two federal investigations of NFH that found “persistent patient safety failures,” despite extensive oversight and opportunities to correct failures. The two investigations were carried out separately by the HHS’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

The HRSA investigation, which concluded last year, examined 351 NFH cases in which organ donations had been authorized but were ultimately canceled. In 103 cases, investigators found “concerning features,” including 73 cases in which patients had neurological signs that should have made them ineligible for organ donation.

The scrutiny over NFH and other organ procurement organizations comes amid increases in donations from people who have had circulatory deaths (their heart stops), rather than those who have been declared brain-dead. Donation after circulatory death often occurs when patients are not expected to make a recovery and a family decides to withdraw life support. Organ procurement organizations cannot declare a person dead and are barred by law from being involved in care decisions. However, deciding when to remove life support is not clear-cut.

Horror story

NFH made headlines when reports surfaced about a 2021 incident in which a Kentucky man in his 30s began visibly crying, pulled his knees to his chest, and shook his head as he was wheeled into surgery to have his organs harvested. The man, Anthony Thomas Hoover II, had overdosed and had been unresponsive for two days before his family agreed to donate his organs, believing he would not recover.

But as the organ retrieval neared, he began showing signs of improvement, which allegedly went ignored by organ procurement workers while making the hospital staff deeply uncomfortable. NFH’s predecessor organization, KODA, allegedly pressured hospital staff to move forward with the organ donation. When Hoover was brought into the operating room clearly responsive, doctors involved in the organ retrieval refused to move forward and remove life support.

One worker, Natasha Miller, told NPR that a KODA supervisor was on the phone at the time, demanding that employees find another surgeon who would agree to carry out the retrieval.

The surgery was canceled, and Hoover recovered, though he has lingering neurological injuries. His sister appeared at a press briefing Wednesday announcing the US health department’s efforts to decertify NFH.

In a statement, NFH said it complies with all federal organ policies and, since the incident, implemented a “pause” process that allows anyone involved in a case—from family to health care providers—to pause donation plans if concerns arise. The state of Kentucky subsequently wrote the pause process into law.

More than 103,000 people are on the US organ transplant waiting list, and there were more than 49,000 transplants last year.