A KENTUCKY man is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after surgeons attempted to harvest his organs while he was very much alive.
The man was declared brain dead after an overdose in Oct 2021, but according to his sister, doctors attempted to harvest his organs while he was still showing signs of life.
She said that his eyes were open and watching family members as they gathered to say goodbye before the procedure, but it still went ahead until doctors called it 45 minutes later when he woke up.
Despite physicians arguing he had too many signs of life to continue with the surgery, the organ donor company had wanted to go ahead with it, according to the surgeon who was assigned to the procedure.
"I was really surprised that he had been taken to the cardiac cath lab; he was paralysed and sedated, and moved on with the OR," said the surgeon.
"The hospital staff said they were incredibly alarmed, calling it euthanasia," she added, noting that the cardiologist questioned why the man was given such a poor prognosis, and said it didn't seem like he was brain dead.
The surgeon resigned from the organ donor company after the incident, and she and the man's sister are now campaigning for organ donation reform.
"TJ was able to fight for his life and he's still here, and there's others that are still here - but there's a lot that are not," the man's sister said.
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