by Joshua Arnold at The Washington Stand
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched “a major initiative to begin reforming the organ transplant system,” it announced Monday. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. explained, “Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying. … The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”
Anthony Thomas Hoover
According to a partially redacted, eight-page report dated May 28, 2025, HHS received “an allegation of potentially preventable harm to a neurologically injured patient.” This prompted the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the subdepartment of HHS that oversees the organ donation system, to launch an investigation after HRSA Administrator Thomas Engels assumed his post in February.
The New York Times identified that victim as Anthony Thomas Hoover II, then 33 years old, who was hospitalized with a drug overdose in 2021. Hours after a doctor had declared him brain-dead, Hoover awakened to find medical staff preparing to remove his organs. “Even though the man cried, pulled his legs to his chest and shook his head, officials still tried to move forward.” Hospital staff ultimately became “uncomfortable with the amount of reflexes” Hoover showed, and a doctor ultimately refused to remove him from life-support. The man ultimately survived.
The Times also identified the organization preparing to remove…
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