I Confess, This is Not First Story Like This That Makes Me Wonder if Organ Donor on License is Wise

9/23/25 Popular Mechanics:

"In October 2021, 36-year-old Anthony “TJ” Hoover II was rushed to Baptist Health Richmond in Kentucky after a drug overdose. He went into cardiac arrest, and doctors found no reflexes or brain activity. They declared him brain dead.

"Doctors followed the standard steps after a patient’s death: they notified Hoover’s family and prepared him—an organ donor—for a procedure to harvest his organs for a transplant. But about an hour into the procedure, surgeons came to a screeching halt.

"That’s because Hoover wasn’t dead.

"According to a whistleblower letter received by Congress, "Hoover started to “thrash” on the operating table multiple times. In an interview with NPR in 2024, an organ preservationist present in the operating room said Hoover seemed alive to her, and two doctors refused to go forward with the procedure. She even said Hoover appeared to have tears in his eyes."

I know doctors want to save lives but I worry that they may be in a hurry.   The Knife Man, a biography of Dr. John Hunter, a pioneering late 18th century surgeon, recounts how he taught anatomy with the corpses of criminals just cut down from the gallows.  On one occasion, the "dead man" took exception to the procedure.   In another case, he got the chest open and the heart was still beating