‘No,’ the patient said as he pulled his knees to his chest. Breaking federal law, some hospitals retrieve organs from still-alive potential donors

The head of an organ procurement group told a House panel … he would be “disturbed” if he had witnessed a 2021 case in which a Kentucky man was prepared for organ retrieval even while shaking his head “no” and bringing his knees up to his chest.

“Seeing someone like that myself, personally, yes, I think I would be disturbed,” said Barry Massa, CEO of Network for Hope, a group under scrutiny by federal officials for allowing more than 70 potential donors to be prepared for organ removal even as they showed neurological signs ….

The controversy around organ donation partly stems from a change in which patients are considered eligible for donation. Historically, the majority of donations have come from brain dead patients. But now, roughly half of all donations are from patients who have experienced “circulatory death.”

Such patients may still show brain activity, but doctors have determined they are near death and will not recover. 

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The number of donations from patients with circulatory death doubled from 2021 to 2024, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, the organ transplant system.

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