The organ transplant network has displayed a “systemic disregard for sanctity of life” according to a Monday report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finding that hospitals initiated organ procurement processes for still-living patients.
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“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying. The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable. The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on X.
The HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) reviewed 351 cases in which organ procurement was authorized, but never completed.
Out of those 351 cases, the HHS identified concerns with 103 – more than a quarter – 73 of which showed neurological signs incompatible with organ donation.
The HHS also identified at least 28 instances when the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) tried to initiate the process of harvesting organs from patients who were likely not yet deceased.
The majority of concerning incidents came from small, rural hospitals
According to the report, the OPTN had been under investigation previously based on a potential harm caused to a neurologically injured woman by the procurement organization. The case was closed under the Biden Administration without any action taken, but Kennedy has now ordered it re-opened.
The HHS accused the OPTN’s previous board of negligence after it conducted an internal review and claimed to find no evidence of major concerns.
As a result of the investigation, Kennedy has instructed the federally-funded organ procurement organization to conduct a thorough analysis of the causes behind its failure to follow internal protocols, including failure to observe a mandated five-minute waiting period following a patient’s death meant to ensure that the patient’s heart does not restart before their organs are removed.
The agency must also develop new clear and enforceable policies regarding eligibility for organ donors, and must adopt a formal process allowing any staff member to halt an organ procurement if there is cause for concern. The new demands also require stricter neurological monitoring and records in order to determine that a patient is actually dead prior to organ removal.
“Under HRSA’s directive, data about any safety-related stoppages of organ donation called for by families, hospitals, or OPO staff must be reported to regulators, and the OPTN must update policies to strengthen organ procurement safety and provide accurate, complete information about the donation process to families and hospitals,” said the HHS.
“Entrenched bureaucracies, outdated systems, and reckless disregard for human life have failed to protect our most vulnerable citizens. Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS is restoring integrity and transparency to organ procurement and transplant policy by putting patients’ lives first. These reforms are essential to restoring trust, ensuring informed consent, and protecting the rights and dignity of prospective donors and their families,” the department continued.
The HHS report came one day after the New York Times published an investigative piece detailing horrifying incidents in which organ procurement agencies pushed to harvest organs from patients still showing signs of life.
In one case from last year, doctors in a small Alabama hospital cut in to Misty Hawkins, who had been in a coma but had been taken off life support. They were intending to procure her organs for transplant, but, after a surgeon made an incision, doctors discovered that her heart was still beating, and that she appeared to be breathing.
In a New Mexico incident cited by the Times, a woman began showing signs of regaining consciousness, but doctors continued to prepare her for organ procurement. She eventually regained consciousness, and her organs were ultimately not harvested.
One Florida man set to be used as an organ donor bit down on his breathing tube and cried, but was nevertheless taken off from life-support so that his organs could be removed.
According to the Times, concerning cases have increased as the U.S. has increasingly used a standard called “donation after circulatory death” to determine eligibility. In those cases, patients are on life support or in a coma, but not brain-dead. With the consent of the family, life-support is withdrawn, and patients are prepared for organ procurement.
Multiple hospital workers told the newspaper that they had seen doctors administer drugs to hasten the death of patients scheduled for donation after circulatory death.
Organ procurement groups have an incentive to bend rules when assessing potential donors, because waiting too long to harvest a donor’s organs will result in organs no longer being viable. According to the Times, the federal government began pressuring procurement agencies to procure more organs in 2020, under the first Trump Administration, when the HHS began grading them based on how many organs they successfully procured.
