[Reiwa]

Okay as promised, in the spirit of spooky season, here are some ghoulish snips to stoke and frighten the cockles of your heart.

1.

The medical records Rhorer has for TJ say he was “declared brain-dead patient being maintained for harvesting of organs” on October 29. TJ underwent procedures to make sure his organs were fit for donation, and that afternoon, hospital workers came to the family and told them it was time.

2.

Although it’s hard to see TJ, a person in scrubs says reassuringly, “sometimes they do respond, with some reflexes,” and then asks them to stop filming out of respect for patient privacy. Notes from the case say that TJ’s eyes were open all the way down to the OR.

3.

In those treatment records, an eyewitness account of a heart catheterization – ordered by KODA and performed at Baptist Health several hours before TJ’s organs were expected to be harvested – noted that TJ had “purposeful movement to pain” during the heart procedure. His eyes were “open and tracking,” and he was “thrashing around.”


According to the record, the cardiologist commented, “I am no neurologist, but if I would most certainly call this purposeful movement, and they should not have said that patient was not going to have a meaningful recovery with these reflexes.”

Instead of stopping the procedure, the cardiologist gave TJ a paralytic called rocuronium and sedated him further with midazolam and fentanyl so the test could be completed.

4.

“Certainly, we have potential DCD donors with lots of reflexes,” Cannon said. “But as long as the family knows this is what’s happening with their loved one, this process is considered ethical and standard.”

5.

An hour ahead of TJ’s procedure, she was in the OR at Baptist Health to prep equipment and brief hospital staff on what to expect, especially with a DCD case, in which patients may open their eyes or move.

“It is very shocking for people who have never experienced it before,” she said.

6.

“No one was comfortable doing the case from the hospital,” she said. But KODA was “pushing, pushing, pushing to go.”

Miller and a trainee arrived at the hospital, where she said hospital staff was “very agitated.” She warned her trainee that “not everyone is pro-KODA.”

When Miller, an award-winning body builder and an unflappable former Marine, saw TJ for the first time, she could understand the concern. He thrashed around the entire time, and hospital staff was telling him to calm down.


Despite TJ’s agitation, the process continued. He was draped and shaved.

Miller said she noticed tears rolling down his face. He kept shaking his head as if to say no.

“I can’t even imagine, probably, the fear he felt,” Miller said.

7.

The coordinator from KODA told the doctor she’d been trying to get the case shut down all day, Miller said.

Miller added that the KODA coordinator called her manager, who yelled and pushed to get another doctor to pronounce TJ dead. The coordinator was in tears, Miller said, and the doctor who was supposed to do the organ procurement was upset and left.

Okay that's only slightly shorter.

Make sure to vote your favs.