My biggest nightmare demise as a kid growing up was quicksand. Nothing beat it for sheer terror or waking up in the middle of the night - not monsters, space creatures, or vampires.
Quicksand.
How did The Mummy always die when nothing else worked?
Off into the swamp he went to sink away.
GLUB GLUB GLUB
It wasn't until I got older that other things gave me the heebie jeebies, and I gradually worked out of the quicksand freakouts.
Blazing Saddles was good therapy for that.
Besides, technology had advanced in not gentle steps, but light-years by the time I reached adulthood.
Not being able to return from space - there's one.
Having anaesthesia that incapacitates but doesn't anaesthetise - WOOF. There's another biggie.
But in the age of everyone has 'I'm an organ donor' checked on their driver's license, and the number of organs that can be transplanted now, with the lucrative market for them?
You know - you kinda wanna make sure someone in charge is making sure that you've really moved on to...um...better pastures before they start carving you up to dole bits of you out.
I get that time is of the essence in these matters - fresh is better - but then again, so is 'being really dead.'
Trust on both sides of the donation equation - that I'm 'dead' and that you're waiting until that's a verified fact - is essential to the operation of the entire organ transplant system.
YOU'RE NOT FOOLIN' ANYONE, Y'KNOW
So reports like this one breaking out of New Jersey, for which I get to thank brother Bingley, induce a real case of heebie jeebies and a tickle of doubt about the integrity of that trust being compromised at the worst - and last - moment of one's life.
Frankly, that would suck.
NJ Group Tried To Harvest Organs From Live Patient, Misled Grieving Families, Whistleblowers Say
VURT DA FURK?
Senior leaders of a major organ donor organization are accused of directing medical staff to remove parts from an individual who still showed signs of life, recklessly discarding hundreds of organs, exploiting donors, and covering up other actions by deleting records.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means ("the Committee") said nearly a dozen whistleblowers say Carolyn Welsh, President and CEO of the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network (NJTO), and others with the organization of carrying out elaborate schemes to raise their donor totals. In one case, it is alleged Welsh directed on-site hospital staff to proceed with a medical procedure despite the fact she is not a trained medical professional.
Oh. Oh, dear.
...Among the allegations presented by the Committee, NJTO is alleged to have thrown away 100 pancreata in what appeared to be a result of never intending to perform proper research using the organs. Whistleblowers said this was merely part of a continuous ploy to inflate the number of donors the organization was bringing in.
Duping Grieving Families
Through a partnership with New Jersey Motor Vehicles, the letter from Ways and Means states that families were allegedly duped by leaders with NJTO into believing their loved ones gave first-person consent to harvest their organs when no indication was actually available.
This is literally nightmare fuel. Thank GOD for the hospital staff.
...The Committee said a patient at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden was referred to NJTO for a potential donation in the spring. At the time, NJTO received consent from the patient's family to proceed with gathering the organs.
The NJTO then scheduled withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy for organ recovery, and the donor was declared dead before any recovery process was started.
According to information secured by the Committee, the patient then showed signs of life, and the Administrator on Call, Alyssa D'AAddio, spoke with Welsh to review the case and how to proceed.
It was at this time that Welsh told D'Addio and NJTO staff to continue with removing the organs. Hospital staff rejected the direction, and the recovery did not move forward.
Multiple whistleblowers said information in this case was deleted and/or manipulated.
Another multi-state organ donation organisation is suspected of initiating removal procedures on twenty-eight people who 'may not have been dead.'
If only you knew how bad things really arehttps://t.co/WwxmUPIIpT pic.twitter.com/KaF28XqDss
— Robert Skvarla (@RobertSkvarla) November 20, 2025
One fellow started crying as he woke up, and it still almost wasn't enough to save him.
Four years ago, an unconscious Kentucky man began to awaken as he was about to be removed from life support so his organs could be donated. Even though the man cried, pulled his legs to his chest and shook his head, officials still tried to move forward.
Now, a federal investigation has found that officials at the nonprofit in charge of coordinating organ donations in Kentucky ignored signs of growing alertness not only in that patient but also in dozens of other potential donors.
The investigation examined about 350 cases in Kentucky over the past four years in which plans to remove organs were ultimately canceled. It found that in 73 instances, officials should have considered stopping sooner because the patients had high or improving levels of consciousness.
Dear. God.
...But the investigation found that the organization’s employees repeatedly pressured families to authorize donation, improperly took over cases from doctors and tried to push hospital staff to remove life support and allow for surgery even if there were indications of growing awareness in patients.
Some employees failed to recognize that hospital sedatives or illegal drugs could mask patients’ neurological condition, meaning they might be in better shape than they seemed.
In December 2022, a 50-year-old overdose victim began stirring less than an hour after being taken off life support and started looking around. The retrieval attempt was not immediately ended, nor was the patient given any explanation.
“The patient had no idea what was going on but was becoming more aware by the minute,” records noted.
After 40 more minutes — when the patient’s organs would no longer qualify for donation — the attempt was called off, and he was moved to an intensive care unit. He later sat up and spoke with his family before dying three days later, the investigation found.
As the NYT article says, it's true even after awakening, however briefly, most of the patients did eventually die within the next few hours or days. Okay, but that's how it was meant to be.
On the other hand, some of them recovered enough to walk out of the hospital.
Were they ever informed how close they came to being a parts bin?
No one wants to think about the unthinkable.
Secretary Kennedy's investigation is disturbing to say the least. He's threatened to decertify the organisation if he doesn't get answers and is mandating 'strict corrective actions and system level changes' nationally to protect donors.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the leadership of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today announced a major initiative to begin reforming the organ transplant system following an investigation by its Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that revealed disturbing practices by a major organ procurement organization.
“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” Secretary Kennedy said. “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.”
HRSA directed the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) to reopen a disturbing case involving potentially preventable harm to a neurologically injured patient by the federally-funded organ procurement organization (OPO) serving Kentucky, southwest Ohio, and part of West Virginia. Under the Biden administration, the OPTN’s Membership and Professional Standards Committee closed the same case without action.
Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HRSA demanded a thorough, independent review of the OPO’s conduct and the treatment of vulnerable patients under its care. HRSA’s independent investigation revealed clear negligence after the previous OPTN Board of Directors claimed to find no major concerns in their internal review.
HRSA examined 351 cases where organ donation was authorized, but ultimately not completed. It found:
- 103 cases (29.3%) showed concerning features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation.
- At least 28 patients may not have been deceased at the time organ procurement was initiated—raising serious ethical and legal questions.
- Evidence pointed to poor neurologic assessments, lack of coordination with medical teams, questionable consent practices, and misclassification of causes of death, particularly in overdose cases.
Vulnerabilities were highest in smaller and rural hospitals, indicating systemic gaps in oversight and accountability. In response to these findings, HRSA has mandated strict corrective actions for the OPO, and system-level changes to safeguard potential organ donors nationally. The OPO must conduct a full root cause analysis of its failure to follow internal protocols—including noncompliance with the five-minute observation rule after the patient’s death—and develop clear, enforceable policies to define donor eligibility criteria. Additionally, it must adopt a formal procedure allowing any staff member to halt a donation process if patient safety concerns arise.
I can see where it would be easier to push ahead in the smaller hospitals. Less oversight, less help. Always a money crunch.
What a filthy business that is so vitally essential for so many desperate people.
Whistleblowers alleged several shocking cases where organs were allocated bypassing guidelines and waitlists.
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) November 19, 2025
In one specific case, NJTO executives directed frontline staff to continue the organ recovery process on a patient AFTER showing signs of life and later attempted to… pic.twitter.com/BlKbNlkkzx
...AFTER showing signs of life and later attempted to COVER IT UP.
Additionally, this specific facility allegedly set up quid-pro-quo arrangements to bypass organ allocation waitlists.
There was another story back in July that I remembered that made me squirm at the time.
...“In 2022, when she was 38 and homeless, Ms. Gallegos was hospitalized and went into a coma. Doctors at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque told her family she would never recover.
Her relatives agreed to donation, but as preparations began, they saw tears in her eyes. Their concerns were dismissed, according to interviews with the family and eight hospital workers. Donation coordinators said the tears were a reflex. (Tears can be an involuntary response to irritants.)
On the day of the planned donation, Ms. Gallegos was taken to a pre-surgery room, where her two sisters held her hands. A doctor arrived to withdraw life support. Then a sister announced she had seen Ms. Gallegos move. The doctor asked her to blink her eyes, and she complied. The room erupted in gasps.
Still, hospital workers said, the procurement organization wanted to move forward. A coordinator said it was just reflexes and suggested morphine to reduce movements. The hospital refused. Instead, workers brought her back to her room, and she made a full recovery.”
Organs can only be taken from donors who are still biologically alive. Refuse to participate in this unethical system.
What if her sisters hadn't been there? What if, again, the hospital staff hadn't refused the harvesters?
I told Bingley that when I'd heard the horror story about the fellow waking up mid-collection last year, that I'd told major dad until I could take that organ donor check mark OFF my license that he was to make SURE I was a goner in the 'dead as a doornail' sense, not in the convenient 'we need her eyeballs and her kidneys now' sense.
I have no idea what impact this is going to have on donor status numbers. They still are so desperately needed. Thank goodness Secretary Kennedy's on them.
But I'm rethinking my blanket permission - I want someone there in the hospital advocating for me.
For ME, before any discussion about donations starts.
Not to have someone double-checking in my interest as the body parts snatchers stand by?
Man - that's nightmare fuel.
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