The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will effectively shut down the Kentucky organ donation group Network for Hope over "persistent patient safety failures,” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday.
NPR reported in 2024 on an incident several years earlier in which the organ donation organization had attempted to retrieve organs from a patient, Anthony Thomas "TJ" Hoover II of Richmond, who had been declared dead but was “crying visibly” when the group tried to go ahead with the retrieval.
“We found repeated failures in clinical judgment, oversight and patient safety,” Kennedy said at a news conference. “We found that these problems continued even after the organization promised to correct them.”
Kennedy said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has reviewed 351 cases between 2021 and 2024, and found nearly 30% showed “concerning failures,” including many in which patients had neurological signs that should rule out donation. Network for Hope covers Kentucky and parts of Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana.
Hoover’s sister Donna Rhorer spoke at the news conference Wednesday and said she witnessed what happened to her brother. She said those responsible need to be held accountable.
“They prepared to recover his organs while he was still alive,” Rhorer said. “My brother almost died that day. That should never happen to anyone.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for Medicare and Medicaid services, said the move sends a clear message to both organ transplant groups and any healthcare provider.
“If you can’t be trusted to safeguard patients and be responsible stewards of American taxpayer dollars, we’ll find organizations that can,” Oz said in a statement.
Reporting on concerning incidents involving Network for Hope sparked broad concern in Kentucky, including among state legislators. This year, GOP state Rep. Jason Nemes of Middletown sponsored and successfully passed a bill designed to require more oversight and accountability during the organ donation process.
House Bill 510 requires a “pause in procedure” if an organ donor has a suspected or observed charge in neurological status, indications of life, or if there is any uncertainty. It also allows medical staff, transplant personnel or the patient’s spouse to request a pause. The pause has to be documented and reported and all organ donation recovery stopped.
Kentucky GOP Congressman Brett Gurthrie, who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, applauded Kennedy’s move, calling it “decisive action” to protect American patients.
“We have conducted rigorous oversight of the alarming practices in our organ procurement and transplantation system, and the American people deserve to have an organ procurement and transplantation system that they can trust,” Guthrie said in a statement. “This action takes a step forward in restoring integrity back to that system."
Network for Hope said in a statement it "strongly disagrees" with the decision and intends to appeal. It said it is compliant with Kentucky’s new law and worked with lawmakers to make the bill happen.
"NFH is compliant with all [Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network] policies and has implemented a first-of-its-kind 'pause in procedure' process,” the statement reads. “This pause process is now Kentucky law and NFH proudly worked hand-in-hand with legislators and regulators by providing input in the drafting both of the new law and its implementing regulations.”
The organization also pointed to statistics that show that deceased donations dipped in 2025 for the first time in a decade, by about 2.5%. However, the total number of organ transplants still went up as living organ donations increased by 3%, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
