RFK Jr. Moves To Shutter Florida Organ Donation Network Accused of Bungling Hundreds of Cases

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is moving to shut down an organ procurement agency for what he calls years of “repeated violations” of federal rules, including being so unorganized that it may miss one organ recovery opportunity a day.There are 100,000 people on organ donation lists in America and 28,000 organs go unmatched every year. The closure would mark the first time an agency is shut down for failures. Mr. Kennedy says mistrust in the system is driving people away from becoming potential organ donors.“Decades of ignored patient safety concerns have driven more and more Americans off donor lists,” Mr. Kennedy said at a press briefing on Thursday.Mr. Kennedy says the Department of Health and Human Services is moving to decertify the major organ procurement organization in Florida. Mr. Kennedy accused the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System, of a long record of deficiencies directly tied to patient harm.Mr. Kennedy claims the agency has less than half the staff it needs, and that has caused up to eight missed organ recoveries a week for years. In one 2024 case, a mistake allegedly led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting transplant surgery.The administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, says an average of 13 patients die each day waiting for an organ and the procurement system needs “tough love.”“These are big numbers and it repeats every single day without notice and that’s why we don’t want to lose organs because of paperwork issues or incompetence or inefficiencies,” Dr. Oz says.Organ procurement organizations are nonprofits responsible for coordinating the recovery of organs for transplantation. They help match and allocate organs through the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency can continue to operate as it appeals the decertification, a process that can take months. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The New York Sun.Mr. Kennedy has been pushing for reforms in the organ procurement network of more than 50 organizations since his confirmation. An investigation into another agency this summer found that at least 28 patients may not have been deceased at the time of organ preparation, and 73 patients showed neurological signs incompatible with donation. The investigation closed without action.The investigation started due to an October 2021 case involving a man who had been admitted to the hospital in cardiac arrest. Anthony Thomas Hoover II, a registered organ donor, was admitted to a Kentucky hospital and preparations for organ retrieval started after he was believed to be brain dead.At some point during the preparatory work in the operating room, Mr. Hoover showed signs of life and began “thrashing around.” Administrators reportedly pushed for the operation to move forward but it was stopped after one of the doctors said it was “inhumane and unethical” and she refused to participate in the process.Mr. Hoover ended up recovering. He is still alive today and lives with his sister, who is now his legal guardian.The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network opened an investigation and quickly closed it without action. Mr. Kennedy ordered the investigation reopened.Mr. Kennedy’s agency is working to implement several reforms including adding safeguards that prevent line-skipping in organ allocation, a strengthened misconduct reporting system, and a transparency tool that shows when organs are allocated outside the standard match list.

RFK Jr. Moves To Shutter Florida Organ Donation Network Accused of Bungling Hundreds of Cases

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