RFK Jr., the chief of the nation’s Department of Health and Human Services, has announced the decertification of “Network for Hope,” an organ procurement company working in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia.
The group, which sought to obtain organs and then deliver them for transplant procedures, was cited for “extensive” patient safety failures.
In one case cited by Kennedy, a patient was on an operating room table and was showing awareness of his situation with the procurement company pushing for completion of the harvesting.
Surgeons refused and that man remains alive today because of their decision.
Kennedy said the organization put patients on organ donation pathways “who never should have been there,” and sometimes the donation procedures continued even though the patients were not appropriate organ donors.
.@SecKennedy announces the decertification of the organ procurement organization, ‘Network for Hope,’ due to persistent patient safety failures.
“One of those cases involved [a young man who] showed signs of awareness while on the operating table about to have his organs… pic.twitter.com/yC9sWOBJcG
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 5, 2026
The decision followed a year-long investigation and the conclusion that the network violated patient rights and safety “by pursuing organs without confirming that the donor had died.”
The action followed “repeated oversights, repeated warnings, corrective action plans, and multiple opportunities to improve.”
He said, “We will not tolerate organizations that compromise patient safety or betray the trust of donors or their families.”
The patient who responded on the operating table was Anthony Thomas “TJ” Hoover II.
He was suffering from drug overdose when his family was told he would not survive and consented to donation.
Then he woke up just as the surgery was to begin.
His sister, Donna Rohrer, explained her brother “was thrashing, crying, and grabbing the doctor’s hands to stop him” as the organ retrieval was beginning.
Network of Hope wanted to continue but the surgeons refused.
The investigation confirmed there actually were about 70 other patients who exhibited signs of alertness during their surgeries.
