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Rhorer said doctors failed to inform her that her brother woke up during his heart catheterization that morning. She said if they knew that, they would have known he wasn’t brain dead.

Rhorer said she didn’t know about any of this until the beginning of this year, when Nyckoletta Martin, a surgical preservation coordinator, contacted her.

Martin was on first call for Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, or KODA, and was on her way to the operation room to take over care; that’s when she received a horrifying phone call.

She was told TJ was thrashing around, crying, trying to pull his teeth out, and pushing everybody’s hands away.

“They were trying to prep and drape him for surgery, and it’s kind of crazy, but the doctors decided they were absolutely not going to do this case,” said Martin. “The KODA coordinator that was on site that day actually called KODA’s admin for some guidance and was told, ‘You will find another surgeon or you’ll lose your job because we’re going to complete this case.”

She said nobody, not even TJ himself, could believe what was happening.

“TJ has a lot of short-term memory problems {from the surgery}, but TJ knows what happened. TJ says, ‘Why me? Why did they want my organs?’ And TJ feels guilt still about he did not die so that people could get his organs to save their lives,” said Martin. “That’s horrific to me. Nobody should ever be put in that position. That’s not what his mission is about.”

An unlikely bond was formed between Martin and Rhorer. Now, they’re both demanding answers.

“When TJ woke up, why was he then sedated and paralyzed instead of taken back to the ICU immediately to have a repeat neuro exam? Why was TJ’s life not honored and he treated like a patient?” added Martin. “Everybody wants to believe this is an isolated incident, and it’s not. And it seems very shocking. You have to be able to trust those people taking care of you, and in this case, TJ’s life was literally in their hands. So where is the trust there?”