New Jersey organ procurement organization under congressional investigation after 'alarming' whistleblower claims

Source: CNN

Health * 4 Min Read

New Jersey organ procurement organization under congressional investigation after ‘alarming’ whistleblower claims

By Jen Christensen
4 hr ago
PUBLISHED Nov 19, 2025, 6:45 PM ET

The US House Ways and Means Committee said Wednesday that it is investigating the organ procurement organization for the New Jersey region for what it called “extreme abuse of public trust” and possible illegal activity, including trying to procure organs from people who didn’t volunteer to be donors and, in at least one case, trying to continue with the organ recovery process in a patient who had “reanimated.”

The allegations were discussed in a letter the committee sent to the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, one of 55 organ procurement organizations that are federally designated nonprofits tasked with the multibillion-dollar business of managing the recovery of organs for transplantation in the United States. ... The committee, which has investigated several organ procurement organizations over what the lawmakers say is behavior considered unacceptable, says it has been asking the New Jersey network for records and information at least since July.

Investigators spoke with nearly a dozen whistleblowers, the letter says. One of the incidents it highlights involves an unnamed patient at the Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, New Jersey. The patient was pronounced dead and the network started the process to recover their organs, the letter says, but soon after the recovery process began, the person “reanimated.” ... The procurement team called the network’s chief executive officer to find out what to do. Witnesses told the committee that the CEO instructed the NJTO staff on site to “proceed with recovery,” according to the letter. “However, hospital staff intervened, and recovery did not move forward.”

Neither the hospital nor the procurement organization responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/health/new-jersey-organ-transplant-investigation