Camden, New Jersey — A New Jersey organ donation organization is under congressional scrutiny after whistleblowers alleged it attempted to recover organs from a patient who was showing signs of life, according to reporting from The Hill. In a letter to the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network (NJTO), House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith and Oversight Subcommittee Chair David Schweikert detailed accusations ranging from improper procedures to fraudulent Medicare billing.
Nearly a dozen whistleblowers told the committee that NJTO staff attempted to harvest organs before verifying legal consent and manipulated or deleted documentation to conceal improper conduct. The most serious allegation involves an incident at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, where a patient pronounced dead reportedly began showing signs of life as organ recovery preparations began. According to the committee, an NJTO executive instructed staff to proceed anyway, but hospital personnel intervened and stopped the process.
Committee leaders said they received evidence that NJTO’s email servers were taken offline before related communications were deleted. They also alleged that NJTO misrepresented its authority to families by implying it could recover organs even when patients were not registered donors.
The letter further accuses NJTO President and CEO Carolyn Welsh of fostering a retaliatory workplace culture and failing to fully cooperate with the committee’s investigation. Lawmakers said documentation provided by NJTO does not match records indicating the organization disposed of far more pancreata than reported.
The committee is demanding the organization turn over missing records and respond to the allegations.
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