What Organ Donors Need to Know Before Signing on the Dotted Line
Three "Brain Dead" Patients Survive to Tell Their Stories
What do Lewis Roberts, Zack Dunlap, and Trenton McKinley have in common? They are all survivors. Not just survivors of head trauma caused by accidents — but they are survivors of what might have been medical murder due to premature organ harvesting.
Here are their stories.
Lewis Roberts Starts Breathing Hours Before Organ Harvesting
After suffering a tragic automobile accident, 18-year-old Lewis Roberts was declared “brain” dead and was slated for organ harvesting.
Sky News reports:
In March 2021, 18-year-old Lewis Roberts was declared brain stem dead after a road accident but began breathing independently hours before his organs were to be extracted for donation. Today he is well enough to play football and basketball.
Last month his sister told Sky News the test is done too soon.
"They rushed it through," she said.
"Eight months ago he was sat in a wheelchair, his eyes were gone, he couldn't speak. From how he was then to how he is now, that just shows that the brain can heal given the time."1
Today, Lewis Roberts is alive enough to participate in sports.
What if his organs had been harvested mere hours earlier?
Zack Dunlap Spared from Organ Harvesting Thanks to Friend’s Persistence
On November 17, 2007, Zack Dunlap was riding his 450R Honda 4 Wheeler with friends when a carefree decision led to a tragic accident and major head trauma. One friend described Dunlap as almost unrecognizable, with massive swelling on the lower part of his head and grey matter coming out of his ear.
You can watch the story here:
While on the table, Dunlap heard the medical team pronounce him brain dead and that there was nothing they could do to save him. Dunlap felt helpless because he could not move or indicate in any way that he was aware. He tried to scream and move, but his body would not respond. Dunlap was on a ventilator and had a low pulse as well as low blood pressure. The organ donation liaison was meeting with the parents, making final arrangements; the organ transplant team was en route to the hospital; and everything was on track for the organ harvesting to take place.
By God’s grace, Dunlap’s cousin, who was also a nurse, intervened by asking persistent questions and insisting on conducting his own testing. With each “positive” response the cousin saw, the harvesting team gave a rebuttal that it was merely a reflex. Finally, the cousin asked, “Well what would you need to see?”
The harvest team responded, “They teach us in brain death class,” that we would need to “have a coordinated movement, such as moving an appendage across the midline of the body” to prove they were not brain dead.
So the cousin jabbed his fingernail under Dunlap’s fingernail to elicit a pain response. As a result, Dunlap hurled his hand over his body, grabbed the hand of one of the nurses, and threw his leg off the bed.
At this point, the team could not deny that the patient was not brain dead. And because of the persistence of his cousin, Zach Dunlap is alive today.
“After 48 days in the hospital, he was sent home and lives a fully recovered life.”2
What if Dunlap didn’t have a cousin advocating for him in the hospital?
Trenton McKinley’s Parents Wanted to Help Five Children by Donating Their Son’s Organs
Trenton McKinley suffered severe brain trauma “when a small utility trailer he was riding flipped over.”3
"I hit the concrete, and the trailer landed on top of my head. After that, I don't remember anything," McKinley told reporters.4
“He suffered seven skull fractures in the accident, and his parents were told that Trenton would never be the same.”5
In March 2018, Trenton McKinley was declared “Brain Dead” according to medical standards.
McKinley’s parents signed papers for Trenton’s organ donation “because five kids needing transplants were a match.”6
The day before the harvest surgery, Trenton McKinley started showing signs of life, and the plan to harvest his organs was stopped.
"From no brain waves to now walking and talking and reading, doing math. A miracle," his mother said.
It has been a long recovery, but Trenton McKinley is alive today.
But what if the organ harvesting had begun a day sooner?
Read additional stories of people that recovered after a diagnosis of brain death.
Is Brain Dead Really Dead?
Dr. Phillip Kayser suggests we should not get our definition of life and death from our modern “culture of death.” Instead, we need to “look to Scripture.”
He writes:
Too many Christians blindly take the advice of a doctor or lawyer and they end up violating God's law. In fact, I had a friend call me up from Lincoln a few years ago saying that he had an emergency and needed my advice. He was listed as the decision maker on harvesting organs from his cousin. She had been in a car accident that day and was declared brain dead, and because she had an organ donation card, they were very eager to get her organs immediately. So the doctors and administrators were putting a great deal of pressure on my friend. I asked a few questions to make sure that I understood the situation, and then told him unequivocally that she was not dead. The Bible defines death as cardio pulmonary – the life is in the blood and there is the breath of life that oxygenates the blood. The life is not in a beating heart. A person can have an artificial heart keeping him alive for a long time. The life is not in the brain. The life is in the blood. Anyway, he refused to allow the organ harvesting. And boy were they mad. They did everything they could to get him to change his mind and to circumvent him. But they were not successful, and a week later, his cousin was up and walking around, and as healthy as before. Believe me, she has a totally different perspective on organ donation cards now.
I have seen this too many times. Brain death is a wrong criterion for death. And yet ethicists are so desperate to get organs in this lucrative organ transplant industry that they keep pressuring the government to redefine death as social death. In other words, if you are unconscious, you are socially dead even if you have brain activity. If you are retarded, you are socially dead, even if you can kiss and hug your mama. Brothers and sisters, our culture of death is expanding, and we need the compass of Scripture to safely navigate the waters. Most organ transplants involve murdering an individual. Not all, but most. Medicine is a complex area of ethics.7
As it stands, it is nearly useless to harvest organs from a cadaver. The body must be alive so that the organs can be successfully transplanted. Organ harvesting is done without pain medication. If a person is still aware — as was Zack Dunlap — imagine the horrific pain and terror of having their heart, eyes, or another organ harvested while they could not do or say anything. We may never know how many people have suffered this tragic demise.
In the podcast I’m about to share, Dr. Heidi Klessig tells the story of a woman who woke up as her organs were being harvested. Since the procedure had already started — it was too late to save her. The cause of death was listed as a homicide due to organ harvesting.
Did anyone tell you these stories before asking you to sign up as an organ donor?
Out of The Question Podcast Dives into the Ethics of Organ Donations
While this topic has been heavy on my heart for many years, I recently listened to an excellent podcast with Dr. Heidi Klessig, author of “The Brain Death Fallacy.”
[As an Amazon affiliate — I will earn a small commission if you order her book from my link — and you will help support my work. Thanks in advance.]
I strongly recommend that you listen to Dr. Heidi Klessig discuss her book and the surrounding ethics of organ harvesting on the Out of the Question Podcast. It is not an easy topic — but it is a critical one.
It could literally save a life — maybe even yours.
Out of the Question Podcast episode 261: Is “Brain Death” a Convenient Fallacy? with Andrea Schwartz and Dr. Heidi Klessig.
https://news.sky.com/story/brain-death-test-in-uk-under-review-after-baby-declared-dead-began-breathing-independently-12681630
https://www.respectforhumanlife.com/survivors
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trenton-mckinley-regains-consciousness-after-parents-sign-papers-to-donate-his-organs-2018-05-06/
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
https://biblicalblueprints.com/Sermons/LifeOfDavid/1%20Samuel%2031_1-6