A former employee of a nonprofit organ recovery group has claimed she was asked to harvest organs from a person who was still living – and then fired after airing her qualms to members of Congress.
Nyckoletta Martin, 38, made the latter revelations Tuesday to the Wall Street Journal, describing how she was let go by organ collection group Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates on September 13.
Days before, a letter she wrote to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee was read and discussed on the House floor, after it alleged that there is currently outsized pressure on organ collectors.
Singling out the organ-procurement group in Kentucky where she worked, she recalled being pressured to retrieve organs from a patient before he died – while he was awake. He later left the facility alive, Martin said – choosing not to name him.
Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, abbreviated KODA, is one of 56 federally chartered nonprofits tasked with procuring organs for transplant. A spokesperson said the firm ‘strictly adheres’ to laws and national guidelines set in place by the US government.
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