A story about an almost-organ-removal surgery that a neurosurgeon ended before the operation began is starting to gain national traction about the rights people have in hospitals over their body parts. 

According to KFF Health News (via CNN), Larry Black Jr. of St. Louis is sharing his experience of almost undergoing a surgery to retrieve his organs before he lost brain function. He’s claiming the medical facility caring for him, SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, didn’t give him a fair chance to fight for his life when they decided he wasn’t going to overcome his medical condition.

NEW: A surgical team prepared to harvest this man’s organs. He was still alive. Now he’s telling his story to @CaraRAnthony. https://t.co/QND77UxJBk— KFF Health News (@KFFHealthNews) September 12, 2025

What happened in the operating room? 

In March 2019, Black suffered a head injury from a gunshot, which resulted in a medically induced coma. A week after being in the hospital’s care, it was determined that the then 22-year-old was in a state where recovery was no longer possible. Just as the surgical team was about to open Black’s chest for the scheduled removal of his internal organs, which would have been donated to save lives, a doctor named Zohny Zohny intervened and ordered the procedure to be stopped.

“Get him off the table,” Zohny told KFF Health News he said, recalling the moment he ran into the operating room as staff were moments away from ending the now 28-year-old’s life. “This is my patient. Get him off the table.”

When the team was at first confused by the direction from Zohny, who was in his first year as a neurosurgeon, he revealed that he was the neurosurgeon assigned to Black’s patient file. Before following his command, the medical staff argued that his relatives had given their approval for the surgery. 

“I don’t care if we have consent,” Zohny recalled responding to the objections. “I haven’t spoken to the family, and I don’t agree with this. Get him off the table.”

Black, who is thankful to be alive and for the chance to be a musician, said his memory of hearing his family uplifting him and standing by his side while lying on the operating table always resurfaces. 

“I heard my mama yelling,” the artist remembered about his time while in the coma, per KFF Health News. “Everybody was there yelling my name, crying, playing my favorite songs, sending prayers up.”

KFF Health News reported that Black tried to assure his kin he was okay by blinking his eyes and making small movements to create sounds in hopes of catching his family’s attention.

Could stronger policies prevent cases like this?

An official Health and Human Services press release published in July, titled “HHS Finds Systemic Disregard for Sanctity of Life in Organ Transplant System,” includes a mention from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that there needs to be a revision of the current organ donor operations system.

“Our findings show that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”

Zohny doesn’t place blame on SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, but he does believe more measures need to be included in the guidelines and regulations concerning organ removal surgeries, despite the benefits of donated organs.

“There was no bad guy in this. It was a bad setup. There’s a problem in the system,” the neurosurgeon said. “We need to look at the policies and make some adjustments to them to make sure that we’re doing organ donation for the right person at the right time in the right place, with the right specialists involved.”
The post Black Man From St. Louis Almost Had His Organs Removed Before A Doctor Stepped In, Sparks Policy Debate appeared first on Blavity.



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