'Morally And Clinically Indefensible': Erin Houchin Presses HHS Official On Premature Organ Removals

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During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IN) spoke about an investigation into the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, now known as Network for Hope.

Transcript

00:00The gentleman yields. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from Indiana, Ms.

00:04Houchen, for her five minutes of questioning. Thank you Mr. Chairman and

00:08congratulations on your chairmanship of this subcommittee. I'm grateful for the

00:13opportunity to weigh in on this extremely important topic. Every year

00:17tens of thousands of lives are saved because individuals make the courageous

00:21and selfless decision to donate their organs. The reality is organ donation is

00:25rare. Only about 1% of people who register as a donor are eligible to

00:29donate their organs at the time of death. That's why we must treat every case with

00:33the utmost care, integrity, and accountability. When we fail to maintain

00:37rigorous oversight and ensure ethical practices we risk eroding public

00:42confidence in the foundation of that system. Today's hearing not only touches

00:46on the safety of individual patients but the sustainability of the organ donation

00:50system. HRSA's report lays out deeply troubling findings particularly with

00:55respect to the actions of the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates or KYDA now called

01:02the Network for Hope. These findings hit particularly close to home for me as the

01:07organization under investigation serves my hometown community of Southern Indiana.

01:11The actions of KYDA to repeatedly continue to pursue organ recovery despite

01:18multiple signs of neurological function is not just alarming, it's morally and

01:22clinically indefensible. We are talking here about vulnerable patients, rural patients

01:28struggling with drug addiction, grieving families facing impossible decisions. When

01:35the public places trust in our organ procurement organizations, that trust must be earned and honored

01:40every single time. The failure to act upon clear signs of life, ignoring the pleading pressure

01:47by placed on by hospital staff, and the absence of non-partial accountability mechanisms raise serious

01:55questions about oversight and safeguards in the system. Dr. Lynch, your report makes it clear that existing

02:01protocols were not followed. Why did the oversight framework in place fail before the incidents were

02:09reported? And is it a broader systemic issue or is it limited to KYDA?

02:16Unfortunately, it is not limited to KYDA. During the course of this investigation, we received

02:25concerns that were in areas served by other OPOs. The failure here is at multiple levels. So the OPO

02:32has a responsibility to conduct quality reviews and to conduct good oversight, to conduct good training

02:39for its staff to make sure that they know what to look for and to make sure that they feel empowered to

02:44stop the process. These are all important things at a local level. HRSA's oversight here is through

02:50the OPTN on the system and the OPTN and its contractors review of this was poor.

02:55Thank you. I'm very concerned that we wouldn't know about this had it not been necessarily for the

03:03whistleblower who notified that wrote a letter to the committee alleging that a patient had been

03:12inaccurately pronounced brain dead and was pursued as an organ donor by KYDA. And per the report, the

03:17patient who was the victim of a drug overdose showed clear signs of life at multiple points. But KYDA

03:23senior staff directed that that the organ recovery proceed. We would not necessarily know about the

03:30depths that this has gone at KYDA were it not for that whistleblower who was subsequently fired by a

03:35procurement agency. Is that your understanding? Yes. So I'm concerned about what appears to be, and I think

03:44some of your testimony today reflects this, that there is an apparent conflict of interest in the

03:49oversight that HRSA is now working to correct. And I want to thank you for that on behalf of the constituents

03:55that I represent. But I wanted to get your thoughts on, you know, we talk about the ANRs that we know about with

04:03respect to DCD procurements. How many DCD procurements were completed by KYDA during the HRSA review process?

04:12Do you know that? I can't speak to, I can't recall to be perfectly honest the exact number, but it was,

04:20I believe that the ratio overall was about one to one, so on the order of 300 maybe. So you can understand

04:26that I might be concerned that the ANRs are just the ones that we know about, and that some that were

04:31completed, they were followed through with despite the warning signs that may have been present with

04:36the ANRs? That's a valid concern. Well I just want, in the remaining time I have, I know that that HRSA has

04:45asked OPTN to report on within 30 days some of their findings. Have you received anything from OPTN at this

04:54point that met your metric to develop and implement a 12-month monitoring plan for KYDA? Have they done

05:02that? Yes, we've started on that process and had meetings with them. Okay, they're supposed to issue

05:07that report on how they are going to monitor it. Have they done that? That is due at the end of this month.

05:13Okay, well I want to thank you for being here today. I look forward to us working together to improve

05:20accountability and transparency in our donation system. I remain concerned. It's clear there's

05:25a lot of work to be done to restore trust in the organ procurement network, particularly with respect

05:31to the troubling findings of KYDA. My last question with the time I have is, do you have concerns that

05:37KYDA is continuing under the current framework, given the concerns that have been shared to the committee?

05:44We believe that the corrective action plan that we're putting into place will enable them to perform

05:48in a safe fashion. Thank you.

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