Lawmakers have opened an investigation into the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network after a series of whistleblower complaints described a series of systemic failures inside the state’s primary organ recovery organization.
The House Ways and Means Committee says the allegations reveal unacceptable conduct, far outside typical medical practice—incuding potential violations of federal law.
The committee has been gathering records for several months. According to investigators, nearly a dozen current and former employees described repeated attempts to recover organs from individuals without proper consent, pressure on staff to ignore red flags and meddling with documentation that should have been preserved for oversight.
A case at the center of the inquiry involves a patient at a Camden hospital who had been declared dead so organ recovery could begin. Witnesses told investigators the patient showed signs of spontaneous revival after they had been pronounced dead. Internal communications reviewed by the committee suggest senior leadership instructed staff to continue the procurement despite this. Hospital clinicians on the scene halted the effort and blocked further action. Employees later accused the organization of altering records tied to the incident.
Whistleblowers accused the organization of using incomplete state motor vehicle data to persuade families that their relatives had filed for organ donation even when no such record existed.
Lawmakers say the inquiry has revealed a pattern of behavior designed to inflate performance metrics. Staff described large batches of organs—including more than one hundred pancreata—being discarded without any meaningful research plan attached.
Committee members say the organization has been slow to provide records—and that the records already submitted contain gaps. Internal logs reviewed by Congress do not match information provided by whistleblowers, particularly regarding discarded organs and internal communications.
The network now faces demands for extensive documentation, staff interviews and unredacted materials related to every allegation in the report. Lawmakers say they are evaluating whether the organization has met federal obligations that allow it to operate as a tax-exempt entity.
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