Woman Narrowly Escapes Organ Removal After Waking Up In Operating Room

A woman has opened up about a terrifying experience where she nearly had her organs removed—even though she suddenly woke up right there on the operating table.

There have been plenty of theories and fears floating around about organ donation, especially when it comes to organs being harvested too early, before someone is actually declared dead.

Although this sounds like the kind of thing you’d see in a horror film, it turned into a very real and traumatic event for one woman who found herself powerless on an operating table inside a hospital in New Mexico.

Danella Gallegos considers herself incredibly lucky to be alive today, especially after almost having her organs removed while she was in a coma back in 2022.

At the time, Danella was 38 years old and living without a permanent home. She experienced a medical crisis that led to her being admitted to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque.

Her condition looked bleak, and the doctors told her loved ones that she wasn’t going to recover. Based on that heartbreaking update, her family made the emotional decision to donate her organs. Plans were set in motion for the procedure.

That’s when New Mexico Donor Services stepped in and took charge of the donation process.

Just a few days before the scheduled surgery, Danella’s family said they noticed tears rolling down her cheeks.

Doctors allegedly dismissed this and told them it was likely just a reflex reaction.

Danella Gallegos was awake on the operating table when it was decided to donate her organs Facebook

While it’s true that tear production can sometimes happen as a reflex when the eye's surface is stimulated, it isn’t something that always occurs in patients who are in comas.

But on the day her organs were scheduled to be removed, Danella’s sisters became convinced she was still alive.

They said she moved slightly when they held her hand. Despite that, she was still wheeled into the pre-op area.

That’s where the truth about her condition became clear.

Doctors were reportedly shocked when she suddenly became responsive—she even blinked her eyes when asked to.

You might assume this would bring everything to a screeching halt, but a report by the New York Times claims that the organ coordinator present allegedly insisted it was just another reflex.

They reportedly told the medical staff to administer morphine to reduce her reactions and proceed with the procedure anyway.

Fortunately, the doctors involved stood their ground. They chose not to go forward with the surgery and removed Danella from the operating area. She later went on to recover fully.

Now, two years after the ordeal, she shared her feelings with the New York Times, saying: "I feel so fortunate. But it's also crazy to think how close things came to ending differently."

The surgeons immediately refused to conduct the organ removal when they realised Danella was alive Getty Stock Images

According to reports, hospital staff told the outlet that they felt pressured by New Mexico Donor Services to continue with the donation process—even though many of them had serious reservations about doing so.

Responding to these allegations, Presbyterian Hospital clarified that Donor Services is responsible for overseeing every part of the donation process. The hospital has since started an internal investigation into what happened.

In a statement to the Times, New Mexico Donor Services insisted that it doesn’t get involved in medical decisions. They emphasized that it's the hospitals that make final decisions about patient care—something that seems to contradict the hospital’s version of events.

There’s another case with chilling similarities, where a man nearly went through organ donation procedures before he was even declared clinically dead.

Back in October 2021, Anthony Thomas 'TJ' Hoover II was hospitalized following a drug overdose. He was pronounced dead, and since he was listed as an organ donor, the staff at Baptist Health hospital in Richmond, Kentucky, began prepping him for organ removal surgery.

But when he was brought into the operating room, doctors noticed something alarming—he was actually moving.

The surgeon on duty made the immediate decision not to proceed with the operation.

When the organ coordinator insisted on continuing, the surgeon reportedly said they’d need to find someone else to carry out the procedure if that was the case.

In response, the supervisor is said to have gotten angry, yelling that there was “no one else” who could do it.