A family in grief over the August 1 death of their son in a violent car wreck in North Carolina is accusing the hospital who tried to save his life of trying to kill him to steal and harvest his organs.
Terrance Howard, once a defensive back for the Alabama Crimson Tide, died in the Atrium Hospital after the car crash that took his life on Interstate 85. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and ended up on life support.
His parents, though, don’t think Atrium hospital tried to save his life. Instead, they think medicos tried to kill him. In numerous videos posted to social media, the family complained about the care given to Terrance and said the hospital tried to snuff him out as part of a scheme to harvest organs. Terrance’s father, Anthony Allen, said Atrium “put something in Terrance’s IV to kill him.”
It is an extraordinary claim, and Anthony Allen said the hospital even tried to stop the family from transferring Terrance to another medical facility. His mother, who has not been named, claimed that the hospital told her “they wanted my son’s organs.” She further claimed that doctors were trying to kill her son in order to get them.
Atrium is trying to thread the needle between defending itself against accusations of attempted murder by a grieving family, and staying on the right side of medical privacy laws. In a statement in response to the family’s accusations, the hospital said federal privacy laws prevent it from answering specific health questions about individual patients.
But Atrium has some of the best medical professionals in the country, according to the statement, and does everything it can to give the best care and keep patients safe. In a nod to the family’s tragic circumstances, Atrium offered its “deepest sympathies” to the family, and said it works hard to communicate very difficult medical news to families accurately, even though it may be difficult for them to hear.
While it is impossible to prove a negative, there is little evidence that murder-for-organs, or illegal organ harvesting, occurs in the United States. It is ordinary practice for doctors to approach patient families to request permission to retrieve organs for transplant when it appears the patient will die. Some families find this offensive and react with suspicion.
It appears to be a different story in China. International organizations have long accused the communist country of forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners.
