(The Hill) — The House Ways and Means Committee is demanding an answer from a New Jersey organ donation group accused of engaging in illegal practices, including harvesting organs from a person who was showing signs of life.
In a letter to the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and oversight subcommittee Chair David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) laid out numerous whistleblower allegations made against the organization.
Nearly a dozen whistleblowers shared allegations with the committee that the NJTO fraudulently billed Medicare, covering up improper procedures and failing to receive patient consent before harvesting organs, among other accusations.
The committee cited a specific incident at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden, N.J., where a patient reanimated after being pronounced dead in order to start organ harvesting. Information obtained by the committee suggests an executive at NJTO told staffers on site to proceed with harvesting organs when asked what to do. Hospital staff intervened, and the organs were not recovered.
“Several whistleblowers have alleged that documentation regarding this case has been deleted or otherwise manipulated. The Committee is also aware that on or around July 13, 2025, NJTO email servers were taken down before the emails related to this [donation after circulatory death] case were deleted,” the committee’s letter stated.
Addressing NJTO President and CEO Carolyn Welsh, the panel wrote, “The Committee further understands that you—someone with no clinical training—decided to proceed from outside of the hospital, even while the hospital staff on site shared concerns about your decision.”
The committee additionally cited information it received indicating the NJTO manipulated documentation to tell patients’ families the organization had the authority to recover their organs even if the patients were not currently listed as organ donors on their driver’s licenses.
“If true, not only is this aggressive behavior a potential violation of state law, it also breaks trust in the organ transplant system, which is vital to maintaining crucial life-saving services,” their letter stated.
On top of these allegations of misconduct, the committee shared whistleblower accusations that Welsh “created a culture of fear and retaliation within your organization.”
As the committee investigated these allegations throughout this year, they claim the NJTO failed to provide full and accurate information.
“The Committee is aware that NJTO is in possession of information that it has not produced. Documents provided by NJTO indicate that it discarded only 79 pancreata from 2021 through September of 2024,” the panel stated. “However, as previously stated, the Committee has documentation of NJTO’s mass discard of 100 pancreata on March 18, 2024, which is clearly not reflected in NJTO’s production.”
NewsNation partner The Hill has reached out to the NJTO for comment.