A former emergency medical technician who once harvested organs from the deceased has described how the brutal reality of the process permanently altered his view, leading him to oppose donation for himself and his family. Mike O'Connor's unique insider experience later framed a tragic personal battle when his daughter fell critically ill.
The Procurement Technician's Chilling Account
After serving as an EMT in the Navy, Mike O'Connor spent four months working for the California Blood Bank as a procurement technician. His role involved removing organs, bone grafts, and tissue from cadavers for donation and medical research. This firsthand exposure, he says, revealed a disturbing side to the life-saving practice.
"One of the reasons I'm so against it is the way it's done. It's brutal," Mike stated. He described procedures where he would open bodies to extract not just grafts but entire joints. He recounted a cold, clinical process where a body is kept on a cold slab with blood artificially circulating until specialists arrive, sometimes hours later, to remove specific organs like kidneys and the heart.
This experience shifted him from a position of neutrality to active opposition. He and his daughter, Brittany, later made a pact after seeing a television advert about donation. "She always said: 'My heart is your heart, Dad.' And I said: 'My heart's yours too, don't ever let them take mine'," he recalled, adding their shared wish to be "buried intact" and not "butchered."
A Father's Nightmare and Hospital Confrontation
Mike's fears became horrifically real in November 2017. His 26-year-old daughter, Brittany O'Connor, a mother of two who had struggled with addiction, was taken to Fresno Community Hospital after an apparent suicide attempt left her without oxygen. She was declared brain dead and placed on life support.
Drawing on his professional knowledge, Mike became convinced the hospital was prioritising organ donation over his daughter's care. He insisted she was still responding to him and accused doctors of focusing on procurement. The situation escalated into a confrontation, resulting in police escorting Mike from the hospital premises.
Before leaving, he told an officer he was "afraid they're going to kill her" and that they would "pull the plug." He later posted frantic messages urging friends to call the hospital and demand they not terminate life support, claiming he was being kept in the dark. No one from the hospital called Mike to inform him of developments. He learned of his daughter's death three days later from a coroner calling about her remains, discovering her organs had already been removed.
Legal Aftermath and Crusade for the 'Brittany Clause'
The aftermath of Brittany's death sent Mike into a spiral of addiction, unemployment, and homelessness. In 2018, he launched a lawsuit against Fresno Community Hospital and Donor Network West, alleging Brittany's organs were taken without his consent and that he was deliberately excluded from decision-making. Although part of the case was dismissed in 2019, an appeals court ruled in 2022 that it could proceed.
Mike states the lawsuit is not about money but about exposing how organ procurement can potentially override families and the law. He is now advocating for a change in California law, proposing a new provision requiring unanimous consent for organ donation. He wants this named the 'Brittany clause' to honour his daughter's memory and prevent other families from enduring similar suffering.
This case unfolds against a critical backdrop in transplant medicine. In the United States, over 100,000 people remain on transplant waiting lists, with an estimated 22 individuals dying each day before an organ becomes available. While transplants save over 40,000 lives annually, experts like Michele Goodwin of Georgetown Law School highlight widespread inequalities, with low-income and minority patients less likely to receive transplants, pointing to systemic failures in delivering inclusive care.
