Like a scene out of a movie, a patient awoke at a Syracuse hospital this past week just as doctors were preparing to harvest the individual's organs. According to reports, the incident happened at St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center. Back in 2009, the patient was placed on a table for organ harvesting when she opened eyes. Federal agencies criticized St. Joseph's for mistreating the patient and failing to investigate the cause of death.

Investigations show that the patient with the initials C.B. arrived at the hospital after a drug overdose. She had already agreed that should she remain in a comatose state she wanted to donate her organs to those in need. The Health Department discovered that not enough testing was done to see if the woman was free of all drugs, which could have damaged her organs even if she had passed away. As well, the hospital did not perform enough brain scans when the patient arrived, and doctors ignored a nurse's observations that C.B. was not dead and that her condition was improving and she could recover from the overdose.

The hospital did not investigate what went wrong in this shocking incident until the state of New York insisted on an inspection. The investigation discovered that St. Joseph's had acceptable organ procurement policies and procedures, but had been negligent to remain attentive to C.B. The patient recovered from her overdose and was discharged from the hospital only two weeks after she was almost killed by the doctors in that operating room. She had overdosed on Xanax, Benadryl, and a muscle relaxant.

Unfortunately, C.B. passed away in January of 2011 when she committed suicide. Her family members claim were shocked and terrified after she was almost killed by doctors for her organs. Her mother does not believe that this was the reason that she committed suicide. C.B., a mother of three, was already depressed, and her mother says that the near death experience hardly made any difference to her. The doctors never explained what went wrong during the miscommunication, and the patient's family is still trying to demand answers.

C.B.'s family never sued the hospital for the incident, and St. Joseph's claims that they work with the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network and follow strict policies and procedures for organ donation. The policies were followed in the case with C.B. Officials at the hospital say that they thought that C.B. suffered from cardiac death in October of 2009 when she came in after her overdose. Her family had already agreed to allow doctors to withdraw her life support and remove her organs when they were told that she was dead.

The day before her organs were going to be removed, the nurse performed a reflex test on C.B. The nurse says that she remembers watching C.B.'s toes curl downward, a reaction that proved that she was not dead. There were other indications that C.B. was still alive; her nostrils flared in prep outside the operation room, and she seemed to be breathing independently of the respirator she was attached to at the time. As well, nurses say that they saw her lips and tongue move. Only twenty minutes after these signs of life were observed, C.B. was given a sedation injection and brought into the operation room. No record of the sedative was placed on her files.

C.B> had been in a deep coma, and doctors assumed that it was irreversible. They were shocked when she opened her eyes, coming out of the coma, when wheeled into the operating room. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were upset at St. Joseph's response to the incident. In the end, the hospital was only fined $6,000 for the incident. If you have experienced a negative situation in a hospital, then you need to seek compensation immediately in the form of medical malpractice. Hire a lawyer today for more information!