“Feeling Lucky to Be Alive”: Woman Wakes Up on OR Table Just Before Organ Harvesting

In 2022, 38-year-old Danella Gallegos fell into a coma in New Mexico, and doctors had informed her family she would likely not recover. With consent given for organ donation, preparations were underway — even though family members noted tears in her eyes, which coordinators dismissed as reflexes. In the OR, a doctor asked her to blink, and she did — yet donation staff reportedly urged continuation of the harvesting, suggesting morphine to suppress movement. Fortunately, the surgeons refused and halted the procedure. Danella has since made a full recovery and filed a formal complaint; an official investigation is now under way.