(The Assembly) – The demand for organ transplants has prompted an innovative procedure that reanimates a dead body. A North Carolina surgeon worries that when it’s done incorrectly, donors might feel pain in their last moments.

She looked back at the donor, sliced open and emptied out, and was horrified. Could he have regained some level of consciousness? There is no proof that happened, but there’s no evidence it didn’t, either.

Typical NRP protocol involves clamping specific blood vessels in the heart that deliver blood to the brain before turning on the oxygenating machinery. Though the intervention isn’t codified nationally, nearly all experts agree that blood to the brain should be stopped so there’s no possibility that the donor regains brain function.

Morgan believes it’s possible that not all of the necessary vessels were clamped in this case; a steady blood pressure reading would indicate the donor had at least partial, if not full, blood flow to his brain for over an hour. (Read More)