Hospital Speaks Out After HBCU Football Player Dies Amid Parents’ Organ Harvesting Accusations
Terrance Howard. | Source: Facebook.com/bishopaaallen
A hospital where a college football player died last week is speaking out following viral claims of organ harvesting at the medical facility in North Carolina.
Terrance Howard, 19-year-old Texas native and student at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), died on Thursday, weeks after he suffered injuries in a car accident that reportedly left him brain dead. During Howard’s hospitalization at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, his parents said in a series of videos posted on Facebook that the medical treatment their son was receiving was “a disgrace” because the hospital wanted to take him off of life support.
Bishop Anthony Allen, Howard’s father, noted on July 26, that “a lot of hospitals are quick to pull the plug.”
When Howard’s family requested a transfer to a different hospital, a staffer administered unknown drugs to Howard on Thursday, his family said. Allen suggested the hospital took Howard off of life support against the family’s wishes.
Howard’s mother suggested they were the victims of a sinister plot involving organ harvesting, an illegal practice defined by the International Society for Human Rights as “the selling and transplanting of the organs of victims.”
Howard’s mother claimed the hospital wanted “to kill my son because they want his organs” and accused doctors of “snickering and laughing” and refusing to help them.
“They want his organs,” Howard’s mother continued. “That’s what they told me in the beginning.”
Allen’s family, showing video footage of apparent police officers entering the hospital room, then claimed the hospital tried to criminalize them as arrests were threatened for alleged trespassing.
“They all participated in killing my son,” Allen said as he and his family were leaving the hospital. “They let my son die.”
Allen said Howard had “a heartbeat” and was “breathing on his own” while lamenting how the police officers “ran us out of the hospital.”
The videos in which Howard’s parents made their claims have since been deleted from Facebook. However, they were preserved via social media posts on X, formerly Twitter.
#SENSITIVECONTENT: — North Carolina Central University student-athlete Terrance ‘T’ Howard passed away this Thursday in Durham, NC, according to KHOU-11 News, — from being struck by an oncoming vehicle after he had been involved in a car crash.
Howard’s father, Bishop Anthony… pic.twitter.com/o810mDA69Z
— Willi Quinn (@willi_quinn) August 3, 2024
And for trying to save their son life, The Hospital Called The Cops On The black Family. So Heartbreaking pic.twitter.com/tnkjrX3i2i
— kevin blue (@kevinblue345) August 3, 2024
Footage of Terrance “T” Howard's parents trying to save his life, while the hospital staff does nothing!#PayAttention #SayHisName #BlackLivesMatter #ProtectBlackBoys #ProtectBlackMen #MedicalApartheid #ThisIsAmerica #WhiteSupremacy #Racism #FBA #ADOS #BlackTwitter pic.twitter.com/gO1MB2SYbF
— UnmuteMyTruth2.0 (@UnmuteMyTruth_2) August 3, 2024
Here's some more context. Terrence succumbed to his injuries:
https://t.co/hRTVWPixUY pic.twitter.com/Qk8ilZe5DH— Mark Chapman (@MC_IBTimesSG) August 3, 2024
On Sunday, Atrium Health responded to a request for comment from NewsOne:
As you know, federal privacy laws are very strict and do not permit us to address specific questions. What we can tell you unequivocally is that our medical professionals are among the best in the nation and take every reasonable measure to protect and preserve the life and health of those in our care at all times. We extend our deepest sympathies in every tragic situation facing patients and their family members as they struggle with their personal circumstances. We also make it our practice to provide honest assessments about each patient’s health when communicating with family members and help them understand and explore appropriate care options for their loved ones.
Atrium Health did not address the organ harvesting claims or the presence of law enforcement apparently dispatched to the hospital room with Howard and his family.
What happened to Terrance Howard?
While all the details were not immediately clear, it’s been reported that Howard sustained serious injuries after being struck by a moving vehicle on a highway.
He was driving to NCCU – an HBCU to which he had transferred from the University of Alabama – when he was in “a tragic accident right outside of Charlotte” on I-85, Allen said on July 24.
Unsure of the exact scenario that led to the accident, Allen said he was told that his son “went to go render aid” to the other driver in the accident when a “car hit him from the back” and “knocked him about 30 feet.” Allen said his son “landed on his head.”
Speaking in religious terms throughout the video, Allen said the situation described to him sounded like something his son would do.
“He stopped and rendered aid because that’s the kind of person he is,” Allen said before adding later: “Terrance was injured while trying to be a good citizen.”
Allen said doctors declared his son to be “brain dead” and “on life support” and aid he and his family were “praying that everything that’s been wronged will be right.”
Allen blamed the circumstances on “the work of darkness” and “not the work of God” because Howard is “a good person.”
It is unclear what happened to the driver of the car that allegedly struck Howard.
Mistrust of the medical system
While the organ harvesting claims have not been officially addressed, such claims from Howard’s parents validate statistics showing that Black Americans harbor widespread beliefs about medical mistrust.
A Pew Research Center study published in June found that more than half of a survey’s respondents believe that the healthcare system was designed to hinder the health and success of Black people living in the U.S. The findings underscore how this mistrust acts as a significant barrier to addressing current racial health disparities in the United States and the persistent concerns about the historical mistreatment of Black patients by the medical community, alongside ongoing experiences of discrimination.
According to the study, 51% of Black adults feel the healthcare system was designed to hold back Black people to a great extent or to some extent.
In particular, 78% of Black adults believe the notion that medical researchers experiment on Black people without their knowledge or consent, with 55% believing such experiments occur today, the research found.
“Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, a researcher behind the study. “While there’s been enormous progress in putting in systems to make sure people are treated fairly, as well as prevent inappropriate research on people without their consent, people still are distrustful, and they’re distrustful because of the way the system continues to treat people in disparate ways.”
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