# Iowa hospital faces organ donation lawsuit from Nebraska family  
**Published:** 2026-05-11T09:30:42.000Z  
**Source:** [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/iowa-hospital-accused-of-harvesting-patients-organs-without-nebraska-familys-authorization/)  
**AI-generated:** yes (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001)  
**Canonical:** https://lincolne.news/article/iowa-hospital-faces-organ-donation-lawsuit-from-nebraska-family

An Iowa hospital is facing a federal lawsuit for allegedly harvesting the organs of a deceased patient without consulting his biological daughters from Nebraska, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

CHI Health-Missouri Valley, which also operates as Alegent Health-Community Memorial Hospital, is accused of procuring organs, skin tissue and eyes from Martin Gillespie of Missouri Valley without proper authorization on April 1, 2026. The plaintiffs are [Christina Gubbels of McLean, Nebraska, and Daun Stoddard of Norfolk, Nebraska](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/iowa-hospital-accused-of-harvesting-patients-organs-without-nebraska-familys-authorization/), both biological daughters of Gillespie.

The lawsuit alleges that Gillespie had never authorized donation and arrived at CHI Health-Missouri Valley by ambulance in the early morning hours before being pronounced dead. Hospital staff determined that Gillespie's aunt, Karen Holst, was his next of kin with legal authority to make organ donation decisions, according to the complaint. However, Iowa law grants priority to biological children over aunts in such determinations, the lawsuit contends.

At 4:50 a.m., the hospital made a "routine referral" to the Iowa Donor Network, which within hours recovered Gillespie's organs, skin tissue and eyes. The plaintiffs argue the hospital should have consulted them before proceeding with the procurement process.

The case raises questions about how hospitals and organ procurement organizations determine next of kin and obtain consent. [Iowa Donor Network, the state's federally designated organ procurement organization, adopted practices whereby family members and hospital staff are informed of a decedent's wishes](https://www.iowadonornetwork.org/assets/images/FPA-UAGA-Toolkit-032624.pdf) before proceeding with donation.

The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages for alleged malpractice, fraud and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Hospital officials did not respond to requests for comment.

## Sources

- [Nebraska Examiner](https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/iowa-hospital-accused-of-harvesting-patients-organs-without-nebraska-familys-authorization/)
- [Iowa Capital Dispatch reporting on the organ donation case](https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/05/07/iowa-hospital-accused-of-harvesting-patients-organs-without-authorization/)

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This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from Nebraska Examiner, enriched with 3 web searches. The original source is available at https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/iowa-hospital-accused-of-harvesting-patients-organs-without-nebraska-familys-authorization/.