Long bike ride ends
Father’s journey raised awareness of organ donation.
Bill Conner fights back tears as he arrives at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, traveling more than 2,000 miles on his bike. To honor his daughter, and to raise awareness of the value of organ donation, Conner pedaled from his home near Madison, Wis., to the hospital, where a transplant team removed his daughter’s heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, eyes and tissues for transplantation.
Of the 300 people who gathered to greet Bill Conner on Monday at the end of his 2,600-mile memorial bike ride from Wisconsin, no one’s welcoming embrace was more heartfelt than that of Loumonth Jack Jr.
“I am alive because of Abbey,” said Jack, a 21-year-old Louisiana man who was the recipient of a heart transplant fromConner’s daughter, AbigailMae Conner, who drowned in January while on a family vacation in Mexico. “She savedmy life.”
To honor his daughter, and to raise awareness of the value of organ donation, Conner pedaled from his home near Madison, Wis., to Broward Health Medical Center. The same hospitalwhere a transplant team removed Abbey’s heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, eyes and tissues.
In addition to Jack, three other men received organs harvested from the 20-year-old college student.
Conner left Wisconsin on May 22, battling heat, Tropical Storm Cindy and exhaustion, on a journey he said was part tribute and part therapy. He carried his daughter’s ashes in a bag tied to the handlebars of his Trek bicycle, and talked to her often, he said. He plans to scatter the ashes at sea.
At a finish line set up outside the hospital, Jack was the first to embrace Conner, telling him, “Congratulations. You made it.”
Conner, 57, then told the crowd, “He’s the perfect recipient formy daughter’s heart. Iwould’twant it any place else. He’s going to take care of her, andhe’ll be inmy family the rest ofmy life.”
Abbey Conner drowned Jan. 12 within two hours of arriving at a resort in Cancun. Both she andher older brother Austin, 23, were apparently slipped a drug in drinks they ordered at the pool. When found they were both unconscious, face-down in chest deep water, Conner said.
Taken to a local hospital, Austin recovered. He went on to finish his senior year at the University of Wisconsingraduating inMay.
Abbey never regained consciousness.
Bill Conner says authorities and investigators in Mexico have not been cooperative in providing details about what may have happened.
Jack, a college student, suffered heart damage that began with a viral infection andwas on a list of possible transplant recipients for months. With his health fading, Jack received Abbey’s heart within 24 hours of it being removed from her body.
Conner and Jack met for the first time on Father’s Day, about half-way into the journey, when the cyclist stopped near the younger man’s home near Baton Rouge. During that meeting, Jack presented Conner with a stethoscope through which he listened to his daughter’s heartbeat.
During his trip, Conner carried camping gear but often spent the night in comped hotel rooms or in the houses of strangers moved by his journey of tribute.
A sign, “Abbey’s Ride for Life,” was fixed to the back of his bike, and he said he took every opportunity to talk up the benefits of organ donation.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, one organ donor can save eight lives and enhance the lives of many more through tissue donation.
Through a Gofundme website Connoris attempting to raise $30,000 for the nonprofit Donate Life America.
According to Galal ElGazzaz, a surgeon on Broward Health’s transplant team, 100,000 people in theU.S. are in need of an organ transplant, and of those, 7,000 will die while waiting.
“The gap between supply and demand is growing,” he said.
Jack flew to Fort Lauderdale with his parents, Loumonth and Alicia Jack, his sister Arnelle Jack, her 3-year-old son Lowen Washington, and Jack’s girlfriend Essence Johnson.
“It’s a miracle and a blessing that he’s still alive,” Alicia Jack said of her son.