A 16-year-old Elberta boy who died following an ATV crash in June became an organ donor whose gifts reached multiple recipients, including two people with close ties to his own family, relatives said.
Connor Burgess was riding a four-wheeler near his home in Baldwin County when the crash occurred. He was rushed to the hospital and taken into surgery, but doctors were unable to save him. A week later, family, friends and hospital staff gathered for an honor walk in his memory at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, a tradition many hospitals use to honor organ donors as they are taken into surgery for procurement.
A Heart That Found Its Way Home
Among those whose lives were changed by Connor’s donation was Tony Lee, a cousin of the family’s soon-to-be sister-in-law, who received Connor’s heart. Lee said he had been living with an LVAD, a mechanical device that helps pump blood through a failing heart, for about a year before receiving the call that a heart was available.
“We had just had a benefit car show for me. And we had just got home and were sitting, hearing my phone ring, and the nurse said, are you ready? I’m like, ready for what? They said, we accepted a heart for you,” Lee said.
Lee said he had gotten on the transplant waiting list on Mother’s Day and received the call about Connor’s heart just 17 days later. “They said that’s very rare it happens like this,” he said. Lee added that he was released from the hospital last week and that his recovery is going well.
Connor’s mother, Kristy Burgess, said doctors described her son’s heart as healthy prior to the transplant. “They said his heart was perfect. They said it was beautiful; it was exactly how it should’ve been. It was pure and, you know, it was a beautiful heart,” she said.
A Second Chance for a Longtime Kidney Patient
Anthony Rodriguez, husband of Kristy’s cousin, received one of Connor’s kidneys. Rodriguez said he had battled kidney disease his entire life and had been on dialysis in recent years.
“Two years ago in December I got pneumonia, and I’ve had a kidney disease my entire life,” Rodriguez said. He said learning that Connor was a match was both unbelievable and heartbreaking, knowing that the family’s loss made his second chance possible. “Being told that I couldn’t work anymore and being on dialysis and then having a second chance, like, yeah, it’s amazing,” he said, adding that his recovery so far has gone smoothly. “Words can’t explain how I feel because it’s been an emotional roller coaster for somebody so young to lose their life and for me to be here.”
Kristy Burgess said Connor’s corneas restored sight to someone who had been blind. “Connor is seeing the world now through someone else’s eyes,” she said. As an organ donor, she said, Connor donated every organ except his lungs. “Even down to his intestines was able to be transplanted to somebody else,” she said.
Community Rallies Around the Family
The Elberta community gathered at Baumhower’s Victory Grille for an Elberta Warriors Spirit Night held in Connor’s honor, with the restaurant donating 10 percent of the evening’s proceeds to the family. “The place was packed. Absolutely packed to the brim,” Kristy said.
Connor’s celebration of life was held July 26 at the Island Church in Orange Beach, and a GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with expenses.
Kristy Burgess said the grief of losing her son remains present, even as she has found strength in learning how his organs have helped others. “I’m not going to say it’s gotten easier because I come to work today and just boo-hooed and cried and had to pull myself back together, but to see the people he’s touched and the legacy he has left, that gives me the push to keep going,” she said.
Organ donation in the United States is coordinated through regional organ procurement organizations, which work with hospitals, families and the national transplant waiting list to match donated organs with recipients based on medical need, compatibility and geography. A single donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and improve dozens more through tissue and cornea donation, according to federal health officials.