Recipient of boxer Paco Rodriguez’s lungs dies at 24

Boston Herald | Mark Kram

PHILADELPHIA — It was the day she had longed to see, one that for years seemed likely to elude her as she battled cystic fibrosis. But Ashley Owens had just received a double-lung transplant, in November 2009. The organs had been donated by a young boxer, Francisco "Paco" Rodriguez, who had died of head injuries at the Blue Horizon. The operation gave her the ability to breathe again without obstruction and enabled her last June 25 to walk down the aisle and exchange vows with Jesse Quinter at Blue Falls Grove in Reading.

"It had been cloudy that day and the sun came out," said her mother, Charlotte Owens. "She was a fairy princess."

In a somber turn of events, Ashley Owens Quinter died on Dec. 8 at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. According to her husband Jesse, the cause of death was respiratory failure. She was 24.Read more: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20111215recipient_of_boxers_lungs_dies_at_24/srvc=home&position=recent