USA First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff

Dear First Lady Aimee Wilson,
My name is Andrea Garver, and I am a grieving mother from Texas. My son, Jac Conde, fell in
love with and proudly called Oregon his home, he also lost his life in Oregon to one pill tainted
with fentanyl. I am going to tell you part of his story and hope that in doing so you have a
better understanding from a parent’s point of view of the fentanyl crisis that is affecting our
country and is in your backyard.
On January 31,2021 I received a frantic call from my son’s girlfriend. She was crying and
hysterically telling me that EMTs were trying to save my son’s life. My son who had a smile
that could light up a room and have you in the palm of his hands with a thoughtful gesture, my
son the chef and comedian who only wanted everyone to smile, my son who suffered from
anxiety and panic attacks but only wanted everyone around him happy, my son who
celebrated his 29th birthday on January 13th and meant the world to me…was not breathing.
I can’t tell you how long I was on this call. I can tell you that my training in healthcare kicked in
and I was able to maintain a level of composure to hear everything that was happening on the
other end of the line even though I felt like I was in a surreal tunnel. I could hear the inflection
of trauma as his girlfriend and her family were yelling at him to breathe begging for him to not
be gone. I could hear the EMTs unpackaging their gear and attempting to revive my son. My
heart was breaking with every second that passed and when I heard the EMT stop to
pronounce his death, I realized I heard my sons last breath.
I was shaking uncontrollably, and my husband was at my side asking me if he was gone
through tears of his own. I spoke with an EMT and asked for details, to explain to me what
happened. I was told that they treated him as an opioid overdose because there were Xanax
pills in his pocket, and they attempted to give Narcan and CPR to no avail. As the young man I
was talking to voice waivered he apologized to me for my son’s death. I remember with such
clarity how worried I was that the young man would be traumatized he wasn’t able to save my
son. I don’t remember the call ending or how I was screaming from the depths of my soul at
the loss of my son as my husband mourned with me. But I can tell you that the loss of my son
continually haunts my dreams and waking hours.
My beautiful funny child was gone and all I could think of was how can a Xanax pill kill
someone I was in shock. In the time after that call, I found out through the police detectives on
the case that they were labeling his death as an accidental overdose. In my mind, who dies
from Xanax? This makes no sense he didn’t overdose by taking a bunch of pills, he had one
pill, you don’ t die from 1 pill. I had never even heard of illicit fentanyl. I was told that fentanyl
was being added to street Xanax and other drugs to make a stronger addiction to the opioids
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