Carnegie Hero Connor M. Bystrom of Holmes Beach, Fla., celebrated his veterinary school graduation in June 2016 with his parents, William and Jeannie Holmes Bystrom. Cited by the Hero Fund in 2012 for saving a friend from a shark attack while boating in the Gulf of Mexico off Bradenton, Fla., Bystrom went on to attend the School of Veterinary Medicine at St. George’s University, Grenada, and then Auburn (Ala.) University for clinical rotations. He graduated in the top 20 percent of his class. The Hero Fund provided a degree of assistance toward the cost of tuition. “I did what I needed to do to save my lifelong friend,” he wrote, “but I feel you have gone above and beyond anything I deserved for my actions by offering me such tremendous financial help with my education.” Dr. Bystrom is now in practice with his father, also a veterinarian, at the family’s two clinics in Holmes Beach and Bradenton.
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