Billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, announced their new commitment of $400 million to establish a new non-profit institute dedicated to brain research, rehabilitation, recovery and human longevity. The drive for this massive donation came from a tragic incident that shook Ackman. Sharing the heartbreaking story of their daughter’s sudden brain hemorrhage, Bill Ackman revealed how he learned more about it and how he decided at that time only that he would make sure that the facilities are available to everyone.“At midnight on February 6th, earlier this year, the doorbell to our apartment rang. The doorbell was followed by a pounding on the door. I answered the door and a security person in our building handed me his phone. It was my oldest daughter Eloise. She had found my 26-year-old daughter unconscious on the floor of her apartment and had called 911. The EMT team was already there, but they did not know what was wrong with Lucy or to which hospital they would take her.“This was the beginning of a long journey which started with Lucy being non-responsive because of a massive brain hemorrhage that would need an emergency hemicraniectomy to release the pressure on her brain and remove the blood from the hemorrhage. The operation was successful.Ackman revealed that from Lucy’s Oura ring, they found out that the hemorrhage had occurred around 9am, which meant that more than 19 hours had passed from the time of the hemorrhage to the completion of the surgery to release the pressure on her brain.As a father, Ackman told the doctors only one thing: give his daughter the best care possible as he would invest unlimited resources to restore her life, and then he made a promise that he would do that for everyone else.
How is Lucy now?
Ackman revealed that Lucy is now in a better place. She was in a coma for several weeks and then was not able to breathe on her own, walk, see, or speak. But now she has recovered her cognition and is able to walk a hundred or more steps. “Each day, she makes a little progress, and daily progress compounds. Every day I tell her that she just needs to make a little progress and it won’t be long before she is back,” Ackman said.“We remain optimistic that Lucy will return to normal function. It will likely take years, but I believe it is only a matter of time, hard work, and technological progress, along with some, and perhaps a lot, of divine intervention.”
The Ackman Oxman Institute
Ackman revealed that the working name of the proposed institute of The Ackman Oxman Institute for want of a better name. He said he does not want another research center that would produce Nobel winners. He wants it to be patient-centric, to be focused on cures, treatment, devices, and rehabilitation. His company already acquired a 400,000-square-foot biotech facility on West End Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets. Other parcels of land acquisitions are also on track.“While the AOI will be a non-profit, it will have highly commercial instincts. The AOI will have its own venture funding and will work to develop innovations to create companies that we will seed, assist, and spinout to ensure technologies, treatments, techniques, and drugs get to patients as promptly as possible,” he said.