Son of former Carolina Panthers TE Greg Olsen receives heart transplant

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A coronary heart donor has been discovered for the 8-year-old son of Greg Olsen, the retired Carolina Panthers tight finish introduced on social media Friday.

The information of a donor comes eight days after Olsen’s son, TJ, was positioned on the transplant listing.

“Immediately is a day of blended feelings,” Olsen wrote on Instagram. “A day we’ve got prayed for has arrived. We have been alerted final night time that there was a donor match for TJ to obtain his coronary heart transplant.

“Strolling our little boy, with tears of hope and worry in our eyes, was one of many hardest moments of our lives. We ask for everybody’s prayers for TJ and his wonderful crew of medical doctors and nurses.”

Later Friday, Olsen tweeted that TJ was out of surgical procedure and expressed his condolences and gratitude to the donor household for his or her “selflessness.”

UPDATE- TJ is completed with surgical procedure and is being transferred to the ICU. We received’t have the ability to see him for just a few extra hours however his medical doctors are very pleased with the surgical procedure. TJ will probably be sedated for just a few days however his street to restoration has begun. https://t.co/JrYayw2j59

— Greg Olsen (@gregolsen88) June 4, 2023

We additionally wish to ask that everybody takes a second to hope for our donor household. Their selflessness throughout a tragic time gave our boy an opportunity at life. We don’t know who they’re, however we’ll ceaselessly be glad about on a regular basis we get to have with Tj

❤️ Olsen Household

— Greg Olsen (@gregolsen88) June 4, 2023

TJ was born in 2012 with a congenital coronary heart defect that required 4 surgical procedures, together with three open-heart procedures and the set up of a pacemaker.

On Might 24, Olsen wrote in a sequence of tweets that TJ’s coronary heart was “reaching its finish” and that “in the end may result in a transplant.”

“TJ has an extended street forward of him, however in the present day is a big step ahead,” Olsen wrote Friday. “From the underside of our hearts, thanks for the outpouring of help via the journey.”

Olsen and his spouse, Kara, started the HEARTest Yard initiative shortly after the delivery of TJ and his twin sister, Talbot, to boost cash for much less lucky households going via crises like theirs.

The three-time Professional Bowl choice has donated thousands and thousands to that charity and to the constructing of a 25,000-square-foot facility at Levine Youngsters’s Hospital in Charlotte often known as the HEARTest Yard Congenital Coronary heart Heart.

TJ has been within the care of medical doctors on the facility since.

“We don’t understand how lengthy we will probably be inside these hospital partitions,” Olsen tweeted in Might. “We do know that we’re in full management of our attitudes and our outlook.”

Prayers for TJ, from celebrities to folks Olsen has by no means met, have flooded his timeline for the reason that preliminary announcement. Olsen lately shared a photograph from TJ’s Little League crew, which has been a big a part of the household’s help.