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- Mar 20, 2019
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Greg Olsen’s 8-year-old son returned home Wednesday after undergoing a heart transplant earlier this month. The former NFL tight end shared a video of his son, TJ, ringing the bell at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte to signal his release.
“Ever since TJ was admitted into the ICU a little less than a month ago in heart failure, he would lay in bed at night and talk about ‘ringing the bell!'” Greg Olsen wrote on Instagram. “We didn’t know what that journey would look like or how long it would take, but he promised [his mother] @karenolsen29 and I that he was going to do it.”
TJ was born with a congenital heart defect. He required four surgeries, including three open heart procedures and the installation of a pacemaker.
TJ, though, needed a transplant when his heart was “reaching its end.”
Olsen played for the Bears from 2007-10, the Panthers from 2011-19 and the Seahawks in 2020 before retiring. His foundation donated $2.5 million to the pediatric cardiac center at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte in 2019.