DJ Official, a former DJ and producer for Reach Records and The Cross Movement, underwent double lung transplant and heart valve repair surgery on July 30.
As of Sunday, he remained in “critical but stable condition,” according to producer Alex Medina, who asked for continued prayers.
DJ Official’s family has organized a fund for him, his wife Teresa and their two daughters through YouCaring, where his family shared some of the story behind his transplant, which can be read below.
Update (8/10): As of this writing, 149 donors have raised $16,011 for DJ Official and his family. However, family and friends continue to ask for prayer, as his recovery has “faced setbacks.”
We cannot say thank you enough or put into words how grateful we are for every donation and that we were able to hit our goal. This fund takes a huge burden off of Teresa, who is already going through so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and God bless you all.
Things are a bit tough for Nelson right now. He has faced setbacks in his recovery and is still in the ICU. We are remaining prayerful and faithful. Every single prayer and comment for him means so much to his family, thank you all again so much.
In 2015, the opportunity arose for Nelson and his family to relocate from Philadelphia, PA to Columbus, OH which is 2 hours away from the Cleveland Clinic which is the top medical center in the country for lung transplants. After consulting with doctors and specialists, and undergoing intensive testing for the next year, he finally got word that he had been approved for a lung transplant. Although this was extremely nerve wrecking and scary, he was finally being given the CHANCE to live.
Within a few days of being officially listed, they received a call that a donor was available. After rushing to the hospital, the lungs ended up being unusable. This was just a “dry run” as he put it. Not even a week later he gets another call saying there were lungs available. On Saturday, July 30th at 1:30am, Nelson underwent a double lung transplant and also heart valve repair surgery.
Since then, it has been a rough and scary process. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we still weren’t prepared to see Nelson, our son, our brother, our uncle, our cousin, our silly and goofy Nelson go through what he is going through. Each day presents a new challenge but we have faith the Lord is working. In Nelson’s own words “Remember the GOD we serve is good. We must remember that he loves us more than any human being can love us, more than we love ourselves and will do what’s best for us.
Sometimes things just don’t seem right or look impossible but we must remember that GOD has infinite wisdom and is all knowing and that he knows every situation from beginning to end. We just have to learn to lean on him and as Psalm 18:2 says “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior”. We must learn to make the Lord our rock, our fortress, our savior and only then will things that seem off begin to shine a new light.”
Now onto the awkward part of this all….throughout these tough years Nelson’s wife Teresa has somehow managed to be a superwoman and keep her family afloat. She is an amazing wife, mother, career woman, caretaker, and so much more. She amazes all of us with how strong she is for her girls and how she has made Nelson strong even when he wanted to give up. She has given so much of herself throughout the years and now we ask that that is returned to her.
The last thing we want her to worry about while her husband is in the ICU fighting for his life is how she is going to manage to pay for medical housing, travel expenses back and forth from Columbus to Cleveland, missing time from work and still being able to maintain her household expenses, and the surmounting medical bills. We as a family are helping her as much as we can as well as paying travel expenses to fly back and forth in shifts to Cleveland to help relieve her as much as we can. Any little bit helps and any amount donated would be greatly appreciated. We thank you all so much again for your unwavering support and prayers. Please continue to keep Nelson and his entire family in your prayers. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.
Donate to DJ Official’s transplant fund at YouCaring.
