This year Darrell Jr’s Charity has had the honor to meet a special little boy Jelani.

When Jelani grows up he wants to be a Bull Rider!

His wish was to see a Professional Bull Riding Event. Darrell Jr's Charity met up with Jelani on his 4 th birthday, along with our guest Hollywood the world’s greatest bull riding clown, to surprise Jelani with the news that Darrell Jr’s Charity is going to send him to the National Finals Rodeo being held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas December 2007. Darrell Jr's Charity presented Jelani with a Cowboy Hat that Hollywood personally signed for him, also a belt & buckle. Hollywood made his day with several very special momentums that he personally signed for Jelani. Along with Darrell Jr's Charity and the help of Las Vegas Events, Jelani will get to see the Bull Riding he has wished for and all expenses paid at his stay in Las Vegas . Hollywood will also be meeting with Jelani for some behind the scenes of the Professional Bull riding event. Please enjoy the pictures of this special birthday and more pictures to come of Jelani's make a wish come true at the Professional Bull Riding.

     

Jelani with (mom) Amy, Darrell Sr., Cathy Ashford
Deborah Marley with Hollywood the world’s greatest
Bull riding clown.

Thanks to You Jelani’s wish is coming True!

Jelani Jaxson Richmond was born on April 28th 2003 with Hypo-plastic left heart syndrome, a birth defect. Many children don't live past a few days. If they know in advance, as they did with Jelani, the baby is scheduled for open heart surgery within days of birth.

Jelani has now had 3 open heart surgeries, at the young age of 3 years old. He is a MIRACLE baby, to say the least. After the last open heart surgery, in June 2006, Jelani had many complications and almost didn't make it. He coded (code blue) 2 days after surgery and his heart quit beating for 45 minutes as the nurses tried CPR. The surgeon was there unexpectedly and was able to open his chest back up, in the room, and shock his heart to get it him to come back. The next day, clinging to life, but truly, clinging, the surgeons told his mother Amy there were no other options but to go into surgery, otherwise he would not survive the night! The one chance they may have, could certainly take his life, but the other option would be to let him go. Amy made the choice to follow her heart, and allow the surgeons to take him into surgery to see what they could find, fix, or do. It was definitely a spirit guided choice, for when they opened him back up, they found a huge blood clot lodged in the heart. For three weeks Amy & Jelani were in the hospital, fighting infection, organs shutting down, you name it. Today, he is struggling still to breath, and is on oxygen 24 hours a day.

And then in January of 2006 his saturation levels started to drop and he was blue most of the time. So back to the doctor they went. They said it was time for his third open heart surgery. On June 15, 2006 Jelani underwent his third open heart surgery. There was complication after complication during this surgery however, but Jelani fought hard. The surgeon told his mother that even with these complications he had high hopes Jelani would survive and recover. Two days after surgery, Jelani’s heart quit pumping, he coded, and his mother watched as the doctors and nurses worked on his lifeless body. They did compressions on his tiny chest for 40 minutes. The heart surgeon synchronistically walked in at this time and was able to open his chest right there in his room and shock him directly on his little heart and finally got a rhythm back. His mother was told that because Jelani was deprived of oxygen for such a long time that if he survived he would most likely suffer some brain damage. The next afternoon, the surgeon walked into his room and said that Jelani had a slim chance of surviving. He wasn't getting any better. He didn't know what to do, but unless something was done, Jelani wouldn't survive the night. So at 8:00 PM that evening his mother had to say goodbye one more time, not knowing if she would see her son alive again. When she got the call saying the surgeon had found blood clots near his heart and that they had been removed, she knew he was going to survive. Jelani was still very sick, but everyone was very hopeful. Jelani had many obstacles to overcome, but when he was ready and not a minute sooner, he did. On Independence Day, Jelani was released from the hospital. Although he was still on oxygen 24hours a day and taking many medications he started to get stronger and stronger.

Please enjoy the pictures we took with them. We've also included photos from the PRCA Rodeo.