FanX Convention founder shares how President Nelson saved his life

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Many leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have shared memories and tributes after the passing of President Russell M. Nelson. For one Utahn, however, the effect that Nelson had on them was personal.

Dan Farr, founder of the FanX Comic Convention in Salt Lake City, had heart surgery in 1973, when he was just five years old, and President Nelson was the surgeon performing the operation. He says if it wasn’t for what Nelson did, he wouldn’t be here today.

“As things went on, I got to see him off and on throughout the years,” Farr said. He adds that he met President Nelson later on at a Church conference where Nelson was a presiding leader and remembered doing Farr’s operation after Farr introduced himself.

“His memory was phenomenal. I feel very blessed to have had in my life because I’m still here,” Farr said.

Farr is a member of the LDS Church and served as a missionary in New York City at age 19. At that time, he met a spine surgeon who had trained under Nelson when they were a medical student at the University of Utah.

“Nelson told him one time while they were scrubbing in for surgery, ‘You know, if I was ever asked by my church to give up my practice so I could be in the church, I would do it.’,” Farr said. “Flash forward 20 years, he got a copy of the church news where President Nelson was called as an apostle. That started his journey back into the Church.”