Coronary heart of Pearl – 11-year NBA veteran Scot Pollard and the emergency transplant that saved his life
LAST OCTOBER, SEVEN months after a coronary heart transplant saved his life, 11-year NBA veteran Scot Pollard was again within the hospital. However this time, the go to was not for him.
Ozzy Pollard, the third of his 4 kids, was a senior and performed tight finish for the highschool group. Halfway by the season, he’d injured his ACL and meniscus and wanted an operation to restore each.
The Pollards had been effectively ready to handle the stress of surgical procedure; Scot had spent the previous three years preventing genetic coronary heart illness.
Throughout his taking part in days on the College of Kansas, and his time within the NBA, Scot turned one thing of a cult favourite throughout the league, gaining the adoration of followers for his one-of-a-kind persona, carousel of flamboyant hairstyles and dogged competitiveness.
Greater than a decade into retirement, although, Scot’s spirit slowly light, his days taken up by physician’s visits, checks and questions.
At 48 years previous, a person who only a few years in the past had been a public face of peak bodily would possibly and situation was in energetic coronary heart failure.
“I do bear in mind feeling like, ‘If that is it, I will be OK,'” he mentioned. “‘But when it isn’t, I’ve obtained quite a bit to do.”
He paused.
“I am actually glad I’ve quite a bit to do.'”
Scot acquired a brand new coronary heart on February 16, 2024.
Organ donation operates below a strict commonplace of anonymity. Neither donor household nor recipient is offered particulars in regards to the different, except the transplant affected person chooses to provoke contact following the process.
Scot spent 5 months reflecting on his transplant expertise earlier than deciding to ship a letter to his nameless donor household.
In it, he referred to as his donor a hero.
My title is Scot, he wrote. I dwell in Indiana and I am scripting this letter to precise mine and my household’s never-ending appreciation for the one you love’s reward of life. My spouse, myself, our 4 kids, our prolonged household and buddies are all without end grateful!
He continued.
We might love the chance to fulfill sooner or later if you happen to’re amenable to that concept. We need to let you recognize that the one you love’s coronary heart goes to be beloved and cared for and can give love again.
Now we have already begun elevating donor consciousness in our group and are going nationwide. I’ve already related with a number of donor networks in numerous communities to help them in selling changing into a donor.
Your beloved is our hero and he’ll dwell on without end by me and our efforts of getting extra individuals to be selfless heroes like him.
If you happen to do not feel comfy responding, I fully perceive. I simply needed you to know my lifelong appreciation for him. He actually is my hero.
Scot handed the letter on to his hospital, which then handed it on to the donor’s hospital, which then handed it on to the donor’s household.
It was as much as them to resolve how they needed to answer, or in the event that they needed to in any respect.
“I can very a lot perceive how lots of people would say, ‘I do not need to know that individual that obtained a kidney, or lungs, or eyes. It is simply an excessive amount of,'” Scot mentioned. “And so the transplant applications prep you for that, that most individuals don’t reply.”
Days handed, then weeks. His hopes to listen to again from the household who saved him dimmed.
Three months after he’d despatched his letter, as his household sat within the hospital with Ozzy, Scot checked his electronic mail.
They’d written him again.
ON FEBRUARY 6, 2024, Scot Pollard was dying.
The day earlier than, he and his spouse, Daybreak, had arrived on the Vanderbilt College Medical Heart in Nashville, Tennessee, for a three-day coronary heart transplant analysis.
Scot had already been registered on transplant lists in Indianapolis and Chicago. He was aiming to get on the record in Nashville — 300 miles south of the Pollards’ Carmel, Indiana, residence — hoping one other transplant area meant a higher alternative for a match.
Dr. Jonathan Menachem, a heart specialist on the hospital, positioned his fingers on Scot’s wrist.
“Your pulse is sluggish,” he informed him. “Is it at all times fairly sluggish?”
Scot then laid down on a mattress, the place Menachem took his stethoscope and positioned it on Scot’s chest.
“Do you get wanting breath simply laying like this?” he requested him.
Scot closed his eyes and nodded.
“Seeing somebody lay down like that and getting so wanting breath that fast is regarding,” Menachem mentioned.
Scot was in end-stage coronary heart failure. He was admitted to the intensive care unit, and an emergency seek for a transplant started.
“He was stuffed with fluid and did not have sufficient blood stream going round his physique,” Menachem mentioned. “They thought they had been going residence to Indiana.
“We checked out one another,” Menachem mentioned of him and his colleague as they reviewed Scot’s prognosis. “We had been like, ‘This man can not go residence.'”
Scot’s coronary heart was failing. He’d been affected by cardiomyopathy, a illness that makes it tough for the center muscle to pump. With extra pressure on the muscle, and extra blood required for his massive body, he weakened by the day.
“I am actually connected to this coronary heart,” he mentioned within the hospital. “I really feel prefer it’s the perfect one. That is the one I used to be born with. And the largest concern is that the following one is not going to be adequate.”
As he ready for added checks, numerous nodes had been connected to his chest and fingers, a coronary heart monitor’s looming beeps serving as a second-by-second reminder of what was to return.
“I am not likely afraid of something,” Scot mentioned. “Now, whenever you’re sitting right here, ready for a brand new coronary heart, the unknown might be terrifying.”
SCOT INHERITED HIS peak from his father, Pearl, who stood at 6-foot-8. And when he was identified with cardiomyopathy, he realized that was inherited, too.
In 1952, Pearl’s father moved the household from Montana to Utah with the hope of creating his son a boxer. However, as Scot tells it, the basketball coach obtained to Pearl first.
Pearl performed middle for Jordan Excessive College, simply south of Salt Lake Metropolis, and was rapidly christened “Poison” Pollard for his lethal hook shot. He received back-to-back state highschool championships with the Beetdiggers, setting the state event scoring document in 1955.
Earlier that yr, he appeared alongside Wilt Chamberlain in a Life journal unfold that includes the tallest highschool basketball gamers within the nation.
Pearl went on to play for the College of Utah from 1956 by 1959 and was the group’s main scorer for the 1958-59 season.
“He was a large of a person in each single approach doable,” Scot mentioned.
When Scot was 12, the household moved from Utah to San Diego, the place he first seen his father’s well being start to say no. Three years later, Pearl was identified with cardiomyopathy, on the age of 53. He was placed on the center transplant record however wanted an organ donor comparable in measurement.
Given his towering peak, discovering one could be practically inconceivable.
“We knew it was a dying sentence,” Scot, who was the youngest of six kids, mentioned. “I used to be simply considering, ‘God, I will develop up with no dad.'”
One morning in October 1991, Scot was making his approach up from the seashore after browsing in fitness center class. Pearl occurred to drive by in his white, city-issued pickup truck and stopped for a fast chat together with his son.
Just a few hours later, Scot acquired a telephone name from a good friend. He mentioned Pearl’s truck had crashed into a rustic membership car parking zone and paramedics had been on the scene.
Pearl had suffered a coronary heart assault behind the wheel.
He died on the transplant record.
Scot was 16. He was the final of his household to see his father alive.
SCOT NEVER FORGOT his father’s destiny. Following a wholesome taking part in profession, he continued to examine his coronary heart often.
In January 2021, he visited the physician for an annual bodily. This appointment, like all of the others earlier than it, went with out concern.
One month later, although, Scot acquired a flu shot, and he says docs consider it launched a “genetic anomaly” that triggered his coronary heart failure.
“A pair days later, I obtained the flu,” Scot mentioned, “and it attacked my coronary heart. I could not stroll throughout the room.”
“We’re by no means going to know for certain what occurred,” Menachem mentioned, “however he clearly was predisposed to having a coronary heart that was not going to perform effectively for his complete life.”
What got here subsequent was an more and more horrifying three-year stretch of appointments and coverings and hospital visits, culminating within the realization that he would want a coronary heart transplant to outlive.
Doubt that he’d discover one, and guilt that he deserved one, overwhelmed him.
Somebody must die to present me life.
Scot had skilled and lived greater than most, he thought: a significant school basketball profession that had led to an admirable NBA profession, which had helped him construct his beloved household and pursue their goals. Absolutely there have been stronger candidates for this opportunity at life-saving surgical procedure.
Of the previous, Daybreak, too, was skeptical. However she wanted to persuade her husband of the fallacy of the latter, reminding him of his obligations as a husband and father, of how a lot they nonetheless needed to dwell.
He listened — and finally agreed.
“How dare I even take into consideration doing the identical factor to my youngsters that my dad unintentionally did to me?” Scot thought.
“He did not need me to develop up with no dad to be there and train [me],” Ozzy mentioned. “And I really like him for that.”
The subsequent step was discovering a coronary heart robust sufficient to help his physique.
“You’ll be able to’t put a Ford Festiva engine in an F-150 and suppose it’ll work effectively,” Menachem mentioned.
Whereas Pearl died ready for a same-sized donor, Scot had hope. Medical know-how had superior to permit for higher variation in measurement.
On Scot’s forty ninth birthday, his sixth day within the Vanderbilt Intensive Care Unit, he acquired phrase of a possible donor. He referred to as relations to the hospital. He shaved his head and beard in preparation for the surgical procedure.
However docs decided the possible coronary heart would not be viable.
Another choice arose quickly after.
That, too, was declined.
PAMELA ANGELL AND Megan Tyra had been sitting in a hospital in East Texas once they had been informed they’d 14 days to take advantage of devastating resolution of their lives.
Pamela’s husband, Casey, had been intubated, not capable of breathe on his personal.
Casey and Pamela had met in 2009 whereas working at Walmart. He was somebody who may “discuss a stranger’s ear off,” she says, and he typically did.
When Pamela was pregnant with their son, William, Casey discovered a brand new place as a forklift operator. However publicity to components on the job — along with a historical past of smoking — had taken a toll. In February 2024, a bout of pneumonia had despatched the 45-year-old to the hospital, the place he drifted out and in of consciousness.
Days glided by. Then per week. Then extra. Angell had failed to indicate any indicators of enchancment — or life. On day 11, Pamela and Megan, Casey’s sister, made the choice to let him go.
Shortly after, the hospital’s organ donation liaison approached them.
“He mentioned, ‘Look, guys, Casey had a very huge coronary heart,'” Megan mentioned.
“Yeah, we all know,” Megan’s husband, Clint, responded.
“He mentioned, ‘No, man, you do not perceive. He bodily had an enormous coronary heart.'” Megan mentioned. “And I am like, ‘Is that vital?’
He is like, ‘Oh yeah, that is vital.'”
Angell was a hearty 5-foot-11. In 1991, that might not have been massive sufficient to avoid wasting Pearl Pollard. However in 2024, it might be massive sufficient to avoid wasting Scot.
Pamela and Megan agreed to the nameless strategy of organ donation — and watched Angell’s coronary heart go away the hospital.
“You are dropping your greatest good friend,” Pamela mentioned, “however someone else is gaining your greatest good friend, in a approach.”
On the morning of February 16, as Angell’s coronary heart traveled from Texas to Tennessee, Vanderbilt employees started to arrange Scot for transplant surgical procedure.
Physicians gathered the countless tubes and wires tethering him to his hospital room, and rearranged them for the brief journey to the working room.
Amid the regular heart-monitor beeps, Scot started his goodbyes.
“Who’s my favourite fourth child?” Scot mentioned, hugging his youngest baby, Icean.
“Me?” Icean mentioned.
Scot leaned in. “That is proper,” he mentioned, placing the pair brow to brow. “You.”
Then Daybreak took her husband’s head in her fingers and bent over the mattress for a kiss. “I really like you,” she mentioned, smiling by her tears.
“I really like you without end,” Scot mentioned, working his fingers by her lengthy, darkish hair. “I really like you without end,” she informed him.
Scot was pushed by the halls of the hospital, Daybreak following so far as she was allowed. She squeezed her husband’s hand earlier than he handed by a set of double doorways, past her grasp.
“I used to be considering, ‘OK, what if he does not get up?’ she mentioned later. “That is when it lastly hit me.”
“I used to be considering what life might be like … with out him.”
Simply after 11 a.m., Scot was taken into surgical procedure.
At 1:08 p.m., a black SUV pulled into the Grownup Emergency Entrance on the hospital. Within the trunk, docs pulled out a white cooler and raced inside. Inside a smaller plastic container was Angell’s coronary heart.
At 1:16, docs eliminated Scot’s coronary heart from his physique.
“Now, there isn’t any coronary heart in there,” mentioned Dr. Ashish Shah, one of many coronary heart surgeons who carried out the operation. “There is a big, gaping gap, and when that previous coronary heart got here out, you see an infinite, sad organ.”
13 minutes later, his new coronary heart was sewn in and blood was restored to it.
By 5 p.m., the process was full.
“In some respects,” Shah mentioned, “it was simply the fitting coronary heart for him.”
ONE MID-OCTOBER EVENING final yr, Scot and Daybreak stood on the sideline of the Carmel Excessive College soccer subject. It was senior night time. Because the solar set behind the stands, they waited to listen to Ozzy’s title referred to as.
It was simply two weeks after his knee operation, so he could not play, however Ozzy walked throughout the sector in celebration, his dad by his facet.
“It is like I’ve my dad again from once I was youthful,” Ozzy mentioned.
But the Pollards are keenly conscious that their reduction, their pleasure, had come at an infinite expense.
On the day of Ozzy’s surgical procedure, contained in the hospital room, Scot checked his electronic mail. And there it was, the response he so hoped he’d get.
As quickly as Pamela acquired Scot’s letter, she referred to as Megan and so they determined to jot down again, inquisitive about studying extra in regards to the man carrying Casey’s coronary heart — and sharing extra in regards to the man from whom it got here.
Scot learn the letter aloud.
Pricey Scot, thanks a lot for reaching out to us.
Scot, you warmed our hearts along with your sort phrases regarding your donor, who was beloved past measure. February 16, 2024, was an extremely arduous day for these of us that beloved your donor, Casey.
After we knew that we had been going to should let him go, and had been approached about organ donation, there was by no means a pause or a doubt that Casey would have needed to assist.
So the reply was easy, and it was a sure.
Scot’s voice started to interrupt.
He continued to learn.
Casey was a loving husband, dad, uncle, and the perfect child brother anybody may ask for. Though he was the infant, he towered over us all.
Thanks for caring for that huge coronary heart of his. And we’re grateful to know he’s beloved and can proceed to present love. It means the world to us. He has impressed individuals in his family to donate and be a hero like him.
And we, as his household, although small, would love to fulfill you each time you might be prepared to take action.
Megan wrote that Angell was a “light big” who was at all times comfortable to assist these in want. “We’re blessed to know that even in our best tragedy we stayed true to who he was,” she wrote, “and we’re so glad that due to our hero, you may proceed to be a blessing to your loved ones and others.”
The households first spoke on the telephone on November 9, on what would have been Angell’s forty sixth birthday. After exchanging texts, they determined to fulfill in individual.
On March 17, 2025, Scot and Daybreak had been in Lindale, Texas, a small city about 90 miles east of Dallas.
Because the pair stepped out of their lodge room, Daybreak took her husband’s hand.
“Prepared?” she requested softly, smiling up at him. “Prepared,” he responded.
Hand-in-hand, they walked down the corridor towards the room the place Angell’s household was ready.
As they turned the ultimate nook, they noticed the household by an open door, breaking into nervous laughter earlier than exchanging hugs with Pamela, William, Megan and Clint.
“Hello, gang,” Scot mentioned, earlier than he and Daybreak prolonged their arms.
Scot realized William was 12 when his father died, and that he was “the love of [his father’s] life.”
“We’re grateful that Scot’s right here, with Casey’s coronary heart,” Pamela mentioned. “And William has one other individual to look as much as, as a father determine.”
William informed tales of their afternoons collectively fishing, or watching horror motion pictures, describing his dad as light and a large, too. Casey and Scot each had dragon tattoos, William’s Japanese zodiac signal.
“There was a connection there that I felt,” Scot mentioned. “I understand how that feels as a toddler, to lose your father.”
“You appear to be your dad,” Daybreak informed William.
“Copy and pasted, that is how we put it,” Megan replied.
Pamela confirmed Daybreak and Scot Casey’s wedding ceremony ring, which she wears on a series round her neck, and shared the story of how they met. Megan defined that whereas she and Casey had different siblings, the 2 of them had been the closest.
“He was my bubba,” she mentioned.
Earlier than leaving for lunch collectively, Pamela took out a stethoscope she’d introduced.
Scot stood and unbuttoned his shirt whereas Pamela positioned it proper on his chest.
As she listened to the beating coronary heart inside him, her eyes stuffed with tears.
Megan went subsequent. “My flip,” she mentioned.
She softly positioned the stethoscope simply to the fitting of a prolonged, vertical scar, an enduring reminder of what was given — and what was misplaced.
With Scot wanting down at her, she bowed her head and listened.
“Hey, Bubba,” she mentioned, weeping.
ON MEMORIAL DAY weekend, below sunny skies, the Pollards, Angells, and Tyras sailed by the streets of downtown Indianapolis, waving to an enthusiastic crowd.
A yr after Scot’s transplant, he had been named grand marshal of the Indy 500 Pageant Parade and invited his coronary heart donor’s household to affix him on the float.
It had been only some months since their first in-person assembly, however Megan says attending to know the Pollards has helped her household heal. Right this moment, at 50, Scot is doing effectively, however his future is fraught with unpredictability.
He is the tallest transplant recipient within the historical past of Vanderbilt’s Medical Heart, and docs aren’t certain how his life will progress. Nonetheless, no matter doubt had coursed by Scot previous to the surgical procedure has now diminished totally.
“The truth that I get to be Dad for so long as I can was fully price it,” he mentioned.
Whereas Scot says his docs don’t suppose the brand new coronary heart might be affected by the genetic dysfunction, they do consider his kids are liable to coronary heart illness.
However within the meantime, he might be there to help them on their very own journeys. Ozzy, 17, will quickly start his freshman yr at Marian College, a faculty simply half-hour from residence. Icean, 9, will enter fourth grade within the fall.
And in Texas, William, 13, plans to play for the junior excessive soccer group, identical to his dad.
Destiny fused the paths of the Pollards and the Angells — every, in their very own approach, serving to the opposite mend.
“What we hope for shifting ahead,” Scot mentioned, “is simply that I can hold dwelling a superb life due to their reward.”
As Megan regarded out on the cheering crowd, she considered Casey.
“It is an honor to let everybody understand how proud we’re of him, and who he was, and what a superb man he was,” she mentioned of her brother. “We miss him day-after-day, however Scot helps with that.”
ESPN E60’s Jeremy Schaap, Dan Lindberg, and John Minton contributed to this story.