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 crew. Halfway via 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 combating genetic coronary heart illness.
Throughout his enjoying days on the College of Kansas, and his time within the NBA, Scot grew to become 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 pale, his days taken up by physician’s visits, exams and questions.
At 48 years outdated, a person who just some years in the past had been a public face of peak bodily would possibly and situation was in energetic coronary heart failure.
“I do keep in mind feeling like, ‘If that is it, I will be OK,'” he mentioned. “‘But when it isn’t, I’ve received so much to do.”
He paused.
“I am actually glad I’ve so much 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 concerning 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 known as his donor a hero.
My identify is Scot, he wrote. I dwell in Indiana and I am scripting this letter to specific mine and my household’s endless appreciation for the one you love’s reward of life. My spouse, myself, our 4 kids, our prolonged household and mates are all endlessly grateful!
He continued.
We’d love the chance to fulfill sooner or later in the event you’re amenable to that concept. We need to let that the one you love’s coronary heart goes to be cherished and cared for and can give love again.
We have now already begun elevating donor consciousness in our neighborhood 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 endlessly via me and our efforts of getting extra individuals to be selfless heroes like him.
For those who do not feel snug responding, I utterly perceive. I simply wished 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 wished to answer, or in the event that they wished to in any respect.
“I can very a lot perceive how lots of people would say, ‘I do not need to know that person who received 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, house — hoping one other transplant area meant a larger alternative for a match.
Dr. Jonathan Menachem, a heart specialist on the hospital, positioned his fingers on Scot’s wrist.
“Your pulse is gradual,” he instructed him. “Is it all the time fairly gradual?”
Scot then laid down on a mattress, the place Menachem took his stethoscope and positioned it on Scot’s chest.
“Do you get in need of breath simply laying like this?” he requested him.
Scot closed his eyes and nodded.
“Seeing somebody lay down like that and getting so in need of 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 crammed with fluid and did not have sufficient blood move going round his physique,” Menachem mentioned. “They thought they had been going house 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 house.'”
Scot’s coronary heart was failing. He’d been affected by cardiomyopathy, a illness that makes it troublesome for the guts muscle to pump. With extra pressure on the muscle, and extra blood required for his giant 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 most effective one. That is the one I used to be born with. And the most important worry is that the following one is not going to be ok.”
As he ready for added exams, 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 probably not frightened of something,” Scot mentioned. “Now, whenever you’re sitting right here, ready for a brand new coronary heart, the unknown will be terrifying.”
SCOT INHERITED HIS top from his father, Pearl, who stood at 6-foot-8. And when he was recognized 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 received to Pearl first.
Pearl performed middle for Jordan Excessive College, simply south of Salt Lake Metropolis, and was shortly christened “Poison” Pollard for his lethal hook shot. He gained back-to-back state highschool championships with the Beetdiggers, setting the state event scoring report in 1955.
Earlier that 12 months, 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 via 1959 and was the crew’s main scorer for the 1958-59 season.
“He was a large of a person in each single means potential,” 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 recognized with cardiomyopathy, on the age of 53. He was placed on the guts transplant record however wanted an organ donor comparable in dimension.
Given his towering top, discovering one can be almost inconceivable.
“We knew it was a dying sentence,” Scot, who was the youngest of six kids, mentioned. “I used to be simply pondering, ‘God, I will develop up and not using a dad.'”
One morning in October 1991, Scot was making his means up from the seashore after browsing in gymnasium class. Pearl occurred to drive by in his white, city-issued pickup truck and stopped for a fast chat along with his son.
A couple of hours later, Scot acquired a telephone name from a pal. He mentioned Pearl’s truck had crashed into a rustic membership 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 enjoying profession, he continued to verify 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 received 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 positive what occurred,” Menachem mentioned, “however he clearly was predisposed to having a coronary heart that was not going to perform effectively for his whole 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 wish a coronary heart transplant to outlive.
Doubt that he’d discover one, and guilt that he deserved one, overwhelmed him.
Somebody must die to provide 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 desires. 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 tasks 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 children that my dad unintentionally did to me?” Scot thought.
“He did not need me to develop up and not using a dad to be there and educate [me],” Ozzy mentioned. “And I like him for that.”
The subsequent step was discovering a coronary heart sturdy sufficient to help his physique.
“You possibly can’t put a Ford Festiva engine in an F-150 and assume it’ll work effectively,” Menachem mentioned.
Whereas Pearl died ready for a same-sized donor, Scot had hope. Medical expertise had superior to permit for larger variation in dimension.
On Scot’s forty ninth birthday, his sixth day within the Vanderbilt Intensive Care Unit, he acquired phrase of a possible donor. He known as members of the family 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 instructed they’d 14 days to take advantage of devastating determination 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 might “speak a stranger’s ear off,” she says, and he usually 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 point out 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 extremely 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 a giant 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 will not have been giant sufficient to save lots of Pearl Pollard. However in 2024, it might be giant sufficient to save lots of Scot.
Pamela and Megan agreed to the nameless means of organ donation — and watched Angell’s coronary heart go away the hospital.
“You are dropping your finest pal,” Pamela mentioned, “however anyone else is gaining your finest pal, in a means.”
On the morning of February 16, as Angell’s coronary heart traveled from Texas to Tennessee, Vanderbilt employees started to organize 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 little one, 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 like you,” she mentioned, smiling via her tears.
“I like you endlessly,” Scot mentioned, operating his fingers via her lengthy, darkish hair. “I like you endlessly,” she instructed him.
Scot was pushed via the halls of the hospital, Daybreak following so far as she was allowed. She squeezed her husband’s hand earlier than he handed via a set of double doorways, past her grasp.
“I used to be pondering, ‘OK, what if he would not get up?’ she mentioned later. “That is when it lastly hit me.”
“I used to be pondering what life may 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 is no 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 outdated coronary heart got here out, you see an unlimited, 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 best coronary heart for him.”
ONE MID-OCTOBER EVENING final 12 months, Scot and Daybreak stood on the sideline of the Carmel Excessive College soccer subject. It was senior evening. Because the solar set behind the stands, they waited to listen to Ozzy’s identify known 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 after I was youthful,” Ozzy mentioned.
But the Pollards are keenly conscious that their aid, their pleasure, had come at an unlimited 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 known as Megan they usually determined to write down again, eager about studying extra concerning the man carrying Casey’s coronary heart — and sharing extra concerning 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 type phrases regarding your donor, who was cherished past measure. February 16, 2024, was an extremely onerous day for these of us that cherished 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 wished 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 most effective child brother anybody might ask for. Despite the fact that 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 cherished and can proceed to provide 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 “mild big” who was all the time pleased to assist these in want. “We’re blessed to know that even in our biggest 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 particular person.
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 resort 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 via 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 particular person to look as much as, as a father determine.”
William instructed tales of their afternoons collectively fishing, or watching horror films, describing his dad as mild 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 baby, to lose your father.”
“You seem like your dad,” Daybreak instructed 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 within him, her eyes crammed with tears.
Megan went subsequent. “My flip,” she mentioned.
She softly positioned the stethoscope simply to the best of a prolonged, vertical scar, an enduring reminder of what was given — and what was misplaced.
With Scot trying 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 via the streets of downtown Indianapolis, waving to an enthusiastic crowd.
A 12 months 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 positive how his life will progress. Nonetheless, no matter doubt had coursed via 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 utterly price it,” he mentioned.
Whereas Scot says his docs don’t assume the brand new coronary heart will likely be affected by the genetic dysfunction, they do consider his kids are vulnerable to coronary heart illness.
However within the meantime, he will likely be there to help them on their very own journeys. Ozzy, 17, will quickly start his freshman 12 months at Marian College, a faculty simply half-hour from house. Icean, 9, will enter fourth grade within the fall.
And in Texas, William, 13, plans to play for the junior excessive soccer crew, similar to his dad.
Destiny fused the paths of the Pollards and the Angells — every, in their very own means, serving to the opposite mend.
“What we hope for shifting ahead,” Scot mentioned, “is simply that I can hold residing a very good life due to their reward.”
As Megan seemed out on the cheering crowd, she considered Casey.
“It is an honor to let everybody know the way proud we’re of him, and who he was, and what a very good man he was,” she mentioned of her brother. “We miss him daily, however Scot helps with that.”
ESPN E60’s Jeremy Schaap, Dan Lindberg, and John Minton contributed to this story.
