How Scott Pollard chose life over death during Vanderbilt heart transplant surgery

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Scott Pollard sank into a pale pink recliner, his shoulders wrapped in a white Boston Celtics hoodie and his feet stuffed into jet black New Balances.

“I’ve seen a lot,” said the 6-foot-11 former University of Kansas and NBA center. “I’ve had a great life. I’ve done everything I was supposed to do.

“I was happy with the natural course of things.”

He meant death.

Pollard, 49, underwent a heart transplant at Vanderbilt Medical Center in mid-February. Four months ago, he would rather die than undergo surgery. “From September to December, I was adamantly against (it),” he said.

His old heart was sick, but it was an expression of his character’s thirst for life that drew people to him. he didn’t want to let it go. He wanted to overcome his illness that led to his death.

“My connection to my heart was existential,” he said. “American society is steeped in the idea that your mind is your spirit, and your mind is what makes you… you.”

Mr. Pollard knows that someone else had to die in order for him to obtain that person’s heart, and he appreciates them in a way he never knew was possible. ing.

He found answers to the questions he asked himself before surgery. “How can someone else’s heart replace your own?”

Scott Pollard is Kansas State basketball hero ‘Nobody saw it coming’

KU coach Roy Williams was laughing at the scorer’s table during a recent game at Allen Fieldhouse as sunlight streamed through the windows.

Pollard received a curtain call for his final home game as a Jayhawk. He had just surprised everyone by hitting his only college 3-pointer with two minutes left in a blowout Senior Day win against Kansas State.

“He came over and grabbed me and hugged me and we both laughed like crazy,” Williams said. “He said, ‘They should have filmed that for the rest of his career!'” Shortly after, Pollard cartwheeled onto the floor for his Senior Day speech.

KU fans were captivated by his hustle and his weirdness. He grew mutton chops and painted his nails for the game. This was the beginning of his NBA career, and his wild hair and physical play earned him the nicknames “The Butcher” and “Samara Scott.”

“He became an icon in the Lawrence world,” said Greg Gurley, a former college guard who played with Pollard and hosted him on recruiting visits. “He had a personality that no one expected.”

Pollard didn’t have that energy in September 2023. His heart was weak and inconsistent, beating an extra 10,000 times per day.he had trouble walking and talking Pericarditis, myocarditis and genetics cardiomyopathy His father had undergone a heart transplant and was on the heart transplant list when he passed away in 1991.

In cases with symptoms, cardiomyopathy — Some people are affected without symptoms — The heart can become hardened or enlarged, and scar tissue can form that limits effective blood flow. Pollard’s doctors told him the genes from his father were cleared by a virus other than the 2021 coronavirus.

Pollard received three cardiac ablation In three years — the procedure set his mind on fire to create a normal rhythm — and also pacemaker He underwent this surgery before accepting a heart transplant as his last option.

He and his wife, Dawn, didn’t talk much about his death. She didn’t think he would actually let her die, but Pollard said otherwise.

“I thought, ‘No, that’s not an option.’ I have to keep going,” Dawn said. “This doesn’t end here.”

Exploring the emotions of heart disease patients before transplantation

Everything went dark when Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal’s elbow hit Pollard in the jaw.

“All I remember is Chris Webber standing over me and saying, ‘No, no, no,'” Pollard said. I need you. ‘Cause apparently I was yelling, “I’m going to (expletive) kill him!” ”

Pollard averaged one foul every 4.5 minutes he played in seven consecutive Western Conference Finals games between the Sacramento Kings and Lakers in 2002. He ended his 11-year NBA career after winning the championship with the Celtics in 2008. He then dabbled in broadcasting, appearing on Survivor for one season and playing the villain in the 2013 horror film The Axeman.

Living a big life made his heart feel irreplaceable in a way. “My struggle with it was, can I have the same mind as everyone else?” Pollard said.

Mourning the heart as a lost spirit or soul is not uncommon for transplant patients. Some people want their old hearts kept and ceremonially buried, said Pollard surgeon Dr. Ashish Shah, Vanderbilt’s chief of cardiac surgery and surgeon-in-chief of the heart transplant program.

Craig Smith, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University, has been studying how people cope with chronic painful conditions since 1988 and has researched how people cope with chronic painful conditions. I understand why the heart has a hard time leaving it behind, or in Pollard’s case, why it considers death an option. Mr Smith said serious health problems have a stronger psychological impact on young and middle-aged patients than on older people.

“Especially young, healthy, capable people who have not yet experienced many of the symptoms of aging,” Smith says. “They feel really violated and rejected by their bodies and by what caused the accident. I think that’s a good word to use, but older people and older people don’t. Instead, it’s because you expect your body to be like this: a state of collapse.”

Pollard’s younger sister, Line, also has heart disease and helped care for her father when he became ill. She discussed with her brother the physical concerns about her surgery and the emotional questions she wanted her brother to answer.

“He was able to share so much because of our travel experiences,” Rhine said. “I told him (his heart) is a muscle. You will continue to love his wife and children. You will carry that passion for the rest of your life.”

Why Scott Pollard decided to have a heart transplant

Pollard was browsing a Facebook group page for heart transplant recipients and caregivers late last year when she changed her mind. The post reiterated that transplant surgery involves the whole family, not just the recipient.

Pollard has four children. His son Ozzie, a 260-pound junior at Carmel High School in Indiana, is a sixth-grader and senior at Carmel High School in Indiana and has college football offers from the Hoosiers and Central Michigan. “My father passed away when I was 16, and now I have a 16-year-old child,” Pollard said. “I have a wife who loves me. I want to see my children grow up. How could I deprive them of that opportunity?”

“My feelings didn’t change, I didn’t want to do this. I wanted to do it for my family.”

Family values were part of his upbringing in the Mormon church. Pollard is not religious, but he cares for his loved ones. He failed to ride his three years in college and finally bought his rusted 1969 green drop-top Cadillac which he named “Marvin”. Lawrence locals may have seen this car as one of his jokes. But for $900, that was really all he could buy. He sent federal Pell Grant funds to his mother during the season. He also sent her cash he earned working at a basketball camp and washing golf carts in the summer.

Pollard was also loyal to his team. When Williams heard he was on multiple transplant lists, she checked on him. They started talking about his surprising 3-point shooting on his senior day in college.

“When we hugged on the bench, someone took that picture. It was one of my favorite pictures,” Williams said. “It was in my office at the University of North Carolina for 18 seasons, and I sent him a copy when I retired.

“He said he still had it in his bedroom.”

How Scott Pollard received a heart transplant at Vanderbilt

Pollard is the tallest patient Shah has ever performed a transplant on.

His new heart needed to be a strong one, probably from a male over 6-1 in height. This shrunk the donor pool, as did Pollard’s blood type O. His body could not accept other blood types.

His heart arrived 10 days after his initial consultation at Vanderbilt, which was sooner than Pollard expected. Mr. Vanderbilt’s extensive tests were a factor in saving his life, as they further revealed that his condition was deteriorating. As a result, he was promoted to Status 2 on the transplant list, which is the second highest priority after Status 1. Status 1 is reserved for people who are seriously ill or on life support.

Another reason his heart arrived so quickly was the Vanderbilt Transplant Center.It was conducted 5th highest total number of organ transplants Shah said he stepped out into the world last year and learned techniques to tap into hearts from 3,000 miles away, opening up to hearts from all over the country.

Tragic timing is also a complex but real part of the heart transplant process. “You’re waiting for another family to have the worst day ever,” Shah said.

On February 16, a helicopter carrying Pollard’s heart landed at Vanderbilt.

Shah said there are harrowing moments before a heart transplant. We always look up and everyone in the room says, “I hope that heart gets here soon and that that heart works.” ”

Why Scott Pollard sang Tony Bennett after heart surgery

After five hours of surgery, Pollard awoke with her throat open in a hospital bed minutes from Music Row.

“I started singing. “I left my heart in San Francisco, Nashville,” he said, imitating the sound of Tony Bennett’s jazzy 1953 standard. “I hadn’t done that in years because I was so tired. I was talking like crazy.”

Pollard plans to move out of his and Dawn’s temporary Vanderbilt apartment this week. The rest of the family is waiting in Indiana. Excerpts from Bennett’s songs actually ring true. On the hill, (my heart) is calling me/My love is waiting there/When I return to you/Your golden sun will shine for me. Sho.

When Pollard is asked about “his” heart now, he has to clarify: “This or my old heart?” He certainly left his heart in Nashville and found it.

He began writing a 350-word iPhone note after the surgery, which he eventually sent as a letter to the donor’s family. He is not legally allowed to identify himself in it, but he can reveal his own name and where he lives.

“Most of what’s being written now is that you gave me a great gift,” Pollard said. “We are going to ask for donations, but all we know is your great man. I would like you to join me on this journey to find out more about me.

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