LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Duewy Scobee ran his first 5K just 11 months after receiving a new heart.
More than 100,000 people are waiting for lifesaving organ transplants in the United States, but one Meade County man is alive today because he received a new heart and got to thank the family of the man who helped keep him alive.
Scobee has had heart issues for a long time. Doctors exhausted all resources to keep him going and in 2024, he was hospitalized with heart failure.
“It was really bad. I was near the end,” Scobee said.
Dr. Rohan Samson, a heart failure transplant cardiologist at UofL Health, said the survival with end-stage heart failure is dismal.
“I had a choice: doing palliative care until I passed away or do the transplant,” Scobee said.
Young donor’s tragic death leads to lifesaving gift.
More than 4,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a new heart. That’s where Roc Dabney comes into the picture.
Dabney was just 28 years old when he died in a car crash in March 2024 in Pennsylvania. His uncle, Rodney Briggs, spoke about the loss.
“He was quite the character. He was the life of the family,” Briggs said. “It was tough. Tough seeing him there in the road.”
Dabney’s sudden death was devastating for his family, but because he was the type to help others, he was an organ donor. Once he died, there was only a four-hour window to get his heart from Pennsylvania to Louisville for Scobee.
“I was really nervous, really scared, because this could be the last time you are around. Because once you go into surgery, something goes wrong, you won’t wake up,” Scobee recalled.
Emotional connection between families
The transplant and recovery was a success. Eleven months later, Scobee ran his first 5K. A picture of Scobee with information that he was a new heart recipient circulated on the internet.
Dabney’s family knew his heart went to a Kentucky man. They connected the dots and reached out.
In August, the families decided to meet each other in Pennsylvania. Scobee brought along a stethoscope.
“She got to listen to her son’s heartbeat in my chest,” Scobee said about Dabney’s mother.
“Probably the first time I seen my sister smile since the accident,” Briggs said. “I had a line of people who wanted to listen.”
“I think it helped with the healing process. It came full circle,” Briggs said.
Shared interests create a lasting bond
The families exchanged stories and realized that Dabney and Scobee were a lot alike — they both loved Halloween. The two would have probably been friends.
“We all would agree that I would say Roc had a hand in picking Duewy to receive his heart,” Briggs said.
With this second chance, Scobee said life just feels a whole lot nicer and he feels so much better.
“You are 59 with a 28-year-old heart. How does that feel? It feels great,” Scobee said.
Multiple lives saved through donation
Dabney’s family said they know that he had a kidney that went to a boy in Pittsburgh and another kidney and his liver went to a man in Ohio. They find comfort in that other people are alive and using his donation.
Scobee said when he dies, he can’t donate his heart but will give whatever other organs and tissues that he can.
“I look at everyone a whole lot different than I used to. I don’t get mad. It’s just calmer because I have a second chance. Everything else is daisies,” Scobee said.
For more information on organ donation, click here.
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