After heart transplant, former NBA player Scott Pollard will promote organ donation – Publinews – 2024-03-03 04:52:32

Scot Pollard had become so accustomed to the fragility of his heart that he did not realize how close he came to dying.

“I was a wreck,” the former NBA player and “Survivor” contestant told The Associated Press on Friday, a day after he was released from the hospital and two weeks after he received a heart transplant.

“The doctors knew right away that I was much closer to death once they removed my heart,” Pollard said. “I don’t think I would have survived another couple of weeks.”

Pollard, a veteran of 11 seasons and a member of the Boston Celtics that won the title in 2008, had a hereditary condition that his father also suffered from, who died at age 54, when he was 16. Scot Pollard’s heart deteriorated rapidly after he contracted a virus in 2021. Attempts to correct the problem with medications or less radical procedures were unsuccessful. Transplantation became the only option.

But finding a heart big enough to pump blood throughout the former NBA center’s body was a challenge. Pollard is 2.11 meters tall and weighs 118 kilograms.

She was advised to register at as many transplant centers as possible (although they had to be close, so she could arrive within four hours in case a donor heart became available).

Pollard, 49, underwent pre-transplant testing near his home in Carmel, Indiana, and in Chicago. But last month, when he arrived at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, he was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on the second highest priority for organ transplants because of his condition.

Nine days later, his wife Dawn posted on the social network X: “The time has come!”

“The fact that this came so soon probably saved my life. I don’t know how much longer it would have lasted,” Scot Pollard said. “I was just deteriorating very quickly.”

Privacy rules prevent Pollard from knowing the identity of his donor, although doctors told him he was a “tall man.” What is allowed is for the recipient to write a letter that will be sent to the donor’s family, if both parties so wish.

It is possible that the donor’s relatives will write to the recipient, although Pollard has not yet received that letter.

From a temporary home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he needs to stay for six to eight weeks to receive proper follow-up care, Pollard said he has written a draft of his letter. In it, he thanks the donor, whom he considers a hero, and offers to establish communication.

“I would like to show you how your great man’s heart is living and helping people,” he explained. “I would like to show you that this heart is not going to waste.”

Pollard has been warned that many families of donors do not want to establish contact with the recipient, because it makes them suffer again the death of their loved ones. Heart donors, in particular, are often accident victims who were otherwise in good health.

“If it’s a healthy heart it’s because something else killed it,” Pollard said. “I hope they communicate, because I would like to include them in the rest of my life.”

That life has already improved.

Even after he retired from the NBA, Pollard liked to keep busy, in the media, with some acting roles and as a contestant on a simulated reality show. But during the last few months, he needed to stop and rest and couldn’t even walk in the house.

It was only when he woke up from the five-hour surgery that he realized how bad his situation had become.

“I was lying down the whole time. That just became my new normal,” she recalled. “As an athlete, you kind of just put things out of your mind. You keep going. But I couldn’t make that heart go on. Now I can make this heart move forward.”

Just a day after the transplant performed by Dr. Ashish Shah, Pollard was walking through a hospital ward. He can now perform “light squats” and works on his balance.

“I like to always move, not stay still,” Pollard said.

On Thursday, he danced and shadow boxed as he walked down a hospital corridor in a sleeveless T-shirt printed with the question: “BUT, DID YOU DIE?”

Those in charge of his medical care applauded as he shouted, “I’m coming out!” He posed for a photo, while ringing a bell marking his discharge from the clinic.

Pollard said he will run campaigns to promote organ donation.

“I’m going to be bothering people to become donors. “That is going to be a project for the rest of my life,” she said.

He has already helped convince a person to ever donate their organs.

“I had never considered being a donor, because I wasn’t educated about it and there were some fears when I thought about the process,” Dawn Pollard said. “It became our reality that Scot needed a heart, so I immediately signed up. I am proud to now be an organ donor. It makes me feel good to know that I could help someone live.”