LOUISVILLE, Ky. (InvestigateTV) — Duewy Scobee had heart issues for a long time. Doctors exhausted all resources to keep him going. In 2024, he was in the hospital with heart failure.
“It was really bad. I was near the end,” Scobee said.
At 58, Scobee needed a heart transplant.
“I had a choice of just doing palliative care until I passed away or do the transplant,” he said.
More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant in the United States on any given day, according to organdonor.gov. More than 4,000 people are waiting for a new heart.
A donor’s gift
Roc Dabney, 28, died in a car crash in Pennsylvania in March 2024.
“He was quite the character. He was the life of the family,” Rodney Briggs, Roc’s uncle, said.
“It was tough. Tough seeing him lying there in the road,” Briggs said.
Dabney’s sudden death was devastating for his family. But because he was the type to help others, Dabney was an organ donor.
Once Dabney died, there was only a four-hour window to get his heart from Pennsylvania to Louisville for Scobee.
“I was really nervous, I was really scared because this could be the last time that you’re around. Because once you go into surgery, if something goes wrong you just not going to wake up,” Scobee said.
It’s still emotional for Scobee to think about the transplant.
“I received my heart from a 28-year-old kid. I call him a kid because I have a son that’s 27, a daughter who’s 25,” Scobee said. “And it bothers me that I’m almost 60. He didn’t even get to grow up really.”
Recovery and reunion
The transplant and recovery were successful. 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.
The families decided to meet each other in Pennsylvania. Scobee brought along a stethoscope. It was emotional for everyone, including Dabney’s mother.
“She got to listen to her son’s heartbeat in my chest,” Scobee said.
“Probably the first time I’d seen my sister smile since the accident,” Briggs said.
Scobee said he had a line of people who wanted to listen to the heartbeat.
“I think it helped with the healing process. It came full circle,” Briggs said.
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.
Organ donation gave Roc’s family a powerful and positive outcome from their tragic situation, allowing them to focus on the good that came from their loss.
“I look at everybody a whole lot different than I used to. I don’t get mad. It’s just calmer because I’ve got a second chance. Everything else is daisies,” Scobee said.
A 2025 survey by the National Survey of Organ Donation Attitudes and Practice found that while 93% of Americans supported organ donation, only 53% were signed up and another 5% were unsure of their status.
To sign up to be an organ donor, visit the National Donate Life Registry.
Every donor can save up to eight lives and enhance over 75 more, according to organdonor.gov.
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