(FOX40.COM) — Former Sacramento Kings player Scot Pollard is fighting to live another day. 

Pollard, who played five of 11 NBA seasons with the Kings, is in need of a heart transplant and was admitted to a hospital in the intensive care unit until there is a donor who is a match.
•Video Above: Scot Pollard discusses his wait for heart transplant (January 2024)

“Our family has been inundated with a lot of love and support, messages and people praying for us,” Pollard said in a video posted on his X account. “We really appreciate it. I’m here at the Vanderbilt Hospital. I have the best in the world watching after me.” 

“I have teams here and Indiana and Chicago. Everybody is communicating. Everybody feels like this is the right place to give me a donor heart quicker,” Pollard continued. 

After multiple appointments and trips to the hospital, the former Kings big man told FOX40.com he was admitted after medical staff didn’t “like the way” he looked. He was admitted to the ICU following a test that determined whether he should go home or stay and wait for a heart at the hospital. 

“I’m in the ICU because it’s faster for them to do what they need cardiac-wise,” Pollard said.

Pollard was diagnosed with a heart disease in March 2021 and remained quiet about the diagnosis until he revealed it with a photo of himself in a hospital bed in January. 

In a previous interview with FOX40 Sports’ Sean Cunningham, Pollard said he began to have discussions of a heart transplant in September after months of medication being unsuccessful. 

“I kept quiet for the most part because I was thinking I was going to get better,” Pollard said in the interview. “I kept thinking my heart will heal, the meds are going to work, the procedures are going to work and they’re not. Nothing is working.”  

His wife Dawn Pollard told FOX40.com that medical staff are “actively looking” for a heart near the area. She said her husband is listed as a Level 2 ICU patient, which is “the highest priority that you want to be at while being healthy.” 

“A status one means you’re going to die any moment if you don’t get a heart,” Dawn Pollard said. “We are hoping he gets the best birthday gift this coming Monday the 12th.”

“I hope his story encourages someone to take two minutes of their life to check a few boxes, and become an organ donor,” Dawn Pollard said. “I will promise to help Scot care for his new heart, and honor the person who lost their life in order to give Scot back his.”