Ballers for Life: Sudden Cardiac Death on the Basketball Court | Dave Leak & Melissa Scott

Welcome to the shiny brightly show. I'm Howard brown author speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, international peacemaker, and yes to time stage for cancer patients survivor advocate. Each episode will take you from resilience to hope and a whole lot more. Because shining brightly does make the world a better place. Be prepared to be inspired.

Hello, everybody, Howard brown shining brightly, so glad to have some really, really good friends here. The shining brightly spotlight is on my dear friend Dave Leake and Melissa Scott, welcome. How are you doing today? Very well. I'm so happy that you guys take the sunglasses off. Dave is, is a longtime friend. I moved here from San Francisco in like 2005 and got hooked up to a basketball game. I think it's a normal middle school day. We played on Sunday mornings at 30. Right in early. And we've been playing ever since. And Melissa has a new friend over six months is a much bigger story on Dave our miracle man, I got my HP strong Shirt Day, Melissa, you got your miracle man, sir. All right. This is the story we're getting on here. So Dave, I just want to introduce yourself, tell people a little bit about yourself about your business, whatever you want to say,

Oh, how you doing? I am. I have been in business for about 15 years. And I run a company called DPR educational services we provide after school programs and in school programs and also some supplementary educational programs outside of the school as well. So it's been a it's been a pretty good business throughout the years. And it's been quite rewarding because I get the chance to hang out with little kids was really fun. And also I get a chance to educate, educate them more. They're very good getting their big brains on in my classroom. And I'm really happy about that. I'm

so excited. You're making a big difference and big influence on young young people. I know you do a lot of work in the inner city, Detroit as well. And those schools and your business is growing. That's awesome. I'm that's one of the things I gotta tell you, I'm really proud of you. Because you make a difference on today's youth and kids growing up and in the city here giving them a real chance. So I'm real proud of you for that. And Melissa, what introduce yourself to the group.

Well, my name is Melissa Scott, and I am a 24 year veteran principal of an elementary school. And I am actually Dave's best friend for about 15 years. And I we've grown to know each other through education. And I've always had a lot of respect for what he did. And so we became partners, so to speak, and ensuring that some of the programs that his company offers is extended through community based programs, educational institutions. And outside of that we were very good friends, we have a lot of the same friends. And we just grew closer and closer and closer over the years. So about 15 years right after he started his business, we became really, really good friends. And it just evolved from that. Well, I

can tell you that you guys are glowing, because it's amazing. You're giving people a chance they get and go on and get good grades and be what they want to be and dream and get to college potentially if that's their their route. I'm really proud of you for that. And I'm so glad you're here. I want to move things on a second here because Dave, we are going to bring the screens up here. And I want you to make some comments on some of these things here. Let me get that going. Here we got Dave, you're in a tuxedo and you're looking fit because your workout machine and this is before Okay, the instrument that we're going to talk about where you became the miracle man, but you always been the miracle man to me. You're looking spiffy there guy.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

So the reason, Melissa, this is this is your man this is this is the guy here, huh?

Yes, absolutely. So looking at real fly there. David Leitch.

He looks good. I think this was a road race or some type of was that you were right your was it a marathon or a bike trial. A lot of you go. So there you go. And the reason I wanted to put that up there is because Dave you the same person I've known for, you know, over you know, 17 years. You the same. And so this right here, okay the ball is going in the hoop baby. This is us it was a foreign forecourt we played 1000s of basketball games, you and I, you know, smiling and happy. And so, for the, you know, the people watching this podcast, many of them know my story, and I'm a two time stage four colon cancer survivor, I had no hatches lymphoma, I was 23. And I am blessed and lucky to be living in here. And so I'm going to take you to a story, David, you and I've played in 1000s of basketball games, but this one game on June 5, at probably around 915 In the morning, our normal Sunday playing at norms, just the fellas and we got to interfaith game intercultural game, everyone who's welcome as long as you're not an asshole, play the ball and pass it you. But we've been playing on this court since I moved here. You know, 1617 years ago, what happened? And there's a hard story for me because we made up teams were playing, I pass you the ball, and you were going to take a layup you missed you got the rebound, and you put it back the ball back up again. And unfortunately, you missed again. And that's not like you. And you turned and looked at me and he said he sorry. And then you made a big gasp. And you collapsed on the court. And we didn't know what was going on. But we thought you were having a seizure because I think maybe about six weeks earlier a day a day and Butler's court. You had some some warning signs. And I screamed norm norm mark, Dr. Norm Mark woods, Andy Mark woods, Dr. Andy Markowitz, I think he's having a seizure. And you don't remember any of this? No, you don't remember any of this? I figured. So you collapsed on the court that this right above the near the three point line, and norm and Andy came right over, they check your pulse, and they immediately started trying to resuscitate you. And it was like in slow motion for us watching. And so we immediately called 9911. And we were watching the clock. And Dan Solon and I ran down the street one way to direct him in and I think Danny khalilabad and Mike ehic, or Dan Yeka, ran down the street if they came in the other way to the court. It was it was it was an emotional freaky moment, but it was like in slow motion for us. And all we watched was Andy just pounding on your chest trying to resuscitate you. And then the police came first. And then the ambulance came. And then they hooked you up to a machine that actually was doing the compressions. And I've never seen this before. But you've seen it on TV, Dave. They actually defend you. They zapped you three times on that cord, trying to get your heart going, seeing if you had a pulse. And I just heard him saying we got a pulse. It's a light pulse. And then we lost your pulse. And we came to learn day that you had sudden cardiac death on that court. Wow. You died on that court, man. We didn't know if you're gonna live or not. But they eventually got you into the ambulance. And thank God that Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield was just a few minutes away. And it was surreal. You're the healthiest, you're the healthiest guy running triathlons that we know. And it just shows you that you never know. And, you know, I look back at when I heard about what happened to Dan Butler's court our backs told me that you know that you kind of had a little pass out scene there and you had to go get checked out. That was a warning sign. And so Melissa, I gotta tell you, we ran over to the hospital with keys and a wallet. And you know, Dave's car was at norms. And Andy being a doctor went in and Tim Samara was waiting to hand to your sister, your son and your your ex wife. And we just didn't know they got you right into the cardiac unit. But Melissa, I gotta tell you, Where were you during this time? Oh, my

Lord. I had just I had been in Costa Rica for about two days. And actually, Dave dropped me off at the airport. And we were not seeing eye to eye at the time. And so after being there, about maybe 30 hours, I started getting these phone calls, but I kept refusing the calls because I figured it was him trying to make up with me because I was pretty ticked off and so I would not answer the calls. So then in the very beginning, he he even called one of my friends and said, just tell everybody I know that's there in Costa Rica. I said hello, man about maybe eight hours after that. I started getting calls from his son. I said, Oh, really? You're gonna use your son's phone. Oh, I'm still not gonna answer. So I wouldn't answer. This is Saturday morning. So then I got a call from his sister. And I'm like, really? You're gonna use your sister's phone to call me? I'm still not going to answer the phone. And so then his sister called quite a few times, and I'm like, wow, she lives in Atlanta. How did he get her phone? So I said, Well, let me just answer the phone. So I answered the phone. And his sister Jackie says, I'm Melissa. I'm really sorry to, you know, let you know this. But Dave is on life support. He actually died this morning. And he's on life support. For now that out of the, it was just shocking. It was absolutely shocking. I had no, I think I was. I just went numb for a second because I just could not believe it. And I had missed all these phone calls, trying to call me to let me know that, you know, this emergency had happened. You know, the joke now is Howard that Dave always tries to one up me. And so so now the job now is, I finally said, Listen, this is not going to be my dude anymore. I'm so done with him quit calling me. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I'm just done. And then he goes and has a cardiac arrest. I'm like, you want me again? You want to ask me again? You

guys are competitive. I know that. Oh, man, it must have been it must have been helpless. So far away, though.

You know, it was it was it was such a horrible feeling. And I was there actually, as with the I was congratulating my daughter for graduating from college. And so it was a very special trip with with her, and a lot of my great friends. And immediately, when I finally got in touch with his mom, I said, Well, I'm on the next plane out of there, I felt really bad. Because, you know, it was my daughter, we had literally only been there for about 30 hours. So, you know, I was I was torn. You know, I had my daughter and my family here. And then I had Dave that was in in bad shape. You know, I called like, every three minutes. It was just unbelievable. And of course, my phone bill is like sky high now, Mr. leak, because that's what I get for not answering the phone. But anyway. So I called his mom and his mom said, Melissa, do not come home stay with your daughter. Because there's absolutely nothing that you can do. They will not even let you in the hospital. And so it would be pointless for you to be here. And so I stayed but powered, I'm telling you, it was the worst feeling because there was absolutely nothing I could do. I was calling as many people as I could every two seconds in at the same time, I was trying to make sure that my daughter had a great time and spend time with my family. And every every phone call that I made my sister's a physician and every phone call I made told me that he was you know, expect that he was going to be gone by the time I got home. And so it was awful.

It was I bet so I'm switching the slide here because I didn't ever heard that before. But Dave, I don't know. This is Alan, I came to see you this is in the rehab. There's me actually after my it might have been my colonoscopy. When I learned I had stage three colon cancer. We're both in hospital beds, you know, and fighting for our lives here. And you don't remember any of this. But I will tell you this Dave, the good doctors at Henry Ford, the good nurses, the good staff. They saved your life along with Andy and Andy Markowitz and Norm Markowitz is your magic smile.

So, so appreciate that.

Oh, man. So this is hard, because so then, you know, this happens on June 5. And they actually you were you were in a medically induced coma. They actually froze you. Because they say that if they cryo preserve that stops the you know, the swelling of the brain. Okay, we had no idea how much oxygen didn't get to the brain. We had no idea of any of this. And you are one strong man, you are unbelievably strong, because what you came through, and your 50th birthday on 30th. I'm going to switch to the next slide is amazing. So the picture on the left here is that your 50th birthday with the hoop guys. Not all of them, of course. And we had the T shirts made up called the miracle man. I don't know if it was your sister or somebody made up and said Dave's our miracle man might have been your mom. I remember. We made up T shirts. You had family from all over the country fly in. And we had a great party and you walked into that party, which was truly amazing. I mean, for a guy that had sudden cardiac death and shouldn't be here. We should have been going to your funeral and saying our piece. You walked into that? Very short 55 days later. You walked into your 50th birthday party. And it's just truly amazing day.

I am very thankful. I'm very thankful.

Just great. And then I the picture on the right is unbelievable, because we're back on the court. That's me next to you on the left, and you got Mark Coleman and our backs and Brandon. And there's biz up there. Dan Surlyn. Rob balancer yitzy Andy Markowitz right there to above us. And that's Shawn Gouda. I mean, these are just some of the guys we got, like 50 guys that we play with, and you're back on the court, and I'm back on the court and where and it's a process. It's a process. So tell tell me about this thing, because I heard you went and bought yourself a big birthday present. What do you what do you do?

You mean, well, I bought the car. The truck, what do you do? Yeah, well, I was thinking it out. Because I did not have a car. And I had, I had an older car. And it was just kind of given to me because circumstances just kind of had that car in my in my life. I just Well, I said, You know what, I'm gonna donate that car. And I'm just gonna buy a new car. And I went and bought a Mercedes Benz and is running it is running a really good now,

something he would never have done, however, have

done but he'd be. I think he's more than more than allowed to go by himself with a big ol Mercedes truck. So I just love that story. I think I got a phone call from Melissa says, You know what, Dave went off. And did.

We were so mad.

I know. I know. I know. But you know what? You got I we did a cancer trip to St. Lucia. For me, Emily and Lisa. Just after all we've been through, we needed some time on the beach and to relax. This radio. I'm gonna play a little video here. This is your birthday party when I saw you guys in much happier time smiling. Take a look at that. Oh. So your birthday you walked in and I got you on video. There you all smiling. And you know, everyone was so happy. She's very cute. She is cute. And I think she forgave you. I hope she forgave you. I've been a little fight.

It was I think it was on a set of power. It was all a setup.

So So So Dave, I want to talk just real briefly here. So this is me on the right, you know bald, and from chemo, that's norms court. This is recently this is indoors at Franklin racket on a Sunday recently playing ball with you in the middle. And then this is actually a picture that I didn't know we had. But this is Craig Brown behind me and you behind me. And I use this picture with Man Up To Cancer to talk about people's mental health. And that is not a weakness. And I know you're working on yours right now. You're working on it every day, you ever say physically as strong as an ox. But but you know, after you know, going through what you're going through and all the stress that caused it in you, it's takes time to get back. You're not even a year out. A year out. So we're we're both working on ourselves, working on our family and working on relationships. And you know, your business is going good. You got the big old truck, and I just want people to see that it is possible because we are strong men to rebuild and to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Yes, we can put them back together again, and move forward. That's true.

Exactly. And we are moving forward. And so I'm going to click this next one here. So you actually, when we came to your birthday, you gave the guys that were with you at that time, this keychain and I want you to tell me what was bothers to life mean to you? And then you said to Howard and you had an inscribes from Dave, the miracle man which you are but by God and tell me what what this means to you. Oh, that

means a lot to me. It means ball for life. Just the camaraderie and all people who came together to play basketball with us. A really is a good thing because for one is a physical activity. And for two, it creates a sound group of friends. And I really love that part of it. And so I'm very thankful that you guys are playing our Philippine basketball with me and it's it's a great gift, a great gift to be able to play basketball steal after the hard fact.

I agree and Melissa, I gotta tell you, this is this just means so much to us. I hold this dearly this this is one of my most valuable possessions. I have They have it on my desk. I look at it every day as inspiration, Dave, to our friendship and to all of our boys, our hoop boys will be playing tomorrow morning at 830. But this this is truly special. And it commemorates, how hard you've worked and, and truly the inspiration you are, to me and to many, many people. So

Well, thank you,

Howard.It was a but God moment because I really after all the years that Dave and I have been together, I always heard about you all, but I had never seen you all and I did, I'd never understood the connectedness that you all had. I just heard story after story after story. And so after this happened, it was about a God moment. And that's why they put that on there.

It's so crazy if really, if just basketball they were playing, but the bomb that come from that basketball game is really really special. Amazing. So

we have each other's back. And, you know, listen, we have a diverse game. We are the model of diversity. We got Jewish guys, Christian guys, African American guys muslim guys Chaldean guys. Yeah, we don't care. As I said, as long as you can play some ball with us. You're welcome. And we've been doing this a long time. And now, I when I moved here, oh, my goodness, I was young. And now and I'm the old guy. 55 years old. Right. And you're 50. But we're still balling, which is possible. And it's going. And so I'm looking at this smile, Dave Ulis, that those smiles are infectious. And does God shining through us. And I am just so happy. We could spend a few moments and talking about this. Because Dave, I know you don't remember much. But there's so many people praying for you. You're I got to know your whole family, your mom and your sister and your son, and even your ex wife and Melissa, we were texting non stop just on your progress. And we say glad you're there. I

really appreciate it. I really, really do.

Anyways, I do have Melissa, we can't

Well, I can't say I can't thank you all enough for what you all did. Because after this happened, you never really know what the person that goes to this kind of trauma, what they really mean in your life until you have something happened like this. And you're like, Oh, my wife, you know, they're way more special than I thought. And then to find out, you know that the life that he was living, even outside of ours, with all these ballers at you know, we used to first like why are you every day every week, two or three times a week? What are you doing? But once I'm once I met you all through this tragedy, I understood why why there's ballers for life and I understood why he is so connected with you, I cannot possibly thank all of you eat the doctors and all the friends, I cannot think thank you all enough for helping to revive somebody that is so very special to me. And now all of you all are so very special to me. So it's just it has expanded the friendships. I could not imagine days life without you, especially Howard. I could not imagine you have been so very instrumental in his progress above him. God made sure that you did some things that you did a GoFundMe, you helped us with technology. You've always checked in. Everybody has you were just a light that he needed in his recovery. Because he did he did he did have a clear memory issue. But the fact that you can keep calling and you kept checking on him, it really helped. Because when he could not remember anything, and then when I walked into his hospital room one day, as of the day, what have you been doing first of all his, the part of his brain that was damaged, was emote was affected his mood? When so they used to cry a lot. And I never knew if he was crying because he was happy was sad. But one day I walked in and I said, Hey, I guess he had seen you and Tim on the phone. And I walked in and he was just crying and crying and crying. And I said Dave, I said, Why are you crying today? And he said, because I just saw Howard and Tim and all my friends. So and he was and it was a moment that he actually remembered he remembered your name. And that was the beginning of his true recovery. And for me, that was the very beginning that you your name and Tim's name was the beginning the first day that I can remember that I could tell that he was really getting better and his memory was coming back

right? We weren't allowed in the hospital but we actually days mom's snuck us up to because of COVID Candy. I'm only one person but how bad Allen backs and I came up to the room. And all I know is that I went down and I was talking to his mom and his sister afterwards. And Dave's like my hoop buddies were here. He's telling everyone and anyone, anyone coming to my home buddies. He goes, I'm gonna get back on that court. And you know what he did. And that's true strength. He is true strength and he is a baller for life. And I'm just so grateful. Now. I've got my book coming out on the spring and I got a website called shining brightly dot life. If, if anyone wants to get in touch with you, would you want to have come through me? Or would you like to share email address

I can share on my Instagram and Facebook? Have you sent me a link or something that I can share?

No, no, no, I'll share this. We'll share the video out but But what I'll have everyone come through me if anyone wants to get in touch with them with Dave Scott to potentially interview them or talk to them. Because this is a story that's truly inspiring. Dave, you when I when I was actually on chemo and on the court, you will come up and take me aside. And you would say, you know, my sister's going through the same she's going through treatment. And I said Is she hydrated and she said she carried her jug of water up and I remember this, and you always took me aside and you were like, HB, just keep going in the court. It don't matter how you play. And now what am I saying to you? When you're on the court? It d oesn't matter. You

don't matter. You play, build up, build out, you'll

get back. It's like riding a bike. And it's takes time. But you're You're incredible. And you are shining brightly in everyone's eyes. You don't need to warm up anybody anymore. And Melissa, you forgive him, right? He's forgiven. I

have forgiven them. I do realize the love that we share. I'll never do that again. And I always answer the phone.

Now so listen, thank you so much for being with us today where we're gonna sign off right now. And just God bless and ballers for life and friends for life. And I love you both. I love you both.

I love it. I will see you in the morning.

You got it, brother. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you.