Scott Gogan is a SJ Police veteran, local professional musician and heart failure survivor leading the Big Band Benefit in support of the NB Heart Centre
Most people in Saint John probably know Scott Gogan as a longtime police officer, the guy behind Christmas With The Cops, or maybe the musician who somehow convinced an entire brass section, lawyers, medics, and local cops to share a stage at the Imperial Theatre.
What they may not know is that just over two years ago, he was days away from dying.
“I was being treated for a chest infection that wasn’t going away,” Scott said. “I was getting weaker and weaker. Then I went to the hospital and they told me, ‘No, you’re going to die. You have to stay here.’”
The diagnosis was severe heart failure. What doctors first thought was a lingering infection turned out to be something much worse, linked to radiation treatments Scott received decades earlier while battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 21.
“It turns out the radiation can crystallize the heart valves over time,” he said. “And that’s basically what happened.”
At the time, Scott was still actively policing, working out, swimming, and trying to stay healthy, especially after losing his father to heart issues at 51. But something felt off.
“I remember wrestling with a guy on a domestic call and thinking, ‘Why am I struggling this much right now?’” he said. “I was working out and somehow feeling more out of shape.”
After surgery in early 2024, things got even more serious. Scott was placed in a medically induced coma after doctors realized his heart was in worse shape than expected.
“I almost didn’t pull through,” he said.
Recovery has been long, physical, emotional, and, at times, surreal. Scott jokes now about the medication-fuelled conversations he had with nurses in the Heart Centre, but underneath the humour is a deep appreciation for the team that helped save his life.
“The cool thing about the Heart Centre was the people there really wanted to be there,” he said. “Every person was just happy to be doing that work and helping people. It was really refreshing.”
Now, after two years of recovery and still not medically cleared to return to policing, Scott is getting back to another huge part of his life…music.
This weekend, he’ll return to the Imperial Theatre stage for a charity concert supporting the New Brunswick Heart Centre alongside a stacked cast of local musicians, teachers, lawyers, medics, brass players, and even Health Minister Dr. John Dornan, who apparently has “about as much singing experience as I do practicing medicine,” Scott joked.
The concert grew out of conversations with longtime collaborator Kelly VanBuskirk, who also performs in the show. Together, they wanted to recapture some of the energy that made Christmas With The Cops such a local tradition without simply recreating it.
And if you’ve never seen one of Scott’s productions before, this is not a couple people sitting on stools strumming cover songs.
“We’d do everything from rock to big band stuff with brass sections and string quartets,” he said. “I always wanted to make people feel like rock stars for a night.”
That community-first approach helped Christmas With The Cops become one of Saint John’s most beloved holiday events, eventually raising nearly $200,000 for local charities over the years.
Now, Scott is bringing that same energy back, this time with a much more personal connection to the cause.
“There are four people in this brass band alone who’ve had open-heart surgery,” he said. “So yeah… the cardio isn’t always ideal.”
Despite everything, Scott still sounds exactly like the kind of guy who can’t sit still for long. Along with organizing concerts, he’s also involved in efforts to bring a Stompin’ Tom Connors statue to Saint John and still spends his days playing guitar whenever he can.
Scott even has the heartbeat recorded after doctors removed him from life support tattooed on his arm, a reminder of the moment his second chance really began.
“It’s not bad sitting home drinking coffee and playing guitar,” he laughed. “Nobody’s trying to punch me in the face today yet.”