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Welcome to episode 148 of Behind the Shield podcast.

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As always, my name is James Geering,

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and this week I have an incredibly powerful story for you.

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I was invited into the home of agent Drew Stokes

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as he recounted his story of surviving a murder attempt

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in the parking lot of a public supermarket here in America.

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And this interview was done less than a year

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after he almost died.

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We are seeing just a horrendous amount of attacks

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on our law enforcement members.

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And it seems like as a daily event that we have

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a line of duty death involved with the murder of an officer.

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So Drew, you're gonna hear,

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I mean, he was just a hair's width from death, came back,

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and his story of recovery,

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how he used CrossFit as his rehab tool,

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just mentally how he survived this attack

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and went back to work in such a short amount of time

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is gonna blow you away.

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There's no other expression for it.

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It's incredible.

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So I urge you to listen

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and I urge you to share the hell out of this

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because his story needs to be heard worldwide,

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not only by the people in the first responder community,

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but by the civilians who are kind of led down

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a certain path by certain media outlets.

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But these men and women swear the oath

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and literally lay their lives on the line every single day

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and Drew lived to tell the tale,

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but many of our brothers and sisters didn't.

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So with that being said, as I always say,

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please go to your podcast apps, rate the show,

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share the show, but as with this episode,

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share the hell out of these interviews, these stories,

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incredible human beings that I'm blessed

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to have on this podcast.

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So without further ado, I introduce to you,

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Agent Drew Stokes, enjoy.

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Thank you for having me.

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Here we go.

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This call did not resonate with you,

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but also with the men who affected

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the entire chance for history.

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cured lawns and golf courses and yeah that's not always where my interviews are so thank you.

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I'm very fortunate to have a great wife. Yes, yeah and a beautiful home too. So I want to start

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at the very very beginning. We're going to talk about your whole story and you know the

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tragedy and then the miraculous recovery and where CrossFit fit in but I'd love to start

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at the very very beginning. So we're here now in Jacksonville. Were you born in this area?

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I was not. I was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Okay and then if you wouldn't mind

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just give me a little snapshot of what your family unit was like, what your parents did and how many

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siblings? So I have one sister, two step brothers. My father worked for Bell South or Southern Bell.

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He was a lineman. My mother had several different jobs in the banking industry and she's retired now.

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Okay and how long was your dad a lineman for? My dad worked for Bell South for just over 30 years.

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He started out fueling trucks and then became a lineman and then worked in fiber optics and

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now he contracts back with them in an engineering capacity for another company. Right and did you

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have any military or first responders in your family back then? No, we had no. My grandfather

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was in the Navy for two years. He was in the Navy Reserves and that's it. Brilliant. All right so

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back then obviously now you do a very active job. We're going to talk about being an athlete in the

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CrossFit space too but were you an active sportsman or an athlete back then? So I tried to play football

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and in eighth grade I didn't make the team. So I gave up on football right then. As a kid I did

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play basketball like fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade and then once I did make the football team

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in eighth grade I decided that I had a new focus and those were girls and through high school and

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that was my primary goal was to chase them around. Right well that's exercise, that's cardio.

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Little abs. All right so what about your career path then? So you come out of high school were

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you immediately on the path to law enforcement? So I got my love for law enforcement or where I

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wanted to go in law enforcement when I was in somewhere in high school. I grew up in a little

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town, little county called Davidson County and went to North Davidson Senior High School which

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is just outside of Lexington, North Carolina and we had a field trip and I remember seeing a North

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Carolina State Trooper. We went to a local community college and I saw a North Carolina

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State Trooper in an unmarked Mustang pull-up and he was impeccably dressed and I said this is what

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I want to do. I've always been kind of a car guy and I was like man if I could be in this well

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dressed and be able to drive a fast car for a living I think this would this would be fantastic.

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So going through high school I really didn't have a lot of direction. I wasn't a very good student.

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I was kind of a clown and I remember I was in Mr. Everhart's advanced science class my senior year

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and I talked with a girl named Kelly Morgan was sitting beside me and I was talking to her and her

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boyfriend at the time was his name was John Griggs who's now a firefighter by the way and he had

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joined the Coast Guard and I got to talking to her about him joining the Coast Guard and I said you

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know I never even thought about the Coast Guard because I knew I wasn't going to college. I wasn't

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built for that academically. I wasn't ready and as a man I just wasn't ready to go to college so

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so I decided right then and there I went and talked to a Coast Guard recruiter and May 31st

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of 1992 I graduated high school and then I took off and went to the Coast Guard in June 29th.

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30 days later is whenever I when I started going to when I went to boot camp. Right that's interesting

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my father-in-law is a Coastie very very proud Coastie. Yes so I did six years I got stationed

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in Coast Guard Academy and then I went to Radarman school so I was a professional radar operator.

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Went to a ship in Long Beach California a high endurance cutter which I was on for three years

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and then after that three years I got stationed in 1998. I got stationed I'm sorry 1996. I got

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stationed with the legacy U.S. Custom Service watching radar on a southwest border or southern

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border. We went all the way from California all the way down to South Florida and then also into

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northern South America looking for airplanes coming across the border smuggling contraband.

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So I started doing that in 1996 and then I actually got picked up with the legacy custom

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service in 1998. So I did the exact same job I just I literally got out of the Coast Guard on a Friday

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and started with customs the following Monday. I did the same job I never went into training I just

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kept doing the same thing. Was that a good relationship between the two or you just

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head hunted and pulled that one? No it was a great relationship. We worked great you know with the

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legacy custom service and the Coast Guard worked had a very good partnership. Right okay. So and I

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was able to I was able just it was a smooth easy transition for me and for the custom service.

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Right so were you within that during 9-11 then the 2001? Yes so I was not at the at the ground

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radar facility then I transferred here to Jacksonville and it was flying in we have we

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have P3 aircraft which is a large four engine turboprop. They were originally made for sub

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hunting during the Cold War and customs now has 14 of them. At that time we had 16 and we would

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we had like an AWACS style radar on them and so we would during 9-11 we actually responded

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afterwards and patrolled the airspace around the United States. So yes this is your answer. I was

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I was flying for customs then as a radar operator. Okay and then are you were you doing them what

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you're still doing now the same kind of role? That is that's correct the only difference is

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at that time I wasn't considered a law enforcement officer so I was able to transition and become a

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become an agent in November of 2007. Right so if you wouldn't mind for everyone and I've told you

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this before we even started you work for Air Marine Operations. I have no idea what you what

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you guys do so talking to an eight-year-old aka my brain if you wouldn't mind kind of describing

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what you guys do and what your kind of scope of practice is. Sure so Air Marine Operations is

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part of customs and border protection. There are three parts of customs border protection which

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is the border patrol office field operations and then Air and Marine operations. So Air Marine

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Operations we have the largest law enforcement aircraft inventory in the world. We have over 200

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aircraft over 300 vessels that we use to protect all the borders the northern borders the southern

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border on down into Puerto Rico and then the aircraft that I fly in are long-range aircraft

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will actually deploy and and will fly in the eastern pacific or in the caribbean looking for

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drug smuggling aircraft or contraband smuggling aircraft vessels fishing vessels semi-submersible

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vessels go fast type vessels anything that they can use to push contraband is what we're looking for.

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All right so you're flying the planes you know we're getting this vision of what you do in the

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skies but I know on September 26th 2017 you were actually on land at a Publix and had a life-changing

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event so if we kind of go back a little bit what got you you know where were you that day why were

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you there and then if you wouldn't mind kind of just telling us what happened. Okay so to get to

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September 26th I need to get in I need to start about a month before to set it up and really to

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really understand for your audience during that time is when Hurricane Harvey was happening

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so we'll go you know three weeks a month before Hurricane Harvey's happening and my agency Air

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Marine Operations has a massive response to the Houston flooding. I call a friend of mine so

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they're based out of San Antonio because obviously all the airports in Houston are shut down so we're

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flying they're flying Blackhawks Hueys all kinds of aircraft into Houston from San Antonio and then

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we're doing P3 support as well so I wasn't on the flight schedule immediately so one of my friends

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is out there running the show I just happened to talk to him he's like man I'm buried out here

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and I said do you need some help because I do but I can't I can't ask for you so I was like so I

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went and talked to my my boss I'm like hey they need some help out there and I said can I can I

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go out there and help me he said absolutely so they put the next airplane we sent out to San Antonio

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I jumped on it and went out there and basically helped them so to get the guy who's running the

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running the operation out there I basically was able to relieve him at night get paperwork

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squared away watch the aircraft you know get missions ready and then the next morning he was

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able it was basically just to give him time to sleep for seven or eight hours I could sit there

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I wasn't doing anything spectacular I was just basically you know just just doing the very

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minimal I could minimum amount I could to help them out so we did that for about a week or so

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week and a half or so where basically we're just working you know port and starboard type shifts

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12 hours on 12 hours off and the water started receding in Houston they moved the helicopters

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to Conroe and then Hurricane Irma is starting to fire up so in Irma as you know was coming

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towards Florida it was all the forecast where it's just going to come straight up the middle of

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Florida or either hit Jacksonville or maybe just up the west coast I really didn't know so but what

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we did know is we needed to leave so we we left we went back to Jacksonville and then we we hurruvac'd

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evacuated our aircraft from Jacksonville we took them to a to a spot where they would be safe

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near the center of the country so once we all got back to Jacksonville Irma hits here and then we

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have some employees some other agents that have some localized flooding in their houses we have

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some retirees things like that to help them dig out so we take a couple days and help guys

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dig out from their families we get everybody back up on their feet and then we go get our aircraft

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and bring them back to Jacksonville so as soon as we get the airplanes back that's when Maria

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fires up so Maria fires up and we know it's headed towards we know St. Thomas St. Croix

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Puerto Rico we know it's going to be bad and and the administration did a fantastic job of us

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getting out in front of it so what we did was they told us they said hey take one of the take one of

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the aircraft and fly out to El Paso and we need you to pick up some some SRT folks and so we flew

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to El Paso and I don't remember the exact date but it was towards the end of September

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we flew out to El Paso we stayed overnight there and then we loaded an SRT guys and their pack out

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in the airplane and we left them then while we were out there they said hey we need to go to

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Homestead and pick up more people so we flew about four hours down to Homestead picked up another

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group of SRT folks and their stuff and then we're basically flying through the the outer bands that

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are hurricane to get down to Puerto Rico so we land in San Juan which is which is really really

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really tore up at that point so we're able to land there and then we kicked some of the SRT folks

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off then we took off and went to Aguadilla which is where we have we have a base there

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and so we land in Aguadilla which was Aguadilla was beat up really bad but we were able to get

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we were able to get folks in and so the agency asked us to if there was somebody the employees

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basically or contractors if their families if they needed to get out of Puerto Rico to work with

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out of Puerto Rico to we're going back to Jacksonville anyway just put them on the

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airplane and go so we got they told us that and there was another airplane that was before us

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that took a big load of people the plane I was on we brought back four people so now we're about

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maybe 16 hours in our day 14 15 16 hours who knows at that point so we're getting the airplane out

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of there we got to go you know fly through the edge of this hurricane again and then get back

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to Jacksonville well on the way back we get these people and one of the ones was a little girl she

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was maybe five six years old maybe and she was scared these airplanes are big they're loud

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they're foreigns and turboprop prop airplanes airplanes they they don't have any windows inside

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of them it's dark and you could tell this little girl was terrified she was with her grandmother

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I believe and then we had two other folks as well and I just remember seeing her she was wearing a

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shark suit like a like a shark outfit and I see she just had this look on her face so it's like

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you guys have anything to eat and then they're like we don't have anything so I'm like what

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and I realized that these people have just basically been through a nuclear bomb if you

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can think about it I mean everything's gone and so we decided to we we realized then that they

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didn't have any food so we gave them our food that we had left cooked them a meal and then we

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have four beds in the back of the airplane so we were able to put put all four people in the beds

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in the back of the airplane get them back to Jacksonville and and then get them to a hotel

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once we landed so it was a super long day but it was totally worth it right just to interject for

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a sec so that's the hurricane that completely flattened Puerto Rico took out there all their

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infrastructure that houses basically were evaporated correct yes and these were some people

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we were just able to get on the airplane and get out of there get back to some civilization

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right because when you talk about that Katrina I'll never forget and I just want to touch on this

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point because it's one of the things that's killed me about I guess media in general but you talked

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about you're on a plane there were people who needed to leave so you took them with you I'm

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never forgetting Hurricane Katrina seeing Geraldo Rivera screaming on TV that he was beneath this

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you know flyover this freeway flyover and the same people were still there than when they went there

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three days ago and I'm just looking at the TV there well why the fuck didn't you take him in

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your helicopter the first time you know so it's it's great to see that that you know the simple

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mobilization of vehicles that you can take you know move people away from that and that's that's

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what we need to do instead of looking for a certain agency or whatever every single person

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will roll up their sleeves and help and what you did with your your colleagues before you know you

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mobilize is what everyone in that community should be doing exactly that's exactly right so I was

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scheduled to go back to Puerto Rico on September 27th I was scheduled to fly that day so on September

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26 knowing what what we had just been through it had a profound effect on me because I just seeing

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a child like that it really it really bothered me so I talked with a boss I was like hey I'm

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going to go to Publix we'll go grab some uh go grab some groceries put it back in the refrigerator

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to work that way when I get to work in the morning I can just grab it put on the airplane and we can

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go because these are pretty long days I mean you look at pre-flight an airplane flying to Puerto

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Rico's you know four and a half five hours who knows how long you'll be on the ground and four

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and a half five hours back so these are these are very long days so I decided to go to Publix

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and grab some stuff for uh for the people coming back right and you're in your I was in uniform so

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we generally wear a one-piece flight suit we have an option for a two-piece flight suit which is

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what I had on that day so I had on flight suit pants I had on a t-shirt it said cbp federal agent

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on the back of it and I was wearing a shoulder holster and so I go through I go into Publix do

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my shopping I'll never forget I come out of lane number two uh there was I remember Publix is very

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good about their employees hey do you need help out you know they're fantastic company and I

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never forget there was a little blonde-headed girl there uh she was late teens probably she asked me

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if I need to help out and that and usually I say yes I just say hey let's walk and talk and I just

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ask them how their day's going where their future is what their plans are but that day I said no

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and uh and I don't know why I said no I just did so I come out of uh I come out of the door of Publix

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and uh I start walking um down the very center so if you imagine how Publix is they have on each

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side of the store they have doors and then uh so if you can imagine in between the two doors it was

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a parking space uh or lane so I started walking down that lane and as I got to uh if you imagine

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where the handicapped spots spots are I'm walking with groceries in my hand and all of a sudden I

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hear someone screaming at the top of their lungs I fucking hate cops and then bang bang bang bang

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bang bang just like that I mean it was from the time he he screamed I hate cops till the shot

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sequence was over was maybe two seconds maybe uh so he shot me five times uh complete ambush uh he

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was driving a black BMW from behind he had his left hand out the window and uh he just he just

225
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shot me he and he got five direct hits on me from about seven feet away so he was so he shot from

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seated in the car from seated in a moving vehicle yes wow so again when we talk about situational

227
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awareness you know you can come monday morning quarterback right it's kind of hard to predict

228
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that exactly and when I when I talk in person I have guys hey I'll warn them the monday morning

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quarterback me tell me what I could have done differently there's a million different things

230
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I could have done differently and I know that um but it was just you know it was was it complacency

231
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who knows I mean but it was it was an ambush I never I never had a chance so he had the gun

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pointed at me before he even he screamed I hated cops it was it was already pointed at me so

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whenever he whenever he screamed I immediately dropped my dropped my bags I had my hand and I

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went to grab because it's a cross draw for a shoulder holster so I went the gun was underneath

235
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my left arm so I went to I went to grab the gun and then as soon as I got my hands on the gun

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the first shot went in underneath my right arm so in that that bullet uh which we didn't know at

237
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the time uh it went through broke my ribs and then went through my liver and stopped in my spine so

238
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you weren't wearing a vest that day I was not wearing a vest that day no I was just going to

239
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store and coming back I was gonna say didn't have reasons to really right be armored up right and

240
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so the the uh the second bullet it went in through my uh my right uh buttock and if you could imagine

241
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if you've ever shot a target that as it turns you know it makes that it makes that cut in the paper

242
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that's exactly what the gunshot wound in my right buttock looks like that that bullet went through

243
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my rectum and then stopped in my left hip and that bullet is still there as well

244
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bullet number three now that so we trained to turn towards our threat and I think the combination

245
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of the bullets and my training was turning me towards him so the the third shot went into the

246
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top of my right hip and just went straight in and stopped and that bullet's still there uh the fourth

247
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went in um in my left leg uh just on the outside of of my femur it went out the back and then the

248
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fifth bullet went through my arm right here it went through the my left forearm uh just south of my

249
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elbow and and came out on the uh on the north side right and just from here sitting here obviously

250
00:21:07,900 --> 00:21:11,580
you're looking like swiss cheese always bullet hole scars that you're showing me right and then

251
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you can see where they opened me up oh yeah so i've got a i've got a midline scar from the bottom of my

252
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chest cavity to the top of my belt line i've got a midline scar and then i've got another east west

253
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scar from where i was on a colostomy back for five months uh so this is where they had to open me up

254
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and uh and repair my liver all right so before we go to what happens next had that guy been targeting

255
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you specifically or had he just sat in his day when he came across the cop he was going to kill him

256
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correct so he decided that day that he was um the local sheriff's department clay county sheriff

257
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had put out a warrant for his arrest for uh a petty uh transportation of narcotics uh they

258
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contacted his mother uh his mother contacted him he had a hatred for cops so he said that he was

259
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either going to go kill another drug dealer named ladarius or the first cop that he saw and uh 12

260
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minutes after that he made that call to his girlfriend is when he found me right okay well

261
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back back to you so you're lying there you've just been shot so i've just been shot so i felt every

262
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um what people ask me what's it feel like to be shot and the only thing that i can relate it to

263
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is if you can think of a 22 year old mike tyson hitting you as hard as he can in the rib cage with

264
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no glove on i don't know what that feels like but i know what a what a gunshot feels like

265
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and that that's they're probably pretty similar uh so he shot me with a glock 19 it was ball ammo

266
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thankfully um it was a stolen weapon as well so i felt every bullet go through my body uh i knew

267
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i was being shot i didn't know how many times i'd been shot i just knew that it was happening

268
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and so i was uh i was trying to fight through it but it just buckled my knees there was there was

269
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nothing i could do it buckled my knees i made maybe i made it maybe a foot foot and a half and then i

270
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collapsed in the parking lot so i collapsed just because i couldn't i was been i've been

271
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shot in my legs and my torso and i just couldn't physically stand up but i wasn't out of the fight

272
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so i continued to draw my gun and when i did i uh the back of my hand went across the asphalt

273
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and i've got a big scar on the back of my hand actually ripped all the sensory nerves off the

274
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back of my hand which have since found their way back i don't know how that happens but it's

275
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pretty miraculous the way the body works yeah i heard that can actually happen when there's people

276
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changing their mind in science now yeah so i uh so i get my gun out and i'm like and and i look

277
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over and i see these two these two holes in my left arm and and i'm and i'm getting pretty mad

278
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i'm like this this guy just shot me and i'm i'm i'm mad i'm really really mad and i'm and i'm

279
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cussing i'm screaming but i know that there's a guy with a gun out there and i'm laying in a

280
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parking lot and there's an open field so i start scanning for targets that's like i'm laying here

281
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and i'm and i looked and there was a white f-150 in front of me and i started looking underneath

282
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the uh the card because i was thinking the guy was probably going to circle around and put another

283
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one in me and uh so i start seeing feet coming at me uh underneath that truck so i take my i take

284
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my weapon i i rotate uh as far around as i can i think i'm to the end of the truck maybe not all

285
00:24:10,380 --> 00:24:14,460
the way but i'm close and i've got all the slack out of trigger i've made a determination i'm going

286
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to kill this person that comes around inside the truck that's because i'm sure it's the shooter

287
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the way the feet are coming at me so i've got all the slack out of the trigger i've got my gun

288
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pointed waiting for him to come around and whenever the the guy comes around he starts going it's

289
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he's gone he's gone he's gone he's dead he's gone and i immediately recognized that it wasn't the

290
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shooter and because i saw the shooter i saw the last two muzzle blasts i saw his face and i knew

291
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he was i knew it was a skinny person and the guy that came around his name was tim deitrich

292
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and and i had my gun pointed towards him and i immediately uh like i said i recognized it wasn't

293
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it wasn't the kid who shot me so i so i put my i just indexed my finger on the side of weapon and

294
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all my training just kicked in it was just all the years and years and years of training and

295
00:24:59,980 --> 00:25:04,540
shooting guns and i'm a firearms instructor and all that came back and i realized that fully loaded

296
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weapon hand and i was like get your finger outside the trigger guard it's like i was in an open field

297
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i didn't have a target so so i decided to i decided to kind of ground the weapon in front of me

298
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whenever he told me that that hey he's he's gone so it takes me so this is maybe 15 seconds 10 15

299
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seconds into this whenever tim gets there and uh and i'm trying to process he's gone it's like all

300
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right he said he he killed himself said he shot shot you and he shot himself and it's and then he

301
00:25:30,140 --> 00:25:35,740
ended up wrecking so while tim's there i said i said okay i said i need you to call 911 tell

302
00:25:35,740 --> 00:25:40,460
him officer down public's parking lot in oakley it's like roger that i'm on it then another guy

303
00:25:40,460 --> 00:25:44,780
comes up and i said hey i need you to call my office uh i gave them the phone number and our

304
00:25:44,780 --> 00:25:49,500
duty supervisor so i need you to call him say hey drew stokes has been shot he's in the public's

305
00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:55,340
parking lot so i knew at that point that if if i was going to survive it was probably going to be

306
00:25:55,340 --> 00:25:59,900
up to me it's not that other people weren't capable but i've just had more training that's

307
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all so i decided to i decided to select and direct people of what i wanted them to do

308
00:26:05,500 --> 00:26:12,060
and then we have a training we call star training and it's basically survival mindset training and

309
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i actually guessed and struck there as well so when we do the star training part of the things

310
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that the guys teach us we have some some former kansas city SWAT guys that teach the class

311
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and one thing they told us SWAT medic is keep the blood in a container keep the blood in a container

312
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keep the blood in a container keep the blood in a container and i was a container and i told

313
00:26:34,860 --> 00:26:37,740
them i said you've got to keep the blood in a container keep the blood in container because

314
00:26:37,740 --> 00:26:43,100
at this point i could see a big river of of blood coming down beside me it was it was it was it was

315
00:26:43,100 --> 00:26:46,800
big because I was the, they poked a lot of holes in me at this point.

316
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,000
So, so I said, keep the blood in your tank.

317
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So they started putting paper towels.

318
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By this point, people are starting to come from everywhere.

319
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I mean, there's probably 10 people around me.

320
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A lot of these people haven't even met.

321
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:57,800
Uh, still don't even know their names.

322
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:01,280
Uh, but one in particular that came out was a girl named Shelby Barrios.

323
00:27:01,620 --> 00:27:05,620
She was a hairdresser at a local, uh, great clips and she was four months pregnant,

324
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:10,000
but she wanted to go to nursing school and she comes out and, and she comes out.

325
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,020
So she's on my left side, no PPE gear whatsoever.

326
00:27:13,020 --> 00:27:15,580
And she's starting to plug holes with, uh, by this time they get,

327
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:16,780
they get paper towels out there.

328
00:27:17,340 --> 00:27:22,120
So, so I'm laying there and I'm thinking, all right, I've got all these people

329
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:26,460
all over me and, uh, I said, I said to myself, I said, man, I said, Drew,

330
00:27:26,460 --> 00:27:27,900
I said, you got to wiggle the toes, man.

331
00:27:27,900 --> 00:27:29,320
Wiggle the toes, wiggle the toes.

332
00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:35,280
So I felt my toes wiggle in my boots and everything that I've ever learned about

333
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,660
survival is positive mental attitude plus 98.6.

334
00:27:39,660 --> 00:27:41,600
That's what I've been taught my entire career.

335
00:27:41,900 --> 00:27:44,080
You've got to have potty, it's positive mental attitude and you've

336
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:45,620
got to have that body temperature.

337
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,380
Uh, I knew I had the body temperature cause it was a thousand degrees outside

338
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that day and I was laid on black asphalt.

339
00:27:50,860 --> 00:27:52,820
So I was quite sure I had the body temperature.

340
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:54,460
I was definitely warm enough.

341
00:27:54,460 --> 00:27:55,580
There's no doubt about that.

342
00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:57,860
And then, um, and then I had the positive mental attitude.

343
00:27:57,860 --> 00:27:58,780
So I was setting goals.

344
00:27:58,780 --> 00:28:02,040
I was like, man, just get to this minute, wiggle the toes, do this, you know, and

345
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:06,340
then they, and then, uh, another guy who's a retired Marine whom I still haven't met.

346
00:28:06,700 --> 00:28:09,260
Uh, I remember him saying, he's like, Hey, I got some quick clot.

347
00:28:09,260 --> 00:28:10,420
You want me to pour a quick clot in you?

348
00:28:10,420 --> 00:28:11,960
I was like, yes, absolutely.

349
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:13,840
Uh, it was the old powdered con.

350
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,720
Uh, so he poured it in the hole in my shirt.

351
00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:19,640
None of it made it to the wound.

352
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:21,380
None of it, not a bit.

353
00:28:21,620 --> 00:28:23,160
So it was all inside my shirt.

354
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:25,600
Whenever I got my uniforms back, I was like, that's the quick clot.

355
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,120
So when we still have the uniforms, I'll go with, I'll go through that later.

356
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:33,540
So about this time, um, I'm laying there and I've got all these people around me

357
00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:36,620
and I hear the most beautiful sound that you can ever hear.

358
00:28:36,620 --> 00:28:42,920
And that's a 2017 Dodge Charger, Clay County Sheriff's Department coming

359
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:44,900
at me at 145 miles an hour.

360
00:28:44,900 --> 00:28:46,340
I hear the cavalry coming.

361
00:28:46,660 --> 00:28:51,020
And again, those sirens were a huge morale boost for me.

362
00:28:51,020 --> 00:28:52,060
It was huge just to hear it.

363
00:28:52,060 --> 00:28:53,300
Cause I'm like, all right, they're here.

364
00:28:53,300 --> 00:28:53,740
They're coming.

365
00:28:53,740 --> 00:28:54,260
They're here.

366
00:28:54,740 --> 00:28:57,620
Uh, the first guy on the scene is a guy named Rick Miller with the

367
00:28:57,620 --> 00:28:58,620
Clay County Sheriff's Department.

368
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:04,140
Um, I hear that I hear a ruckus going on, uh, that I hear another guy

369
00:29:04,140 --> 00:29:07,740
who later turns out to be Jacob Hawkins, uh, come up and I hear, and

370
00:29:07,740 --> 00:29:10,500
now the only thing I hear him say is signal 60 signal 60, which I didn't

371
00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:15,180
know, which apparently meant suicide, um, in their, in their, in their language.

372
00:29:15,180 --> 00:29:16,500
It was suicide talking about the other guy.

373
00:29:16,500 --> 00:29:19,900
And I was, uh, telling them that they probably shouldn't worry about him.

374
00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:21,820
They should worry about me in a different way.

375
00:29:22,020 --> 00:29:23,180
He's taking care of himself.

376
00:29:23,180 --> 00:29:23,460
Yeah.

377
00:29:23,460 --> 00:29:26,780
So I, so I hear, so I hear Jake, I can hear him running towards me.

378
00:29:27,620 --> 00:29:32,460
Um, let me back up for a second before that the public's manager gets there.

379
00:29:32,460 --> 00:29:36,900
And somebody, uh, public's manager, someone kicks my gun away from me.

380
00:29:37,460 --> 00:29:38,900
That's so I've got my gun in my hand.

381
00:29:39,180 --> 00:29:42,660
They kicked my gun away from me and I said, that's my gun.

382
00:29:42,660 --> 00:29:43,900
Give me my damn gun back.

383
00:29:44,220 --> 00:29:49,540
And they, and they kicked the gun back to me and it goes around in a circle.

384
00:29:49,540 --> 00:29:51,300
Of course, the barrel ends up pointing at my forehead.

385
00:29:51,860 --> 00:29:52,140
Nice.

386
00:29:52,140 --> 00:29:53,340
So that in the movies probably.

387
00:29:54,340 --> 00:29:56,540
So I've had a bad day at this point.

388
00:29:56,780 --> 00:30:00,540
So I, I take the weapon and I, and I pull it back underneath me, uh,

389
00:30:00,540 --> 00:30:02,580
about to my chest right here.

390
00:30:02,580 --> 00:30:06,260
So just so what I was worried about was somebody was going to try to grab it

391
00:30:06,260 --> 00:30:07,460
and think it has a safety on it.

392
00:30:07,700 --> 00:30:10,460
So I actually tried to unload it because I was certain that there were so many

393
00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:13,380
people around, I was certain there wasn't another shooter and for was he

394
00:30:13,380 --> 00:30:14,340
probably wasn't going to get to me.

395
00:30:14,660 --> 00:30:15,980
So I actually unloaded the weapon.

396
00:30:15,980 --> 00:30:17,220
I dumped the magazine out of the magazine.

397
00:30:17,220 --> 00:30:20,660
Well, I tried to get the one out of the chamber and I didn't have the strength

398
00:30:20,660 --> 00:30:22,300
to do it and I wasn't going to ask anybody else.

399
00:30:22,620 --> 00:30:25,580
So I said, all right, if I'm going to have one of them, I might as well have 13.

400
00:30:25,580 --> 00:30:28,700
So I reload the weapon, put it back in front of me.

401
00:30:28,700 --> 00:30:30,340
So this is when I hear Jake come.

402
00:30:30,660 --> 00:30:35,420
And so when Jake's coming, I hear, uh, I started going again, it's

403
00:30:35,420 --> 00:30:38,660
instinctive to me, I started going, I'm a cop, I'm a cop, I'm a cop, I'm a cop,

404
00:30:38,660 --> 00:30:39,220
I'm a cop.

405
00:30:39,220 --> 00:30:43,060
Again, it's what we've learned in our survival training is that because we

406
00:30:43,060 --> 00:30:46,300
were a non-standard uniform, we're in a Brown uniform says CBP federal agent

407
00:30:46,300 --> 00:30:49,940
on the back of it, and I've got a 40, uh, 40 caliber handgun in my hand.

408
00:30:50,340 --> 00:30:54,260
And Jake's coming at me and he's got a 45, which I don't know, uh, at the time,

409
00:30:54,260 --> 00:30:56,260
but I just start screaming, I'm a cop.

410
00:30:56,260 --> 00:30:57,220
Cause that's what I've been doing.

411
00:30:57,220 --> 00:30:58,820
I start screaming, I'm a cop.

412
00:30:58,820 --> 00:31:01,460
Cause that's what I've been trained because I didn't want him to come around

413
00:31:01,460 --> 00:31:04,820
and put a 45 in me because he sees a guy laying there with a gun, you know, it

414
00:31:04,820 --> 00:31:07,020
could be, who knows, it could be some sort of response.

415
00:31:07,020 --> 00:31:08,900
He clicks in, sees a gun, shoots somebody.

416
00:31:09,340 --> 00:31:10,860
You don't know what dispatch told him either.

417
00:31:10,900 --> 00:31:11,260
Right.

418
00:31:11,260 --> 00:31:13,260
So, and I had had enough at that point.

419
00:31:13,260 --> 00:31:15,740
So I didn't need another 45 round.

420
00:31:15,940 --> 00:31:18,860
So, and it worked whether, whether it doesn't matter.

421
00:31:18,860 --> 00:31:22,620
It worked because he comes around, uh, uh, Jake comes around, he comes to my side

422
00:31:22,620 --> 00:31:25,380
and he says, Hey, I'm Jacob Hawkins with the Clay County Sheriff's Department.

423
00:31:25,420 --> 00:31:26,100
You're golden.

424
00:31:26,100 --> 00:31:28,540
Fine. So again, little goals.

425
00:31:28,540 --> 00:31:31,340
And that was a huge, again, another huge morale booster.

426
00:31:31,660 --> 00:31:33,620
And it helped me with the positive mental attitude.

427
00:31:33,620 --> 00:31:36,060
It's like, all right, I've got somebody here and he says, I'm going to be okay.

428
00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:37,180
Maybe it's not that bad.

429
00:31:38,540 --> 00:31:41,100
So he looks at me and he goes, he goes, Hey, man, he goes, I've got to

430
00:31:41,100 --> 00:31:43,100
put a tourniquet on that left leg.

431
00:31:43,620 --> 00:31:47,500
And, uh, again, through our survival training, they make us put tourniquets

432
00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:49,380
on each other and they make us do it.

433
00:31:49,700 --> 00:31:50,260
Right.

434
00:31:50,660 --> 00:31:52,740
We have to do it right to pass the class.

435
00:31:52,740 --> 00:31:56,900
And I'd just been through tourniquet training, uh, about a month before I'd,

436
00:31:57,100 --> 00:31:59,500
I'd actually been through the, the, our survival course.

437
00:32:00,140 --> 00:32:03,980
So I knew what was coming and, uh, and, and Jake's a pretty strong guy.

438
00:32:03,980 --> 00:32:07,820
And he, and he, him and Cheryl Shelby put the, uh, put the tourniquet on me

439
00:32:08,140 --> 00:32:12,460
and they tightened it down and it was, it was, it was all the pain I needed.

440
00:32:12,900 --> 00:32:16,900
So, and then just to make it a little bit better, they put one of my left arm as well.

441
00:32:17,380 --> 00:32:21,100
So I had, now I have five gunshot wounds and two tourniquets.

442
00:32:21,100 --> 00:32:24,940
And, uh, I don't know how much pain God lets us feel, but whatever it was,

443
00:32:25,060 --> 00:32:28,540
whatever the maximum is, I'm pretty sure I got it that afternoon.

444
00:32:29,140 --> 00:32:33,260
Uh, so, uh, now it turned out that we probably didn't need the tourniquet on the

445
00:32:33,260 --> 00:32:37,660
leg, but it was the, I had severe internal bleeding from the, from the liver,

446
00:32:38,660 --> 00:32:39,700
the liver laceration.

447
00:32:40,140 --> 00:32:43,660
So Jake goes on once they get the tourniquets on and I'm screaming.

448
00:32:43,700 --> 00:32:44,740
I, there's no doubt about it.

449
00:32:44,740 --> 00:32:45,820
I'm, I'm screaming.

450
00:32:45,860 --> 00:32:47,460
I'm, I'm not happy.

451
00:32:47,940 --> 00:32:50,380
Uh, so Jake's like, listen, I got, I got to, I got to figure out.

452
00:32:50,380 --> 00:32:50,980
I got to figure out.

453
00:32:50,980 --> 00:32:52,860
So we're waiting on the fire, the fire station to get there.

454
00:32:54,660 --> 00:32:59,180
So Jake starts doing a finger sweep on me and he finds the, uh, the hole

455
00:32:59,340 --> 00:33:00,580
that's underneath my right arm.

456
00:33:00,580 --> 00:33:02,420
He finds that one, the first shot.

457
00:33:03,020 --> 00:33:04,660
And, uh, so it's bleeding.

458
00:33:04,700 --> 00:33:05,860
So he just sticks his finger in it.

459
00:33:06,500 --> 00:33:09,620
And he, when he stuck his finger in the hole, uh, I did a pushup.

460
00:33:09,620 --> 00:33:13,220
Jake used to be a professional bull rider and I did a, I did a pushup and

461
00:33:13,220 --> 00:33:16,420
bucked him off and he came back and he said, I can't, he goes, you can't do

462
00:33:16,420 --> 00:33:18,020
that again, man, he goes, I got to stop this.

463
00:33:18,020 --> 00:33:21,140
So, uh, the clay County sheriff's department, uh, provides every one

464
00:33:21,140 --> 00:33:22,700
of their deputies with a medic bag.

465
00:33:23,020 --> 00:33:26,940
And Jake had just went through combat medic school and also had done a

466
00:33:26,940 --> 00:33:29,620
refresher, uh, like several weeks before.

467
00:33:30,060 --> 00:33:34,420
So, so Jake was able to, he told, he told Rick Miller to go get his medic bag.

468
00:33:34,620 --> 00:33:37,940
So he plugged the hole in his finger and he, he'd taken the tourniquet off of,

469
00:33:37,940 --> 00:33:41,100
off of Rick to, to put on my, to put on my leg, which is kind of funny.

470
00:33:41,340 --> 00:33:46,420
Um, so the, the sheriff's department here is fantastic in the way they, they,

471
00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:49,460
they equipped their deputies, they're, they're, they're ready at all times for

472
00:33:49,460 --> 00:33:53,220
anything and the sheriff has just been fantastic and they're a very well run

473
00:33:53,220 --> 00:33:53,700
department.

474
00:33:54,420 --> 00:33:56,420
So he comes, uh, Jake comes up and finally puts an

475
00:33:56,420 --> 00:33:58,980
occlusive dressing, uh, on my side.

476
00:33:59,980 --> 00:34:01,900
That's when fire station 26 gets there.

477
00:34:02,220 --> 00:34:06,540
Uh, they rolled me over and, uh, Jake said, I looked very gray.

478
00:34:06,540 --> 00:34:07,860
He said, my gums were gray.

479
00:34:08,100 --> 00:34:09,220
Everything was gray.

480
00:34:09,420 --> 00:34:13,820
Uh, he knew the, the Lieutenant Stacey Matthews and he knew Stacey because, I

481
00:34:13,820 --> 00:34:17,540
mean, it's a small County and these guys all know each other and he told Stacey

482
00:34:17,540 --> 00:34:18,380
what all was going on.

483
00:34:18,820 --> 00:34:22,380
And, and so they flipped me over and then that's whenever they put me onto a,

484
00:34:23,100 --> 00:34:25,700
onto the stretcher and then put me into the back of the ambulance.

485
00:34:26,140 --> 00:34:28,980
Uh, I remember late in the back of the ambulance or trying to get an IV started

486
00:34:28,980 --> 00:34:32,500
and, and, and I could see in the fireman's faces, I could see in the paramedics.

487
00:34:32,900 --> 00:34:34,380
I knew it was bad.

488
00:34:34,700 --> 00:34:39,300
Um, I could just tell because they were nervous, uh, trying to start an IV and

489
00:34:39,300 --> 00:34:42,580
stuff on me and I could tell that it was, that it was not good.

490
00:34:42,580 --> 00:34:44,220
Uh, but we just, we, we kept going.

491
00:34:44,260 --> 00:34:46,220
And I saw, I said, come on guys, we got to go.

492
00:34:46,220 --> 00:34:50,100
We got to go with Jake, Jake Peaks is a head inside the ambulance.

493
00:34:50,100 --> 00:34:52,500
He goes, Hey man, he goes, I need to know what happened.

494
00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:53,820
He goes, your boss is on the way.

495
00:34:53,980 --> 00:34:55,260
My boss is on the way.

496
00:34:55,500 --> 00:34:57,300
I've got to know, you've got to tell me what happened.

497
00:34:57,300 --> 00:34:57,980
And I just looked at him.

498
00:34:57,980 --> 00:34:59,340
I said, the coward shot me in the back.

499
00:35:00,020 --> 00:35:03,300
Uh, cause I thought I'd shot in the back and it was actually in the side at that

500
00:35:03,300 --> 00:35:03,660
point.

501
00:35:03,700 --> 00:35:05,220
So he goes, that's all I needed.

502
00:35:05,260 --> 00:35:10,180
And he closed the, uh, close the, the back of the ambulance and we started going.

503
00:35:10,180 --> 00:35:12,660
I told Rick, I told the guys driving, uh, Tommy was driving.

504
00:35:12,660 --> 00:35:13,980
I said, I said, we got to go.

505
00:35:14,220 --> 00:35:14,660
We got to go.

506
00:35:14,660 --> 00:35:15,460
We got to go now.

507
00:35:15,820 --> 00:35:16,820
So we start going.

508
00:35:17,140 --> 00:35:19,980
And, uh, now this part about to tell you, I didn't remember until later, whenever

509
00:35:19,980 --> 00:35:24,220
the paramedics Stacey told me, uh, so we're on the way back and we're on the way to

510
00:35:24,220 --> 00:35:24,740
the hospital.

511
00:35:24,740 --> 00:35:27,940
And apparently I asked Stacey, I said, uh, I said, am I going to die?

512
00:35:28,540 --> 00:35:30,780
And he goes, you got a 50, 50 shot.

513
00:35:32,540 --> 00:35:33,540
And I found that out later.

514
00:35:33,540 --> 00:35:35,700
I said, Hey man, next time just tell me I'm going to live.

515
00:35:35,700 --> 00:35:37,060
I'm not going to know the difference.

516
00:35:37,060 --> 00:35:38,020
Before you at least.

517
00:35:39,540 --> 00:35:42,460
So, uh, so, uh, we had a chuckle about that afterwards.

518
00:35:42,460 --> 00:35:44,300
And I told the story at awards ceremony.

519
00:35:44,300 --> 00:35:47,940
So I came very close with fire station 26 and myself.

520
00:35:48,260 --> 00:35:51,700
So they get me to the, I pass out on the way to hospital because of the bleeding.

521
00:35:51,980 --> 00:35:54,820
And Stacey said, he could tell because my pleural cavity was blowing up.

522
00:35:54,860 --> 00:35:58,180
He said, he could see it in my, in my stomach was getting really distended.

523
00:35:58,180 --> 00:36:00,860
So he knew it was bad, but he never told me that.

524
00:36:00,860 --> 00:36:06,660
So I remember going into, uh, the ambulance bed, orange park medical center.

525
00:36:06,660 --> 00:36:08,500
I remember the shimmy of the ambulance.

526
00:36:08,500 --> 00:36:12,180
I woke up and they had me at about a 45 degree angle sitting in there.

527
00:36:12,180 --> 00:36:13,300
And I'm kind of a jokester.

528
00:36:13,540 --> 00:36:15,460
It's just, it's just who I am naturally.

529
00:36:15,780 --> 00:36:19,620
And so they take me out of the back of the ambulance and they take me through the

530
00:36:19,620 --> 00:36:22,940
door and I look around at the trauma staff is all looking at me and I said,

531
00:36:22,940 --> 00:36:24,380
Hey, this is one way to beat the line.

532
00:36:24,380 --> 00:36:24,820
Isn't it?

533
00:36:25,140 --> 00:36:26,100
I started laughing.

534
00:36:26,340 --> 00:36:27,820
It, although I was in a lot of pain.

535
00:36:27,820 --> 00:36:31,620
And then I saw my friend, Bill Freehafer was sitting there and he gave me a big

536
00:36:31,620 --> 00:36:35,020
thumbs up and then my direct supervisor, his name Steve wood.

537
00:36:35,420 --> 00:36:37,420
And I looked at him and I said, Hey, Woody, how you doing?

538
00:36:37,420 --> 00:36:38,780
He goes, man, I'm doing fine.

539
00:36:39,100 --> 00:36:40,420
And he just started crying.

540
00:36:40,660 --> 00:36:42,020
And that's the last I remember.

541
00:36:43,460 --> 00:36:47,340
So last year, remember you passed out then or I was, I passed out later on.

542
00:36:47,340 --> 00:36:50,260
So when they got me in the trauma bay, one of the trauma nurses, her

543
00:36:50,260 --> 00:36:54,700
names, Madonna Stotsenberg, she said that I told her I wasn't going to die.

544
00:36:55,100 --> 00:36:56,260
And she agreed with me.

545
00:36:56,260 --> 00:37:01,300
So, so what they did was they immediately, they took me into surgery and the lead

546
00:37:01,300 --> 00:37:02,380
surgeon was a guy named Dr.

547
00:37:02,380 --> 00:37:05,260
Elias Seroca-Glu who is amazing.

548
00:37:05,380 --> 00:37:06,780
There was another surgeon in there.

549
00:37:07,100 --> 00:37:08,060
Her name was Dr.

550
00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:12,140
Siotat who I still have never met, but she was a cardiothoracic surgeon.

551
00:37:12,140 --> 00:37:15,420
So they get me in, they opened me up and they find the bleeder in my liver.

552
00:37:15,420 --> 00:37:16,660
And that's what I've been told.

553
00:37:17,220 --> 00:37:19,020
So they find that they find a bleeder in my liver.

554
00:37:19,900 --> 00:37:23,380
During this time, apparently the shooter's friends had decided that they

555
00:37:23,380 --> 00:37:26,140
were wanting to come to hospital and finish me off.

556
00:37:26,380 --> 00:37:27,500
There was a credible, really?

557
00:37:27,500 --> 00:37:27,580
Yeah.

558
00:37:27,580 --> 00:37:29,700
There was a credible threat that they were going to come finish me off.

559
00:37:30,180 --> 00:37:33,180
So we had, at that time we had, you know, Clay County Sheriff's

560
00:37:33,180 --> 00:37:35,500
Department, everybody from air and marine operations.

561
00:37:35,740 --> 00:37:39,380
There was guys actually in the, in the operating room with me, my guys

562
00:37:39,380 --> 00:37:43,860
were in and Clay County Sheriff's Department were in the OR, ready, ready

563
00:37:43,860 --> 00:37:48,060
to go, armed and ready to go to protect the staff and myself, which I still

564
00:37:48,060 --> 00:37:50,340
think is pretty unbelievable that those guys did that.

565
00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:51,700
I'll never be able to find that.

566
00:37:51,700 --> 00:37:53,500
I don't know how to thank them.

567
00:37:53,500 --> 00:37:54,620
So anyway, we go through surgery.

568
00:37:54,620 --> 00:37:57,100
Number one, surgery.

569
00:37:57,100 --> 00:37:58,140
Number one happens.

570
00:37:58,140 --> 00:38:00,220
They think they got the liver.

571
00:38:00,220 --> 00:38:01,500
They've got clips on my liver.

572
00:38:01,980 --> 00:38:08,140
And so they, they, they stitched me back up and they bring me out in front of

573
00:38:08,140 --> 00:38:10,540
this time there's several hundred people in the waiting room.

574
00:38:11,020 --> 00:38:12,340
I didn't know I had that many friends.

575
00:38:13,500 --> 00:38:17,100
And then I, I crashed, I died right there in front of them.

576
00:38:17,140 --> 00:38:18,420
Something gave loose in my liver.

577
00:38:18,980 --> 00:38:19,500
Oh, really?

578
00:38:19,500 --> 00:38:21,780
Yeah. And I was gone.

579
00:38:21,860 --> 00:38:26,580
And so they, they willed me back into the OR, open me back up and start again,

580
00:38:26,620 --> 00:38:28,140
start to process all over again.

581
00:38:28,620 --> 00:38:30,460
During that point, the lead surgeon, Dr.

582
00:38:30,460 --> 00:38:33,300
Shrock-A-Glue comes out and tells my wife Amanda that I'm going to die.

583
00:38:34,060 --> 00:38:36,540
And he's a, she's prepare herself because I'm gone.

584
00:38:37,580 --> 00:38:41,260
Which was pretty, it was pretty devastating for her.

585
00:38:41,260 --> 00:38:43,780
Obviously I was out, so I didn't, you know, I didn't, I don't, I didn't

586
00:38:43,780 --> 00:38:45,060
know any of this till after the fact.

587
00:38:46,100 --> 00:38:47,900
So it goes, but I'm going to go back in and do the surgery.

588
00:38:47,900 --> 00:38:49,900
So it goes, but I'm going to go back in and try.

589
00:38:50,620 --> 00:38:55,260
So he goes back in and for what I was told, one of the other trauma

590
00:38:55,260 --> 00:38:56,820
surgeons called my time of death.

591
00:38:57,700 --> 00:39:01,980
And he said no, and he kept working on my liver till he found a bleeder.

592
00:39:02,980 --> 00:39:08,380
And he found it and well, there was all the prayers where there was,

593
00:39:08,420 --> 00:39:11,900
I don't know what happened, but I can just tell you that it worked.

594
00:39:13,380 --> 00:39:14,740
It was, it was pretty incredible.

595
00:39:14,740 --> 00:39:18,860
He's a, he's a young surgeon that's got a thing for first responders or anybody.

596
00:39:18,860 --> 00:39:22,180
I'm sure anybody gets the same treatment, but he just, he wasn't

597
00:39:22,180 --> 00:39:27,300
going to let me die and he didn't obviously, he's just, he's just a good man.

598
00:39:27,900 --> 00:39:32,980
So you went to cardiac arrest, they called your time of death and this

599
00:39:32,980 --> 00:39:36,500
man refused to acknowledge either of those and kept fighting.

600
00:39:36,540 --> 00:39:38,620
That's what I, that's from what I understand.

601
00:39:38,700 --> 00:39:39,500
That's incredible.

602
00:39:39,540 --> 00:39:44,700
That's the story that I was told that, that I was bleeding so much.

603
00:39:44,700 --> 00:39:49,700
I went through 19 trauma units of blood, which is a lot.

604
00:39:49,700 --> 00:39:53,380
I mean, as you know, a trauma unit, pine red blood cells, pine of blood cells,

605
00:39:53,380 --> 00:39:56,540
pine of plasma, pine of blood, but all that is one trauma unit.

606
00:39:56,540 --> 00:39:57,540
I went through 19.

607
00:39:58,700 --> 00:40:02,420
It got to the point where I went through so much blood that they were, that they

608
00:40:02,420 --> 00:40:04,580
were catching it and then putting it back into my body.

609
00:40:05,420 --> 00:40:09,700
They actually went to a point and said, went to the waiting room and said,

610
00:40:09,700 --> 00:40:14,380
Hey, we need blood and guys were standing there just like, take a, take all you want.

611
00:40:15,380 --> 00:40:17,500
Pretty incredible that your friends would do that for you.

612
00:40:20,060 --> 00:40:23,580
Those guys are pretty awesome, but it turns out that I didn't need it.

613
00:40:23,740 --> 00:40:27,060
So then, you know, all the blood yet blood I have in my body now came from

614
00:40:27,060 --> 00:40:29,500
other people, which is pretty cool.

615
00:40:29,980 --> 00:40:32,220
That's when we talk about the brotherhood and the sisterhood.

616
00:40:32,220 --> 00:40:35,660
I mean, there is no better example than the story you just told up to this point.

617
00:40:35,700 --> 00:40:35,980
Yeah.

618
00:40:35,980 --> 00:40:41,060
So, so the next day, so this was the night of September 26th, morning of September 27th.

619
00:40:41,060 --> 00:40:46,020
They finally get me stabilized and, you know, it's touch and go at this point.

620
00:40:46,020 --> 00:40:47,660
They don't know if I'm going to make it, but they at least get me

621
00:40:47,660 --> 00:40:49,100
stabilized for the second time.

622
00:40:50,820 --> 00:40:52,660
Hospital has a blood drive the next day.

623
00:40:53,020 --> 00:40:58,060
The community raises 300 units of blood for the 19 that we had just taken out,

624
00:40:58,140 --> 00:41:00,180
which is, which is spectacular.

625
00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:04,540
You know, and I didn't know this until months later, but yeah, they, the community

626
00:41:04,540 --> 00:41:08,740
came up and Jacksonville Orange Park, they put 300 units of blood back in the blood

627
00:41:08,740 --> 00:41:13,940
bank, you know, because of my incident, which is just incredible.

628
00:41:13,940 --> 00:41:18,220
Every time I think about it, it's just, people are just so generous, given the

629
00:41:18,220 --> 00:41:20,260
fluids out of their own body is pretty amazing.

630
00:41:20,900 --> 00:41:22,700
And that's who people really are.

631
00:41:22,900 --> 00:41:25,900
Yeah, I agree that that's who people really are.

632
00:41:26,140 --> 00:41:28,980
You know, you see, you see Facebook, that type of thing.

633
00:41:28,980 --> 00:41:34,780
That's not, that's not real people, you know, people are generally good.

634
00:41:34,780 --> 00:41:36,780
And I have, I have faith in mankind.

635
00:41:36,780 --> 00:41:37,700
I really, really do.

636
00:41:38,780 --> 00:41:44,340
So we go through, we get through those, those couple surgeries later on is when

637
00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:48,900
they find that I'm, I'm actually going septic because that's when they found the,

638
00:41:48,900 --> 00:41:52,420
the, the hole that was in my, in my rectum or my lower colon.

639
00:41:52,820 --> 00:41:55,500
And so they had to go back in emergency of surgery again.

640
00:41:55,500 --> 00:42:00,060
And this is Dr. Dr. Janine Jordan, she goes in and then has to fix that.

641
00:42:00,060 --> 00:42:05,540
And then obviously, you know, they had to put a stoma in so that, so that I can heal.

642
00:42:06,300 --> 00:42:13,180
So I remember I woke up around probably October 7th or eighth, sometime around

643
00:42:13,180 --> 00:42:13,380
there.

644
00:42:13,900 --> 00:42:18,140
So during that time I was out, I remember, I remember two things.

645
00:42:19,460 --> 00:42:21,180
I remember, I remember coming conscious twice.

646
00:42:21,180 --> 00:42:26,300
One is I remember opening my eyes and I knew I had all this, I knew what had

647
00:42:26,300 --> 00:42:26,620
happened.

648
00:42:26,620 --> 00:42:28,300
I was sedated, but I knew I'd been shot.

649
00:42:28,300 --> 00:42:33,100
I knew I was in the hospital and I opened my eyes and I saw a guy shooting a gun.

650
00:42:33,620 --> 00:42:34,860
Out of a gold window.

651
00:42:35,420 --> 00:42:39,900
I saw that and I was, and I could hear something about shooting in Las Vegas.

652
00:42:40,620 --> 00:42:41,500
And I passed out.

653
00:42:41,540 --> 00:42:45,140
And then I've obviously after regaining consciousness, that was October 1st,

654
00:42:46,140 --> 00:42:48,300
the day of the Las Vegas shooting 2016.

655
00:42:48,660 --> 00:42:50,900
And then I remember one of my friends, this guy named Jeff,

656
00:42:50,900 --> 00:42:56,420
Jeff Birch was sitting at the, I remember opening my eyes, I raised my head up and

657
00:42:56,420 --> 00:42:58,580
I saw him cause they were standing guard at my door.

658
00:42:59,060 --> 00:43:04,460
And so I looked over at him and he just, I lifted my head up and I squinted and I

659
00:43:04,460 --> 00:43:07,100
looked and he just, he shot me the finger.

660
00:43:07,780 --> 00:43:11,580
So, so I shot him the finger back and I just went down and then I guess he told

661
00:43:11,580 --> 00:43:14,340
my parents, he's like, he's in there somewhere.

662
00:43:15,380 --> 00:43:16,260
So he's there.

663
00:43:16,260 --> 00:43:20,700
So they ended up bringing me, bringing me out of the coma sometime around October

664
00:43:20,700 --> 00:43:24,540
6th, 7th, sometime around then is when they brought me out, but the damage was

665
00:43:24,740 --> 00:43:26,540
pretty catastrophic up to that point.

666
00:43:26,900 --> 00:43:31,100
I had, I'd had 10 surgeries just in, just in that short amount of time.

667
00:43:31,660 --> 00:43:32,300
That's amazing.

668
00:43:32,300 --> 00:43:33,380
I've had Dr.

669
00:43:33,380 --> 00:43:36,180
Joseph Ibrahim, who was a trauma surgeon in Orlando.

670
00:43:37,020 --> 00:43:38,780
And he responded to the pulse shootings.

671
00:43:38,780 --> 00:43:42,340
And then I'm just about to have one from England that responds to a lot of the

672
00:43:42,340 --> 00:43:44,380
knife and gun crime in London.

673
00:43:44,380 --> 00:43:46,300
Those people are, are incredible.

674
00:43:46,300 --> 00:43:49,780
And that's, that's our job as medics is there's only so much we can do for a

675
00:43:49,780 --> 00:43:52,140
trauma patient that's so frustrating.

676
00:43:52,260 --> 00:43:54,100
But the reality is like you were screaming at him.

677
00:43:54,260 --> 00:43:56,020
We just got to get you there as soon as possible.

678
00:43:56,020 --> 00:43:56,300
Right.

679
00:43:56,460 --> 00:43:56,700
Right.

680
00:43:56,820 --> 00:43:57,780
And that's exactly right.

681
00:43:57,780 --> 00:44:02,340
And you know, the Orange Park Medical Center just, they're, to me, they're,

682
00:44:02,340 --> 00:44:05,220
they're a world-class facility and they did fantastic.

683
00:44:05,220 --> 00:44:09,460
They did, they did that day for some reason, everybody did everything right.

684
00:44:09,820 --> 00:44:10,900
And I was allowed to live.

685
00:44:11,060 --> 00:44:12,500
No, you were definitely meant to live.

686
00:44:12,500 --> 00:44:13,340
There's no question about it.

687
00:44:13,340 --> 00:44:18,020
I mean, those, those, they, everybody, they went, they went above and beyond to

688
00:44:18,020 --> 00:44:18,500
save me.

689
00:44:18,980 --> 00:44:20,180
There's, there's no doubt about it.

690
00:44:20,500 --> 00:44:23,620
And, and I just, I can't thank them enough for their extra effort.

691
00:44:24,020 --> 00:44:24,180
Yeah.

692
00:44:24,180 --> 00:44:25,780
And it's crazy because you're telling the dates.

693
00:44:25,780 --> 00:44:28,860
I was sitting here almost, almost a year exactly from, yeah, it's almost,

694
00:44:28,860 --> 00:44:29,940
so it's almost a year later.

695
00:44:29,940 --> 00:44:33,500
So yeah, I went through, I had a severe case of ICU delirium.

696
00:44:34,220 --> 00:44:38,620
So I, I was actually going, I mean, I was going crazy when I was in the trauma ICU.

697
00:44:38,620 --> 00:44:41,140
I was seeing things on TV that weren't happening.

698
00:44:41,140 --> 00:44:44,220
I was, I was waking up thinking I was in different rooms.

699
00:44:44,500 --> 00:44:49,180
At one point I woke up, I thought I was on a boat, but I could hear, that I could

700
00:44:49,180 --> 00:44:51,180
hear the waves slapping to the side.

701
00:44:51,580 --> 00:44:54,220
I actually heard, I'm talking about the CrossFit side of this.

702
00:44:54,700 --> 00:45:00,780
I actually, at some point I woke up and I heard these people talking beside me.

703
00:45:01,100 --> 00:45:05,180
The owner of my, I go to a gym called Blackfin CrossFit and the owner's name

704
00:45:05,180 --> 00:45:08,700
is Mark Hoffman and his, his father-in-law's name is Jim Turner.

705
00:45:08,700 --> 00:45:11,300
Is he related to Chris Hoffman? Yes.

706
00:45:11,300 --> 00:45:12,140
The firefighter? It's his brother.

707
00:45:12,140 --> 00:45:12,900
Yeah. That's my friend.

708
00:45:12,900 --> 00:45:13,900
Yeah. I know Chris very well.

709
00:45:13,900 --> 00:45:14,300
Yeah.

710
00:45:14,300 --> 00:45:16,020
Ah, that's why Blackfin sounds familiar.

711
00:45:16,020 --> 00:45:16,500
Yeah.

712
00:45:16,500 --> 00:45:22,220
So, so anyway, so this is all hallucination I'm having, but I hear, I hear

713
00:45:22,460 --> 00:45:25,740
Mark Hoffman and Jim Turner are going to, are going to repossess my car.

714
00:45:25,740 --> 00:45:27,340
Cause I owe him $37.

715
00:45:27,940 --> 00:45:32,780
And I'm hearing this and I'm like, so I've got this, I mean, I'm intubated.

716
00:45:32,780 --> 00:45:35,300
I've got all this stuff going on and I'm sitting there and I'm laying and I'm

717
00:45:35,300 --> 00:45:37,460
trying to talk and I'm like, no, no, these are real.

718
00:45:37,460 --> 00:45:39,900
I'm like, no, no, these are fantastic people.

719
00:45:39,900 --> 00:45:42,260
There's no way that this could ever happen.

720
00:45:42,620 --> 00:45:45,460
And, and, and, and anyway, they go.

721
00:45:45,460 --> 00:45:48,420
And then I told the story to Mark later and he just laughed.

722
00:45:48,420 --> 00:45:52,620
I'm like, there's no way these two fine men are going to take somebody's car

723
00:45:52,620 --> 00:45:55,180
for $37, but it's just one of the things.

724
00:45:55,180 --> 00:45:56,780
And I don't know why that stuff pops in your head.

725
00:45:56,780 --> 00:45:57,300
Who knows?

726
00:45:57,300 --> 00:46:00,020
But it was, it was all a, it was all hallucination.

727
00:46:00,380 --> 00:46:03,860
Uh, and they had told Amanda that they didn't know if I would come out of this,

728
00:46:03,900 --> 00:46:05,620
this delirium or not, but I did.

729
00:46:05,620 --> 00:46:07,260
Um, I was able to come out of it.

730
00:46:07,700 --> 00:46:08,900
I just want to interject for a second.

731
00:46:08,900 --> 00:46:13,700
So I'll interrupt you, but I'd never heard the word or the phrase ICU delirium

732
00:46:13,700 --> 00:46:16,180
until literally a week ago, I got a friend of mine coming on.

733
00:46:16,620 --> 00:46:19,500
Um, and she's a former firefighter paramedic.

734
00:46:19,500 --> 00:46:21,580
She actually had a near death thing in a car crash.

735
00:46:21,580 --> 00:46:23,860
She got rear ended by a truck where she was on I four.

736
00:46:24,460 --> 00:46:28,500
Um, but she's an ICU nurse now and something we never think about.

737
00:46:28,500 --> 00:46:29,380
So you're there.

738
00:46:29,740 --> 00:46:33,740
Um, and you got all the lights pinging and all the monitors flashing in your

739
00:46:33,740 --> 00:46:36,340
face and it again, we always talk about sleep.

740
00:46:36,540 --> 00:46:38,860
It totally disrupts your sleep pattern.

741
00:46:38,900 --> 00:46:39,140
Exactly.

742
00:46:39,140 --> 00:46:40,940
That's one of the roots of the delirium.

743
00:46:41,020 --> 00:46:41,420
Exactly.

744
00:46:41,420 --> 00:46:42,460
That's exactly right.

745
00:46:42,660 --> 00:46:46,940
So, um, you know, being in a medically induced coma, I had always thought you

746
00:46:46,940 --> 00:46:49,660
come up from a coma hell you've been sleeping for two weeks.

747
00:46:49,660 --> 00:46:52,380
You might as well be fine, but boy, that was not the case at all.

748
00:46:52,740 --> 00:46:57,020
Uh, so when I got up, I mean, I had very little use of my arms, my legs.

749
00:46:57,420 --> 00:46:58,620
Uh, I couldn't walk.

750
00:46:58,660 --> 00:46:59,580
I couldn't eat.

751
00:46:59,900 --> 00:47:00,860
I couldn't talk.

752
00:47:00,860 --> 00:47:03,180
I had to relearn how to do all these things again.

753
00:47:03,180 --> 00:47:06,820
Uh, it was very, it was very humbling experience.

754
00:47:07,100 --> 00:47:08,140
Uh, but I was lucky.

755
00:47:08,180 --> 00:47:10,020
Uh, you know, my wife, Amanda was there.

756
00:47:10,340 --> 00:47:11,260
My mom was there.

757
00:47:11,260 --> 00:47:12,100
My dad was there.

758
00:47:12,100 --> 00:47:14,460
My grandfather, my uncle, my aunt, everybody was there.

759
00:47:14,460 --> 00:47:19,180
And then all of my friends from work too, to push me along.

760
00:47:19,420 --> 00:47:21,820
And it was pretty, uh, pretty, pretty amazing.

761
00:47:21,860 --> 00:47:28,500
Um, to have all these people there, you know, and, and then I knew it's like,

762
00:47:28,500 --> 00:47:32,380
all right, once I woke up and Amanda told me, I like said, knew I'd been shocked.

763
00:47:32,380 --> 00:47:33,340
I didn't know.

764
00:47:33,740 --> 00:47:35,380
I knew I got shot at Publix.

765
00:47:35,380 --> 00:47:36,580
Uh, you know, so they woke me up there.

766
00:47:36,580 --> 00:47:39,340
Like they asked me these questions or like, you know, do you know where you are?

767
00:47:39,340 --> 00:47:40,460
I'm like, I'm in the hospital.

768
00:47:40,460 --> 00:47:42,660
They said, which hospitals orange park medical center.

769
00:47:42,660 --> 00:47:43,300
And I go, okay.

770
00:47:43,780 --> 00:47:46,060
Um, where, uh, do you know what happened?

771
00:47:46,060 --> 00:47:47,020
I said, I got shot.

772
00:47:47,020 --> 00:47:48,220
They said, where did you get shot?

773
00:47:48,700 --> 00:47:50,100
I said, in a Publix parking lot.

774
00:47:50,100 --> 00:47:50,740
I go, okay.

775
00:47:51,460 --> 00:47:54,340
And then I said, they said, uh, what month is it?

776
00:47:54,700 --> 00:47:55,660
And I said, September.

777
00:47:56,020 --> 00:47:58,060
And they went, aha, it's October.

778
00:47:58,060 --> 00:47:59,940
I was like, well, how long have I been asleep?

779
00:47:59,940 --> 00:48:01,140
That's not a fair question.

780
00:48:01,140 --> 00:48:02,380
You know?

781
00:48:02,380 --> 00:48:04,860
So, uh, so we went through that and then Amanda was telling

782
00:48:04,860 --> 00:48:05,860
me what all was going on.

783
00:48:05,860 --> 00:48:09,780
So, so when she was telling me about my injuries, uh, I was laying there

784
00:48:09,780 --> 00:48:11,420
and I was like, all right, all right.

785
00:48:11,420 --> 00:48:13,980
And then she goes, you're on a, so, you know, you're on a colostomy bag.

786
00:48:14,820 --> 00:48:17,180
And I was like, I reached down and I felt it.

787
00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:19,100
And I was like, man, that sucks.

788
00:48:19,580 --> 00:48:21,100
But I was like, I'm alive.

789
00:48:21,100 --> 00:48:23,100
I was like, okay, we'll, we'll deal with this.

790
00:48:23,100 --> 00:48:24,900
And she goes, you'll have a reversal in six months.

791
00:48:25,140 --> 00:48:27,940
And again, what she didn't, what she didn't bother telling me is that they didn't know

792
00:48:27,940 --> 00:48:29,460
if I was going to have a reversal at all.

793
00:48:29,460 --> 00:48:32,500
Uh, yeah, they didn't know if it would, if it get fixed, but she was like,

794
00:48:32,500 --> 00:48:33,580
you'll be fine in six months.

795
00:48:33,580 --> 00:48:34,540
We'll have it reversed.

796
00:48:34,740 --> 00:48:35,420
You'll be good to go.

797
00:48:35,900 --> 00:48:38,940
So again, those little things are morale boosters when you're going through

798
00:48:38,940 --> 00:48:43,140
something traumatic like this and just that little bit of good news, you know,

799
00:48:43,140 --> 00:48:48,100
although I was in bad shape and immediately I got to thinking, okay, I can do this.

800
00:48:48,100 --> 00:48:48,780
So like, I got it.

801
00:48:48,940 --> 00:48:49,500
I just got it.

802
00:48:49,820 --> 00:48:50,620
You know, it sucks.

803
00:48:50,620 --> 00:48:52,540
It happened, but I got to recover.

804
00:48:52,540 --> 00:48:53,220
I got to get better.

805
00:48:53,540 --> 00:48:56,180
So it did no point was I'm going to just lay around and start

806
00:48:56,180 --> 00:48:57,220
feeling sorry for myself.

807
00:48:57,220 --> 00:48:58,020
I just got to get better.

808
00:48:58,020 --> 00:48:59,260
I'm going to start feeling sorry for myself.

809
00:48:59,260 --> 00:49:02,540
I just, that wasn't an option and it hasn't been an option.

810
00:49:02,540 --> 00:49:03,820
It's never going to be an option.

811
00:49:04,620 --> 00:49:07,660
So I started right then and they're like, you know, in a couple of days,

812
00:49:07,900 --> 00:49:08,820
it's probably mid October.

813
00:49:08,820 --> 00:49:09,980
They're like, we got to get you out of bed.

814
00:49:09,980 --> 00:49:14,460
I'm like, part of it, I was trying to leave and my delirium, I was like,

815
00:49:14,900 --> 00:49:17,620
call my friend, Jim, tell him to fly a helicopter down here.

816
00:49:17,620 --> 00:49:18,420
That will me out.

817
00:49:18,420 --> 00:49:19,260
Just take me home.

818
00:49:19,580 --> 00:49:22,300
You know, there's a, in one point Amanda goes, she goes, all right, you

819
00:49:22,300 --> 00:49:23,220
know what, go ahead and get up.

820
00:49:23,260 --> 00:49:25,020
And I, and I was like trying to sit up.

821
00:49:25,780 --> 00:49:26,180
Shit.

822
00:49:26,180 --> 00:49:28,340
I can't get up.

823
00:49:28,620 --> 00:49:33,340
So, so, you know, she was, she was tough on me when I, when I needed to be tough.

824
00:49:33,340 --> 00:49:36,700
And she was, she was mothering to me whenever it needed to be done, but she

825
00:49:36,700 --> 00:49:38,260
was, she was absolutely amazing.

826
00:49:38,700 --> 00:49:41,660
So it come to the point to where it was time for me to get up.

827
00:49:42,100 --> 00:49:43,500
And my friend Ryan was there.

828
00:49:43,500 --> 00:49:47,940
He gave, he came up from Orlando and he's like, all right, man, you got to do it.

829
00:49:47,940 --> 00:49:48,580
You got to get up.

830
00:49:48,580 --> 00:49:49,260
So I remember them.

831
00:49:49,740 --> 00:49:53,140
I just couldn't believe in three weeks, how much I had lost.

832
00:49:53,580 --> 00:49:55,340
I mean, to the point where I couldn't stand up.

833
00:49:55,340 --> 00:49:59,100
My, my, my belly was very distended because my, my intestines were swollen.

834
00:49:59,100 --> 00:50:04,100
So I had this gigantic belly and, uh, I was like, all right, we got to go.

835
00:50:04,100 --> 00:50:07,340
And so I tried to get up and I couldn't get up and they had to help me stand up.

836
00:50:07,340 --> 00:50:11,300
And that was a little bit demoralizing for me because I'm a, I'm a big, I'm a big guy.

837
00:50:11,300 --> 00:50:12,540
I'm a big strong guy.

838
00:50:12,940 --> 00:50:15,500
And I was, I was in the middle of atrophy at that point.

839
00:50:15,820 --> 00:50:20,540
And for me not to be able to stand up or walk or do anything for myself, I was, I,

840
00:50:20,540 --> 00:50:24,980
it was just, it took a little bit for me to just kick myself in the ass and get going.

841
00:50:24,980 --> 00:50:27,220
Well, you had so much trauma to your lower extremities too.

842
00:50:27,220 --> 00:50:32,220
I mean, just anatomically, it must've been extremely hard to, to will your body, to put

843
00:50:32,220 --> 00:50:33,820
pressure on all these places that have been.

844
00:50:34,180 --> 00:50:34,540
Yeah.

845
00:50:34,660 --> 00:50:35,260
Shredded.

846
00:50:35,340 --> 00:50:35,620
Yep.

847
00:50:35,660 --> 00:50:36,420
That's exactly right.

848
00:50:36,420 --> 00:50:39,780
So I, so I got up, you know, they, and they put me in that thing.

849
00:50:39,780 --> 00:50:40,580
It's like a hand truck.

850
00:50:40,580 --> 00:50:43,300
It's called a combo-izer, but to me it was like a hand truck and they were wheeling me

851
00:50:43,300 --> 00:50:44,900
around in it and I'd had enough of that thing.

852
00:50:45,460 --> 00:50:49,340
So the next day I got up and, and I walked around the other side of the bed and I sat

853
00:50:49,340 --> 00:50:51,780
down in a chair and my friend, Brian Ferguson came and see me.

854
00:50:51,780 --> 00:50:56,220
He's a Navy guy was in, he was in air marine operations with us who left and went to the

855
00:50:56,220 --> 00:50:58,620
airlines, but he flew out and see me.

856
00:50:59,060 --> 00:51:04,460
And then I was able to, and I was able to walk to the nursing station.

857
00:51:04,940 --> 00:51:07,980
And then another day later, I was able to walk to the end of the nursing station.

858
00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:11,820
And then I was able to walk over blocks a couple of days after that.

859
00:51:12,100 --> 00:51:13,860
And then I was able to walk outside.

860
00:51:14,420 --> 00:51:14,660
Yeah.

861
00:51:14,700 --> 00:51:18,260
So it, it, it, it, and once it, once I started going, and this is where the whole

862
00:51:18,260 --> 00:51:21,820
CrossFit thing comes in, I just kept going.

863
00:51:21,820 --> 00:51:26,820
I mean, there was no, I was going to push myself because I didn't like for people

864
00:51:26,820 --> 00:51:28,380
to have to do stuff for me.

865
00:51:28,700 --> 00:51:30,020
I didn't like that at all.

866
00:51:30,220 --> 00:51:32,020
So I wanted to do it for myself.

867
00:51:32,020 --> 00:51:33,980
And that's when I started walking again.

868
00:51:34,300 --> 00:51:40,780
One of the worst things I did was I had to go through a swallow test to be able to eat

869
00:51:41,100 --> 00:51:45,780
because I liked to eat and again, this was, I was kind of in delirium at this time as

870
00:51:45,780 --> 00:51:49,180
well, and I'll never forget Christy love, who's my nurse, the trauma nurse.

871
00:51:49,180 --> 00:51:50,540
She, she was fantastic.

872
00:51:51,180 --> 00:51:51,940
She tells a story.

873
00:51:51,940 --> 00:51:54,380
I came back, I just felt my second swallow test.

874
00:51:54,580 --> 00:51:58,660
So they were still feeding me via tube in my nose and I was irritated.

875
00:51:58,660 --> 00:52:01,340
I was mad as I'm sure I must be horrible.

876
00:52:01,380 --> 00:52:05,060
So they wheeled me back into trauma ICU and apparently I looked at her.

877
00:52:05,060 --> 00:52:08,220
I said, you, you're the reason why I'm on cupcake restriction.

878
00:52:08,540 --> 00:52:11,100
So I've wanted cupcakes for some reason, and I have no idea why,

879
00:52:11,100 --> 00:52:12,260
because I'm not a big cupcake guy.

880
00:52:12,340 --> 00:52:15,700
So during recovery, people keep bringing me cupcakes and donuts in the room.

881
00:52:15,700 --> 00:52:17,220
I'm like, why are you guys bringing this stuff?

882
00:52:17,580 --> 00:52:19,620
Cause I could claim that before.

883
00:52:20,460 --> 00:52:20,860
Yeah.

884
00:52:20,980 --> 00:52:27,100
So, uh, so anyway, so in my recovery, you know, I kept, you know, the, uh, the, uh,

885
00:52:27,100 --> 00:52:30,580
rehab guys kept coming in rich, uh, rehab guy kept coming in every day, man.

886
00:52:30,580 --> 00:52:32,260
They were pushing me and pushing me and pushing me.

887
00:52:32,660 --> 00:52:34,940
And I got to the point where I was doing, while I was doing real well.

888
00:52:35,300 --> 00:52:38,260
Uh, so I was supposed to be in the hospital for six months.

889
00:52:38,660 --> 00:52:43,980
Uh, I transferred to the inpatient rehab on October 23rd.

890
00:52:43,980 --> 00:52:47,500
So less than a month later, I was in inpatient rehab.

891
00:52:47,820 --> 00:52:48,140
Wow.

892
00:52:48,140 --> 00:52:49,900
And that's just that sheer determination.

893
00:52:49,900 --> 00:52:51,420
That was determination of thinking.

894
00:52:51,980 --> 00:53:00,980
So I get the rehab and, uh, they get the rehab and then they start the, uh, the,

895
00:53:00,980 --> 00:53:06,700
uh, physical therapist, sorry, sorry, physical therapist, please cut all that,

896
00:53:06,740 --> 00:53:08,420
cut all that, that brain fart out.

897
00:53:09,220 --> 00:53:13,140
So I get to the physical therapist and I get to talk it to her and she's like,

898
00:53:13,140 --> 00:53:14,420
and she's like, what's your background?

899
00:53:14,420 --> 00:53:15,540
What's your physical fitness background?

900
00:53:15,540 --> 00:53:18,500
It's like, I was a CrossFitter and she's like, me too.

901
00:53:18,900 --> 00:53:21,180
I'm like, huh, this is going to be fun.

902
00:53:21,420 --> 00:53:25,580
So she starts getting, and she, and she starts in with CrossFit style

903
00:53:25,580 --> 00:53:26,900
rehab workouts right away.

904
00:53:26,900 --> 00:53:27,980
Handstand pushups straight away.

905
00:53:30,860 --> 00:53:32,420
Deadlifting doing all kinds of stuff.

906
00:53:32,860 --> 00:53:35,780
No, but she, uh, she has me, they have the stairs in there.

907
00:53:35,820 --> 00:53:36,020
Yeah.

908
00:53:36,020 --> 00:53:39,740
So she's has me walking upstairs, walking downstairs, sitting down, sitting up,

909
00:53:39,740 --> 00:53:40,580
sitting down, sitting up.

910
00:53:40,860 --> 00:53:43,100
She has a, uh, and this is over the course of a couple of days.

911
00:53:43,100 --> 00:53:46,620
She has me throwing a ball against the trampoline and catching it and doing,

912
00:53:46,820 --> 00:53:50,540
you know, some squats, some air squat, you know, obviously I'm holding on the rails

913
00:53:50,540 --> 00:53:53,540
cause I had, I'm not a very flexible guy to begin with.

914
00:53:53,540 --> 00:53:57,380
I was even less flexible as a telephone pole at this point.

915
00:53:57,700 --> 00:54:01,780
And, uh, but when she starts working on me and I talked to the trauma doc, I'm

916
00:54:01,780 --> 00:54:03,700
like, I want to go home.

917
00:54:04,020 --> 00:54:04,940
I want to go home.

918
00:54:05,420 --> 00:54:09,780
And he said, uh, he said, if you work hard, you'll be home on Halloween.

919
00:54:10,580 --> 00:54:11,700
And this is, I said, okay.

920
00:54:11,740 --> 00:54:12,460
I said, you're wrong.

921
00:54:12,460 --> 00:54:13,820
I said, I'll make this happen.

922
00:54:14,500 --> 00:54:17,140
So, so during this time, I'll tell you kind of a funny story.

923
00:54:17,140 --> 00:54:22,540
During this time I have, uh, so I'm on a colostomy bag and, uh, I start

924
00:54:22,540 --> 00:54:24,980
having these feelings like I, like I got to poop, right?

925
00:54:25,060 --> 00:54:29,260
So I started having these feelings and I, it, so I'm walking down the hall.

926
00:54:29,260 --> 00:54:30,740
So I wanted to walk around.

927
00:54:30,740 --> 00:54:35,180
They like, you need to walk around some to, uh, uh, you know, to keep things going.

928
00:54:35,180 --> 00:54:36,820
I'm like, all right, so I'll get up and I'll walk around this.

929
00:54:36,820 --> 00:54:40,420
I mean, I had all these monitors with me and I had the, uh, the wound

930
00:54:40,420 --> 00:54:43,860
back on on my midline, so I had all this stuff with me and I'm like, man,

931
00:54:43,860 --> 00:54:45,060
I feel like I gotta go, you know?

932
00:54:45,380 --> 00:54:49,580
So I'm walking down the hall and then I see, I see one of the, one of the

933
00:54:49,580 --> 00:54:53,220
doctors there and, uh, she comes walking down and I look at her.

934
00:54:53,220 --> 00:54:59,540
I said, doc, I said, uh, I feel like I got to poop, but I'm on a colostomy bag.

935
00:55:00,420 --> 00:55:02,900
She goes, she's just the sweetest voice.

936
00:55:02,900 --> 00:55:04,220
She goes, it's okay, honey.

937
00:55:04,260 --> 00:55:06,500
It's just a, it's just a sensation.

938
00:55:06,540 --> 00:55:07,300
It'll go away.

939
00:55:07,620 --> 00:55:08,900
So I went, all right.

940
00:55:08,900 --> 00:55:11,820
So I'm clenched and crap my pants right there in front of her.

941
00:55:13,020 --> 00:55:15,620
I went, huh, that was a hell of a sensation.

942
00:55:16,500 --> 00:55:20,900
I turned around and, and I kind of, I've kind of feeling bad at this point.

943
00:55:20,900 --> 00:55:24,700
So I go back, I get myself cleaned up and change a sit down.

944
00:55:24,700 --> 00:55:25,580
I fall asleep in a bed.

945
00:55:25,580 --> 00:55:28,700
I wake up the chief of trauma sitting there and I told him the story.

946
00:55:29,300 --> 00:55:32,940
And he's like, once he picked himself up off the floor from laughing, he's like,

947
00:55:34,100 --> 00:55:37,140
your colon is still making mucus and you got, you got to get rid of that.

948
00:55:37,140 --> 00:55:41,140
And I'm like, thanks, you guys could have told me about that beforehand.

949
00:55:41,140 --> 00:55:43,420
You know, it saved me a bit of embarrassment.

950
00:55:43,820 --> 00:55:47,460
So, uh, but I try to look, you know, I try to make light of this stuff

951
00:55:47,460 --> 00:55:50,060
and, and have fun with it because it happened and there's nothing I can do to

952
00:55:50,060 --> 00:55:54,820
change it and, and maybe somebody else's that listens to this, however far down

953
00:55:54,820 --> 00:55:56,740
the road will say, you know what, same thing happened to me.

954
00:55:57,020 --> 00:55:57,540
Yeah.

955
00:55:57,580 --> 00:55:59,620
I remember never to unclench when they're walking around.

956
00:56:00,300 --> 00:56:01,100
That's exactly right.

957
00:56:01,340 --> 00:56:03,300
So, uh, so I kept fighting in rehab.

958
00:56:03,340 --> 00:56:06,060
I kept fighting and, uh, and I went home on Halloween.

959
00:56:06,060 --> 00:56:09,500
So six weeks after shooting, uh, I was back here in this house.

960
00:56:09,780 --> 00:56:10,380
That's amazing.

961
00:56:10,380 --> 00:56:13,580
Now I want to just, just go back in time just for a moment, because I should have

962
00:56:13,620 --> 00:56:17,820
really asked this before, but how did you initially get into Crossfix?

963
00:56:17,820 --> 00:56:19,820
I know we're about to talk to that and talk about that.

964
00:56:20,060 --> 00:56:22,780
So this was a 2012 September.

965
00:56:23,300 --> 00:56:25,580
I was a fat, disgusting mess.

966
00:56:25,940 --> 00:56:30,220
And, uh, I remember I was driving down the road and I could see my cheeks.

967
00:56:30,980 --> 00:56:33,020
Out of my eyes, I could see how fat I was.

968
00:56:33,180 --> 00:56:34,940
Now what happened, what had got you to that point?

969
00:56:34,940 --> 00:56:37,220
Like where, where were you at your, your fittest?

970
00:56:38,420 --> 00:56:40,860
Oh, I wasn't at my fittest then before then.

971
00:56:40,860 --> 00:56:40,900
Yeah.

972
00:56:40,900 --> 00:56:44,100
It was just, it was bad and it just continued to get worse.

973
00:56:44,100 --> 00:56:44,420
Okay.

974
00:56:44,420 --> 00:56:47,820
So I had gone through like some weight and some fat diet type stuff, and I like to

975
00:56:47,820 --> 00:56:51,180
run, so I would actually run, you know, three or four miles, but it's still, I

976
00:56:51,180 --> 00:56:56,900
mean, I was, my diet was, was crap and, uh, I was single at the time and I was

977
00:56:56,900 --> 00:56:59,780
just, I was just eating like, like crap and it just, it just showed.

978
00:57:00,140 --> 00:57:02,420
So I had, so I had had enough.

979
00:57:02,420 --> 00:57:05,460
So I, so I looked for a CrossFit gym.

980
00:57:05,500 --> 00:57:09,660
I was in a free, I was at the intersection of, uh, college drive and, and

981
00:57:09,660 --> 00:57:11,780
two 20 County road, two 20 here in Clay County.

982
00:57:12,260 --> 00:57:16,060
And, um, I, uh, I see black Finn CrossFit.

983
00:57:16,340 --> 00:57:19,740
So I call and, uh, I don't get an answer.

984
00:57:19,980 --> 00:57:23,060
And then I go back in with her and I, then I go in, I see them working out.

985
00:57:23,060 --> 00:57:25,100
I see the door open, you know, it's cause it's got, got a big garage door.

986
00:57:25,100 --> 00:57:28,700
I see the door open and I'm like, there's no way I can go in there with those people.

987
00:57:29,020 --> 00:57:31,060
So I left and then I, then I called again.

988
00:57:31,060 --> 00:57:34,420
I called Mark again and he's like, Hey, I told him, I was like, listen, I'm

989
00:57:34,420 --> 00:57:36,300
a fat piece of crap and I need some help.

990
00:57:36,700 --> 00:57:40,540
I said, I like to run, but, uh, I said, I'm really good at running, but I'm still,

991
00:57:40,580 --> 00:57:45,220
I'm just overweight and he goes, he goes, come in, he goes, we'll do, uh,

992
00:57:45,220 --> 00:57:48,700
we'll do an on-ramp and see what you like it and, and tell me what you think.

993
00:57:49,380 --> 00:57:55,140
So we get in and then I do the, so my second day of, of on-ramp, um, I leave,

994
00:57:55,340 --> 00:57:58,860
you know, on my way home, I puke in my truck going down the road.

995
00:57:58,860 --> 00:58:01,220
I mean, all over the windshield, everything I can't pull over.

996
00:58:01,260 --> 00:58:02,900
Do you remember what your first workout was?

997
00:58:03,180 --> 00:58:07,100
Um, this one had something to do with like wall ball sit-ups.

998
00:58:07,100 --> 00:58:08,580
So there's a lot of wall ball work.

999
00:58:08,820 --> 00:58:11,740
You know, there's no weights or anything involved, but I was just, I was just so

1000
00:58:11,740 --> 00:58:14,220
out of shape that it just, it just, it just all came out.

1001
00:58:14,620 --> 00:58:15,780
I said, Mark attacks.

1002
00:58:15,780 --> 00:58:17,300
I'm like, I just puked all inside my truck.

1003
00:58:17,300 --> 00:58:20,660
He goes, he just, he responded with it'll get better.

1004
00:58:20,660 --> 00:58:21,300
I promise.

1005
00:58:21,380 --> 00:58:23,780
So, so, and it did, and it got better.

1006
00:58:23,940 --> 00:58:27,180
And I got to the point where I lost probably, I was probably

1007
00:58:27,180 --> 00:58:31,620
290 then, and I probably got down to about 225, 230.

1008
00:58:31,660 --> 00:58:32,220
Oh wow.

1009
00:58:32,260 --> 00:58:33,060
And for me,

1010
00:58:33,100 --> 00:58:34,420
Significantly, because you're a big guy anyway.

1011
00:58:34,420 --> 00:58:34,940
That's probably right.

1012
00:58:34,940 --> 00:58:39,620
For me, 225 is like, I've got a 30, I got a 34 inch waist if I'm at 225.

1013
00:58:40,020 --> 00:58:42,140
That's because I'm just a, I'm just a big dude.

1014
00:58:42,460 --> 00:58:45,660
Uh, so I get down and I'm, and I'm doing well and I'm starting to compete.

1015
00:58:45,660 --> 00:58:49,660
And I'm starting to, you know, go to, I remember cross, uh, competing at

1016
00:58:49,660 --> 00:58:52,300
CrossFit Pentacle down in, um, Diagonal Cala.

1017
00:58:52,580 --> 00:58:55,340
Um, I've done several, several competitions.

1018
00:58:55,340 --> 00:58:57,860
At this point, and I'm, at this time, I catch the bug.

1019
00:58:57,900 --> 00:58:59,300
I'm totally addicted to it.

1020
00:58:59,540 --> 00:59:00,660
And I just start getting better.

1021
00:59:00,660 --> 00:59:05,860
And then the CrossFit community is so, it's so supportive and so outstanding

1022
00:59:05,860 --> 00:59:07,660
that you go there and you start making friends.

1023
00:59:07,900 --> 00:59:10,860
And I like having friends that are, that are not, I love my work friends,

1024
00:59:10,860 --> 00:59:14,380
but also love my CrossFit friends and they don't necessarily intertwine all the time.

1025
00:59:14,380 --> 00:59:14,660
You know?

1026
00:59:14,660 --> 00:59:18,980
So, so it's, uh, it's, it's nice to have, you know, people that, that look,

1027
00:59:19,020 --> 00:59:22,580
look at the world through, uh, through a different present than you do.

1028
00:59:22,580 --> 00:59:25,740
Because it's to give you a whole lot different perspective.

1029
00:59:25,980 --> 00:59:30,220
And it really helped me during this, during this whole process of recovery

1030
00:59:30,460 --> 00:59:34,660
and getting better, having that family with me the whole time was,

1031
00:59:34,820 --> 00:59:36,620
was absolutely crucial.

1032
00:59:36,820 --> 00:59:40,380
So it was almost five years to the day, uh, when I started going to

1033
00:59:40,380 --> 00:59:41,540
Blackfin when I got shot.

1034
00:59:41,740 --> 00:59:42,260
Okay.

1035
00:59:42,260 --> 00:59:42,460
Yeah.

1036
00:59:42,460 --> 00:59:44,700
And that community is, is so important.

1037
00:59:44,700 --> 00:59:47,940
I did, like I said, before we started recording, I started CrossFit

1038
00:59:48,420 --> 00:59:50,540
about 10 years ago and it was some fun.

1039
00:59:50,540 --> 00:59:53,540
And in, in, uh, Anaheim that got me into it.

1040
00:59:53,780 --> 00:59:58,180
Um, but then when I moved over to Florida, I was just in the YMCA

1041
00:59:58,180 --> 01:00:00,580
doing it on my own, making mistakes, moving wrong.

1042
01:00:00,820 --> 01:00:05,020
Um, but then when I joined the gym a few years ago now,

1043
01:00:05,500 --> 01:00:08,580
an actual CrossFit gym, then I got the other part.

1044
01:00:08,580 --> 01:00:10,220
And that sense of community is so important.

1045
01:00:10,220 --> 01:00:12,900
And we talk about tribes and, you know, we have our tribe in our job.

1046
01:00:12,900 --> 01:00:16,820
You know, you have your crew, I have my station and, but having that other

1047
01:00:16,820 --> 01:00:19,700
group and finding a good CrossFit gym, you know, you want to have that group

1048
01:00:19,700 --> 01:00:21,700
that you actually feel a part of, but yeah, I mean, they're,

1049
01:00:21,700 --> 01:00:22,620
they're like a second family.

1050
01:00:22,860 --> 01:00:23,380
Right.

1051
01:00:23,380 --> 01:00:25,820
And my CrossFit gym was, was, was no different.

1052
01:00:25,820 --> 01:00:27,420
They, they, they are my other family.

1053
01:00:27,420 --> 01:00:28,460
There's no doubt about it.

1054
01:00:28,980 --> 01:00:34,460
Um, so for my injuries, uh, going back to that, the doctors told me once I got out,

1055
01:00:34,460 --> 01:00:37,500
they're like, you know, so I asked them part of the reasons why I lived and they

1056
01:00:37,500 --> 01:00:40,460
said, well, is your physical fitness had a huge amount to do with it?

1057
01:00:40,780 --> 01:00:43,260
Uh, cause my lats were so strong.

1058
01:00:43,460 --> 01:00:46,460
Cause I was, it was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like,

1059
01:00:46,460 --> 01:00:48,380
cause I was, when I got shot, I was about two 70.

1060
01:00:48,620 --> 01:00:52,660
So I put the weight back on, but I was a different two 70 than I was two 90 before.

1061
01:00:52,660 --> 01:00:54,780
I mean, I was a very muscular man.

1062
01:00:55,260 --> 01:01:00,060
And, uh, you know, that muscle was able to slow that bullet down enough to

1063
01:01:00,060 --> 01:01:02,860
where it didn't, it wasn't able to tap my spine, you know, it stopped

1064
01:01:02,860 --> 01:01:04,660
about two millimeters short.

1065
01:01:05,100 --> 01:01:10,300
And then my heart was able to take, cause I was in such good cardio, uh, shape

1066
01:01:10,300 --> 01:01:15,460
that my heart was able to, to take the, uh, the loss of blood and, and keep the,

1067
01:01:15,460 --> 01:01:19,340
from that shock, it was able to keep going and be able to do just fine.

1068
01:01:19,620 --> 01:01:21,860
And they credit a lot of that to my, my cardio.

1069
01:01:22,180 --> 01:01:22,500
Yeah.

1070
01:01:22,940 --> 01:01:28,740
I've had several guests that have been through accidents, you know, trauma, and

1071
01:01:29,060 --> 01:01:33,300
every single one of them attributes them still being alive from that.

1072
01:01:33,300 --> 01:01:36,100
I mean, Matt Chan, the cross fair who's a firefighter as well.

1073
01:01:36,580 --> 01:01:41,260
He had basically a near fatal accident, just came kind of got thrown forward on

1074
01:01:41,260 --> 01:01:46,140
his bike and the seat went through, um, into the branch that comes immediately

1075
01:01:46,140 --> 01:01:50,980
off his femoral artery, but he's so muscular that it didn't actually penetrate.

1076
01:01:51,420 --> 01:01:55,100
Um, it didn't, didn't burst through the skin and, um, he survived, but any,

1077
01:01:55,340 --> 01:01:58,700
anyone that had not been in the condition that he was in would have bled

1078
01:01:58,700 --> 01:01:59,620
out and died right there.

1079
01:01:59,780 --> 01:02:00,100
Right.

1080
01:02:00,180 --> 01:02:04,220
And coach classmen says in CrossFit, you know, he says, yeah, you, you, you may,

1081
01:02:04,580 --> 01:02:07,140
you may get injured in CrossFit, but I'll tell you one place you're certainly

1082
01:02:07,140 --> 01:02:09,660
going to get injured and that's sitting on your couch, not doing anything.

1083
01:02:09,660 --> 01:02:14,020
And I certainly believe every word that he says of that and he's absolutely right.

1084
01:02:14,420 --> 01:02:17,260
Uh, yeah, it's a, it's a sport where you may get hurt.

1085
01:02:17,820 --> 01:02:19,500
Of course, any sport you're going to get hurt.

1086
01:02:19,820 --> 01:02:25,060
Uh, but, um, his words meant a lot to me whenever I heard them and to be able to,

1087
01:02:25,060 --> 01:02:28,820
uh, to, to know that all the things I've been through in CrossFit, all the pain

1088
01:02:28,820 --> 01:02:32,380
that I've been through making myself better, it saved my life.

1089
01:02:32,980 --> 01:02:36,020
And it was, it's all about the amount of effort that you put into it for sure.

1090
01:02:36,380 --> 01:02:36,620
All right.

1091
01:02:36,620 --> 01:02:40,780
So let's talk about your, your return to the gym post injury.

1092
01:02:40,780 --> 01:02:42,940
What, what were you able to do day one?

1093
01:02:42,940 --> 01:02:44,420
And then what was the progress after that?

1094
01:02:44,900 --> 01:02:48,580
So, um, I got out of the rehab on October 31st.

1095
01:02:48,940 --> 01:02:53,140
Uh, I was home for about a week and then, uh, I had some, some abdomen pain.

1096
01:02:53,140 --> 01:02:55,060
So they made me drink some, some barium fluid.

1097
01:02:55,060 --> 01:02:58,180
Turns out I had a fissure in my intestines.

1098
01:02:58,380 --> 01:02:59,220
So I was leaking.

1099
01:02:59,620 --> 01:03:04,780
And, um, so they put me back in a trauma ICU and the, the trauma doc says, Hey,

1100
01:03:04,780 --> 01:03:06,740
he goes, like, we got to have to do an endoscopy.

1101
01:03:06,740 --> 01:03:08,180
We got to figure out where this hole is.

1102
01:03:08,620 --> 01:03:10,020
And so they did the endoscopy.

1103
01:03:10,020 --> 01:03:11,300
They couldn't find anything in my stomach.

1104
01:03:12,180 --> 01:03:14,620
And it comes like, he said, listen, you're not going to be able to eat for two

1105
01:03:14,620 --> 01:03:14,940
weeks.

1106
01:03:14,940 --> 01:03:17,540
We're going to feed you through a pick line with TPN.

1107
01:03:17,660 --> 01:03:19,540
And I'm like, I look at him.

1108
01:03:19,540 --> 01:03:20,380
I said, that's funny.

1109
01:03:20,380 --> 01:03:22,180
I thought you just said I couldn't eat for two weeks.

1110
01:03:22,180 --> 01:03:25,300
You know how hard I worked so I can eat because yeah, you're not,

1111
01:03:25,300 --> 01:03:26,420
you're not eating for two weeks.

1112
01:03:26,420 --> 01:03:30,180
I'm like, so, and then you don't realize in this football season, you don't

1113
01:03:30,180 --> 01:03:34,380
remember, you don't even know how many, uh, Arby's we have the meats commercials

1114
01:03:34,380 --> 01:03:36,860
are on until you sit here for two weeks.

1115
01:03:36,860 --> 01:03:37,740
You never have them.

1116
01:03:37,740 --> 01:03:38,180
Yeah.

1117
01:03:38,180 --> 01:03:41,180
And I've said to her like, I've been, it says here's this tube.

1118
01:03:41,180 --> 01:03:44,540
I've got, I'm attached to me for 20 hours a day that they're feeding me through.

1119
01:03:45,060 --> 01:03:46,260
So I finally get through that.

1120
01:03:46,260 --> 01:03:51,420
And then, um, so the week before Thanksgiving, I'm able to, uh, I'm able

1121
01:03:51,420 --> 01:03:52,220
to start eating again.

1122
01:03:52,220 --> 01:03:55,740
So I go to actually go to Chili's with a whole bunch of, uh, of family

1123
01:03:55,740 --> 01:03:57,260
members and, and, and work folks.

1124
01:03:57,260 --> 01:03:58,780
And we, and I have my first beer then.

1125
01:03:58,780 --> 01:04:01,420
So I have like a half a beer and it's all I can, it's all I can get down, you

1126
01:04:01,420 --> 01:04:03,580
know, cause my stomach had strength, had shrank.

1127
01:04:03,580 --> 01:04:06,860
So it was the next week after that's when I started going back to CrossFit.

1128
01:04:06,860 --> 01:04:08,700
So I actually went back in December.

1129
01:04:08,860 --> 01:04:13,180
Uh, I started going to CrossFit and, uh, I walked it back into the doors of the gym.

1130
01:04:13,660 --> 01:04:15,020
It was just like being home again.

1131
01:04:15,500 --> 01:04:19,420
Um, it was outstanding and they, um, the coaches, when I would get there, they

1132
01:04:19,420 --> 01:04:22,460
would go through and they would, we would do the workout and then they would scale

1133
01:04:22,460 --> 01:04:23,980
every single movement for me.

1134
01:04:24,460 --> 01:04:29,660
Um, so I started, um, we had the assault bikes, so I would just get in and I'd

1135
01:04:29,660 --> 01:04:31,660
pedal the assault bike for 30 minutes.

1136
01:04:31,660 --> 01:04:35,180
And then I would take a five pound wall ball and I would just, uh, I would stand

1137
01:04:35,180 --> 01:04:35,340
up.

1138
01:04:35,340 --> 01:04:36,700
I wouldn't, I wasn't able to squat.

1139
01:04:36,940 --> 01:04:40,620
Well, I did do some squatting and then I got in trouble for it from the doctors.

1140
01:04:40,620 --> 01:04:44,300
But, uh, uh, I was able to throw the wall ball up and just do wall ball shots.

1141
01:04:44,300 --> 01:04:48,780
And then, um, then I did, uh, we had a 15 pound bar that we used for the CrossFit

1142
01:04:48,780 --> 01:04:49,580
kids classes.

1143
01:04:49,900 --> 01:04:54,380
And, uh, so I was able to do some cleans and do some overhead pushes with that.

1144
01:04:54,620 --> 01:04:58,460
And then whenever everybody was running, uh, you know, they do a 200, 400, 800

1145
01:04:58,460 --> 01:05:02,060
meter run, I would just walk out, do a, I'll walk a hundred meters while they were

1146
01:05:02,060 --> 01:05:02,300
gone.

1147
01:05:02,300 --> 01:05:06,140
I would walk out and walk back and, and I just, I just kept myself moving.

1148
01:05:06,140 --> 01:05:09,980
And then, uh, you know, eventually I was able to squat all the way down and get,

1149
01:05:09,980 --> 01:05:10,860
and get the wall ball.

1150
01:05:10,860 --> 01:05:14,700
And then I was able to, you know, I was able to clean 35 pounds.

1151
01:05:14,700 --> 01:05:16,380
I was able to clean 45 pounds.

1152
01:05:16,940 --> 01:05:21,260
And then I was able to do a little bit of dead lifting and then, um, uh, I'm a

1153
01:05:21,260 --> 01:05:22,060
big NASCAR guy.

1154
01:05:22,300 --> 01:05:25,260
So I go to, I go to speed weeks and while I'm at speed weeks, the trauma surgeon

1155
01:05:25,260 --> 01:05:28,140
calls and they said, we, we, we think you're going to be able to do that.

1156
01:05:28,140 --> 01:05:30,860
We think you're ready for your, for your colostomy reversal.

1157
01:05:31,260 --> 01:05:32,300
So I'm like, sweet.

1158
01:05:32,300 --> 01:05:37,180
So, uh, so just at the end of the day, 2,500, February 23rd, they scheduled me

1159
01:05:37,180 --> 01:05:38,220
for my stomach reversal.

1160
01:05:38,620 --> 01:05:40,940
And so I go through that process of the stomach reversal.

1161
01:05:40,940 --> 01:05:42,700
I was in the hospital for another eight days.

1162
01:05:43,260 --> 01:05:46,380
Uh, and that was one of the most painful procedures I've ever had in my life.

1163
01:05:46,380 --> 01:05:47,580
I couldn't believe how much it hurt.

1164
01:05:47,980 --> 01:05:49,900
Uh, so, but we go through it, we get through it.

1165
01:05:51,180 --> 01:05:52,780
So then I start recovering in March.

1166
01:05:52,780 --> 01:05:54,780
I'm like, all right, I'm starting to get better, starting to get better.

1167
01:05:55,020 --> 01:05:57,660
And then, uh, I go in, I really wanted to go back to work.

1168
01:05:57,660 --> 01:06:01,820
And I had went back to work on January 1st, the basically it's all January.

1169
01:06:01,820 --> 01:06:04,940
I went back for about three or four weeks on light duty in the office.

1170
01:06:05,260 --> 01:06:09,180
Uh, you know, which was, you know, you go around a bunch of alpha males.

1171
01:06:09,740 --> 01:06:12,300
Well, the colostomy bag and you can imagine what's going to happen.

1172
01:06:12,300 --> 01:06:14,940
So anything you can think happened did it was fun.

1173
01:06:14,940 --> 01:06:15,900
We had it, we had a good time.

1174
01:06:15,900 --> 01:06:18,140
They were, they were just, they were phenomenal to me.

1175
01:06:18,140 --> 01:06:21,500
My entire office was, they, they, they rolled out the red carpet for me.

1176
01:06:21,500 --> 01:06:22,220
While I was there.

1177
01:06:22,380 --> 01:06:24,940
But that was three months after being shot, you were back on light duty.

1178
01:06:24,940 --> 01:06:25,260
Yeah.

1179
01:06:25,260 --> 01:06:25,820
Yeah.

1180
01:06:25,820 --> 01:06:26,060
Yeah.

1181
01:06:26,060 --> 01:06:26,860
I was back in the office.

1182
01:06:26,860 --> 01:06:30,540
And they didn't, there's such a classy organization, you know, they didn't go

1183
01:06:30,540 --> 01:06:35,500
and say, okay, uh, you know, you gotta go sit and answer the phones or talk on

1184
01:06:35,500 --> 01:06:36,380
radios or do something.

1185
01:06:36,380 --> 01:06:37,020
They didn't do that.

1186
01:06:37,020 --> 01:06:40,860
They let me just integrate back into the office and do normal office work.

1187
01:06:40,860 --> 01:06:44,060
Just as I do any other day when I would go in, they didn't, they didn't make me

1188
01:06:44,060 --> 01:06:45,340
feel like where you're the guy that's hurt.

1189
01:06:45,340 --> 01:06:47,180
So you're the guy that's got to take the crappy jobs.

1190
01:06:47,580 --> 01:06:47,900
They did.

1191
01:06:47,900 --> 01:06:49,340
They never did that at one time.

1192
01:06:49,340 --> 01:06:52,540
They're just such a, such a, such a well-run organization.

1193
01:06:52,540 --> 01:06:53,820
It was, it was phenomenal.

1194
01:06:53,820 --> 01:06:56,300
I think a lot of agencies out there can learn from that.

1195
01:06:56,300 --> 01:06:57,660
I just put that in there.

1196
01:06:57,660 --> 01:07:01,420
I just, uh, I just can't tell you how much that helped me.

1197
01:07:01,420 --> 01:07:04,540
And it made me want to come back to work more and get back with, with my folks.

1198
01:07:05,660 --> 01:07:10,460
So I was able to, uh, uh, go back to work full-time on, uh, August 9th,

1199
01:07:10,460 --> 01:07:13,260
the trauma surgeons said, okay, you're good to go.

1200
01:07:13,260 --> 01:07:14,220
So I got to go back to work.

1201
01:07:14,220 --> 01:07:17,500
And at that time, that's whenever I was done with, uh, my outpatient rehab.

1202
01:07:17,500 --> 01:07:18,940
So I went to outpatient rehab.

1203
01:07:18,940 --> 01:07:21,660
I had maybe 70 trips to outpatient rehab.

1204
01:07:21,660 --> 01:07:24,460
My guy, Ronnie Acuna, who's phenomenal guy.

1205
01:07:24,460 --> 01:07:27,500
Um, you know, he knew I was a CrossFitter and every day he pushed me.

1206
01:07:27,740 --> 01:07:30,460
And eventually I got to the point when I can start driving myself

1207
01:07:30,460 --> 01:07:35,420
back and forth to rehab, I would leave rehab facility and go to the CrossFit gym.

1208
01:07:35,740 --> 01:07:36,700
And I would do both.

1209
01:07:36,700 --> 01:07:38,940
I would do rehab and CrossFit at the same time.

1210
01:07:38,940 --> 01:07:40,300
And Ronnie encouraged it.

1211
01:07:40,300 --> 01:07:44,540
And he was, uh, he, he helped me so much as far as like my movements and,

1212
01:07:44,540 --> 01:07:47,740
you know, getting me stretched back out and been able to do squats and my balance.

1213
01:07:47,740 --> 01:07:51,180
And, and he's just, he's just such a kind, gentle soul.

1214
01:07:51,180 --> 01:07:52,700
And he was exactly what I needed.

1215
01:07:52,700 --> 01:07:55,820
He pushed me, you know, if I, if I get, if I get tired, he'd be like, come on, man,

1216
01:07:55,820 --> 01:07:56,620
let's go, you got to go.

1217
01:07:56,620 --> 01:07:59,020
And it was just, he was just, he was, he was awesome.

1218
01:07:59,260 --> 01:08:00,220
He still is awesome.

1219
01:08:00,220 --> 01:08:05,740
Um, so eventually I got, I got, when they cleared me, go back to work.

1220
01:08:05,740 --> 01:08:08,700
I'm like, well, if I can go back to work, then I can go back to full-time CrossFit.

1221
01:08:09,020 --> 01:08:11,580
And they're like, do what you do.

1222
01:08:11,820 --> 01:08:15,180
He's like, just, just go be, you go, don't change anything.

1223
01:08:15,180 --> 01:08:16,300
You just keep doing what you're doing.

1224
01:08:16,780 --> 01:08:18,780
So they, they released me to go back to work.

1225
01:08:18,780 --> 01:08:21,980
And then, uh, so that's when I started going back into CrossFit.

1226
01:08:21,980 --> 01:08:25,660
And I was having some trouble running because of my midline scar, being like, I can, I can,

1227
01:08:25,660 --> 01:08:26,940
I can run more now.

1228
01:08:27,100 --> 01:08:32,220
And now I'm back to, at this point, now I'm, you know, six, seven months past that.

1229
01:08:32,220 --> 01:08:34,860
And I'm, I'm back to about 90% of where I was.

1230
01:08:34,860 --> 01:08:38,300
So I'm back to, I could deadlift like 435 pounds before.

1231
01:08:38,300 --> 01:08:40,620
And I'm at just south of a 400 deadlift again.

1232
01:08:40,620 --> 01:08:44,380
Um, and I'm within 20 pounds on my clean and jerk.

1233
01:08:44,620 --> 01:08:46,940
I just did my first pull-ups this week.

1234
01:08:46,940 --> 01:08:47,580
Congratulations.

1235
01:08:47,580 --> 01:08:48,140
Thank you.

1236
01:08:48,140 --> 01:08:50,140
Which was, which was, which was huge.

1237
01:08:50,140 --> 01:08:52,060
I've Rx'd a couple of workouts.

1238
01:08:52,060 --> 01:08:53,180
I can do double unders again.

1239
01:08:53,180 --> 01:08:59,260
And, and it's, it's because they've pushed me at the CrossFit gym and, and I've kept

1240
01:08:59,260 --> 01:08:59,740
going.

1241
01:08:59,740 --> 01:09:04,220
I mean, I don't want to sound conceited, but I mean, I take myself to the gym.

1242
01:09:04,220 --> 01:09:06,860
I make myself go every day and I make myself do the workouts.

1243
01:09:06,860 --> 01:09:12,140
And it's just like, I feel like I'm almost back to the same guy I was September 26 at

1244
01:09:12,140 --> 01:09:13,260
one o'clock in the afternoon.

1245
01:09:13,260 --> 01:09:13,580
Yeah.

1246
01:09:13,580 --> 01:09:14,060
Yeah.

1247
01:09:14,060 --> 01:09:16,940
I think that's something that I'm getting from this whole through line as well.

1248
01:09:16,940 --> 01:09:19,740
I'm sorry to interrupt, but, um, I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm

1249
01:09:19,740 --> 01:09:20,140
sorry.

1250
01:09:20,140 --> 01:09:22,940
You obviously took your training seriously when you describe, and I want to explore

1251
01:09:22,940 --> 01:09:26,140
that a little bit more in a minute, but when you describe what you were thinking

1252
01:09:26,140 --> 01:09:30,220
after being shot, the weapons, say, you know, the, the, the, excuse me, the nozzle

1253
01:09:30,860 --> 01:09:31,340
direction.

1254
01:09:31,340 --> 01:09:33,020
I keep saying nozzle, muzzle.

1255
01:09:33,020 --> 01:09:33,980
It's the fireman in me.

1256
01:09:35,340 --> 01:09:37,660
The muzzle of the gun, the muzzle safety.

1257
01:09:37,660 --> 01:09:37,900
Yeah.

1258
01:09:38,700 --> 01:09:42,860
And, uh, you know, that, that motivation and that, that ownership of your training,

1259
01:09:42,860 --> 01:09:44,940
I think that does carry over in rehab too.

1260
01:09:44,940 --> 01:09:48,060
I've had some injuries, nothing even close to what you've been through.

1261
01:09:48,060 --> 01:09:51,900
But when you said the PT and the CrossFit, that was exactly me.

1262
01:09:51,900 --> 01:09:56,700
When I was off on Worms comp, it was CrossFit and PT and Cairo and anything

1263
01:09:56,700 --> 01:10:01,340
else you could do that would speed up the process and get you not, not only

1264
01:10:01,340 --> 01:10:06,940
better, but in, in my case, it was, it was, um, you know, injuries wasn't from,

1265
01:10:06,940 --> 01:10:10,860
from trauma like you had, um, you know, to fix the imbalances.

1266
01:10:10,860 --> 01:10:13,900
So you're even better when you return, you can see that that's exactly how

1267
01:10:13,900 --> 01:10:14,700
you were thinking too.

1268
01:10:14,700 --> 01:10:14,940
Yeah.

1269
01:10:14,940 --> 01:10:15,500
Yeah.

1270
01:10:15,500 --> 01:10:16,140
Oh yeah.

1271
01:10:16,140 --> 01:10:17,100
That that's exactly right.

1272
01:10:17,100 --> 01:10:19,820
And I had a, I had a lot of good people pushing me.

1273
01:10:19,820 --> 01:10:24,460
Um, my friend Mandy Thomas, who put us together, uh, she's a firefighter

1274
01:10:24,460 --> 01:10:25,660
out of St. John's County.

1275
01:10:26,060 --> 01:10:30,860
And I don't forget, uh, whenever she, uh, was in rehab, she came in and, uh,

1276
01:10:30,860 --> 01:10:32,380
she was still in fire school at the time.

1277
01:10:32,860 --> 01:10:37,100
And she came in and was talking to me, you know, pushing me to get back, you

1278
01:10:37,100 --> 01:10:38,620
know, doing the motivation thing.

1279
01:10:38,940 --> 01:10:41,740
And, but I was actually how fire school was going and she's like, Oh, I'm going

1280
01:10:41,740 --> 01:10:43,420
to ENT school right now and blah, blah, blah.

1281
01:10:43,420 --> 01:10:45,900
And I said, listen, you can pay attention to that.

1282
01:10:45,900 --> 01:10:49,180
I said, this is, this is probably the most important thing you're going to learn

1283
01:10:49,180 --> 01:10:52,940
is EMT and her, and her husband is a paramedic as well, and a firefighter

1284
01:10:52,940 --> 01:10:57,180
in Gainesville, uh, Brett, and they're just a fantastic, unbelievable couple.

1285
01:10:57,180 --> 01:11:01,180
And then Mandy and Brett came to my, uh, came to rehab almost every single day.

1286
01:11:01,180 --> 01:11:04,860
They did not almost, they did come every single day while I was in rehab.

1287
01:11:05,180 --> 01:11:06,940
And, uh, it was a huge motivation.

1288
01:11:06,940 --> 01:11:12,380
And then, uh, uh, black Finn did a, uh, so for my anniversary, I was actually

1289
01:11:12,380 --> 01:11:13,340
in firearms instructor school.

1290
01:11:13,340 --> 01:11:17,100
And, um, they actually did, but they did a workout where we, we raised some

1291
01:11:17,100 --> 01:11:18,700
money for the local sheriff's department.

1292
01:11:18,940 --> 01:11:22,300
And, um, when I was, when I was down, uh, my family started using the

1293
01:11:22,300 --> 01:11:24,700
hashtag hard to kill or a H2K.

1294
01:11:25,260 --> 01:11:29,340
Uh, so we had, uh, at which I didn't know, uh, we were, we were going to do a.

1295
01:11:29,740 --> 01:11:30,860
Hard to kill workout.

1296
01:11:31,340 --> 01:11:34,700
And so one of the local companies, our t-shirt company called stay the course,

1297
01:11:34,940 --> 01:11:38,460
uh, actually made t-shirts for us and donating them.

1298
01:11:38,780 --> 01:11:42,380
Uh, so everybody bought t-shirts and a hundred percent of the money.

1299
01:11:42,380 --> 01:11:43,980
Went to the clay County sheriff's department.

1300
01:11:44,300 --> 01:11:46,700
Uh, so we did the hard, we did the hard to kill workout.

1301
01:11:46,700 --> 01:11:51,100
So Mandy shows up at the workout and she does it in full bunker gear.

1302
01:11:51,420 --> 01:11:54,620
So this is the hard to kill workout is a mile run.

1303
01:11:55,420 --> 01:11:59,100
So the way Mark made it was you're just sailing through your day and then all

1304
01:11:59,100 --> 01:12:00,700
of a sudden you're served a crap sandwich.

1305
01:12:01,020 --> 01:12:04,620
So easy mile run, come back in.

1306
01:12:04,860 --> 01:12:05,340
Bam.

1307
01:12:05,340 --> 01:12:14,460
It was, uh, we did 75 burpee sandbag cleans at 75 pounds, 50 front squats

1308
01:12:14,460 --> 01:12:20,140
with a sandbag at 75 pounds, 75 wall balls with a 30 pound wall ball for

1309
01:12:20,140 --> 01:12:21,500
men, 20 pounds for girls.

1310
01:12:22,940 --> 01:12:30,620
Then back to 50, uh, sandbag, front squats, 75 burpee sandbag cleans again.

1311
01:12:30,620 --> 01:12:36,860
And then run a mile with the sandbag.

1312
01:12:36,860 --> 01:12:38,460
Uh, we did it as a partner.

1313
01:12:38,460 --> 01:12:39,740
There's no way I can do that.

1314
01:12:41,100 --> 01:12:44,540
It'd be hard for an elite athlete to do that workout.

1315
01:12:44,780 --> 01:12:49,100
So it's, so Mandy shows up, she knows the workout and she's in full bunker gear.

1316
01:12:50,460 --> 01:12:52,300
I'm like, Mandy, what are you doing?

1317
01:12:52,300 --> 01:12:53,740
It's so she's my partner.

1318
01:12:53,740 --> 01:12:55,900
This is in probably 90 plus degrees.

1319
01:12:55,900 --> 01:12:56,380
Oh yeah.

1320
01:12:56,380 --> 01:12:56,700
Oh yeah.

1321
01:12:56,700 --> 01:12:57,500
It was a Saturday morning.

1322
01:12:57,500 --> 01:12:59,900
We did actually on September 29th is when we did it.

1323
01:12:59,900 --> 01:13:03,900
And, uh, you know, it's a morning, you know, it's thousand percent humidity outside,

1324
01:13:03,900 --> 01:13:04,860
you know, one of those days.

1325
01:13:04,860 --> 01:13:08,300
So I'm like, well, if Mandy's going to do it in her bunker gear, I'm

1326
01:13:08,300 --> 01:13:09,420
going to put my kid on.

1327
01:13:09,420 --> 01:13:12,060
So I'll put my kid on and, uh, we did it.

1328
01:13:12,060 --> 01:13:14,220
Her and I did the workout together in like 78 minutes.

1329
01:13:14,780 --> 01:13:16,540
It was, it was, it was rough.

1330
01:13:16,540 --> 01:13:19,580
It was a long time grinding.

1331
01:13:19,580 --> 01:13:19,820
Yeah.

1332
01:13:19,820 --> 01:13:23,740
And we were grinding both doing it the hard time and she, uh, uh, I'm not sure if

1333
01:13:23,740 --> 01:13:27,340
you're a man or not, but she, uh, quitting is not in her vocabulary.

1334
01:13:27,340 --> 01:13:27,500
Yeah.

1335
01:13:27,500 --> 01:13:29,180
Well, I want to just make sure I say this.

1336
01:13:29,180 --> 01:13:30,220
Mandy, thank you so much.

1337
01:13:30,220 --> 01:13:31,420
Cause she reached out to me.

1338
01:13:31,420 --> 01:13:36,460
Um, I, you know, that's the sad thing is I didn't know your story well, because

1339
01:13:36,460 --> 01:13:41,740
every other day on my social media, I see another, you know, law enforcement

1340
01:13:41,740 --> 01:13:45,900
officer killed in the line of duty and then adding all the firefighters that we

1341
01:13:45,900 --> 01:13:50,460
lose and, you know, it's a constant cascade of, of, you know, tragic, tragic

1342
01:13:50,460 --> 01:13:50,940
losses.

1343
01:13:51,420 --> 01:13:55,820
So when she reached out and, uh, and told me a story, I mean, I was like,

1344
01:13:56,300 --> 01:13:57,340
you don't have to tell me twice.

1345
01:13:57,340 --> 01:13:58,140
This is incredible.

1346
01:13:58,140 --> 01:14:01,820
Um, but I want to say thank you so much because she was absolutely the one that

1347
01:14:01,820 --> 01:14:03,420
reached out and made this happen.

1348
01:14:03,420 --> 01:14:03,660
Yeah.

1349
01:14:03,660 --> 01:14:05,100
She's, she's a phenomenal person.

1350
01:14:05,100 --> 01:14:08,620
So her and I are actually, uh, uh, volunteering at a local high school as

1351
01:14:08,620 --> 01:14:08,860
well.

1352
01:14:08,860 --> 01:14:12,860
Uh, so I'm chairing the advisory board for criminal justice academy and I

1353
01:14:12,860 --> 01:14:17,820
brought Mandy in, uh, to help out because, uh, uh, I won't brag on Mandy a little

1354
01:14:17,820 --> 01:14:23,740
bit, fluent in Russian bachelor's degree in Russian has a, uh, uh, degree in

1355
01:14:23,740 --> 01:14:30,540
psychology, mom firefighter and still, uh, able to come volunteer at the high

1356
01:14:30,540 --> 01:14:30,780
school.

1357
01:14:30,780 --> 01:14:34,540
And I think that having Mandy there for these young girls to have as a role

1358
01:14:34,540 --> 01:14:36,140
model, I think it's just fantastic.

1359
01:14:36,140 --> 01:14:39,980
And I'm just so glad to have her and Brett, uh, as my friends.

1360
01:14:40,060 --> 01:14:43,020
But Drew, according to some people, women have no place in the fire.

1361
01:14:45,020 --> 01:14:46,460
Crossfire, Florida, Russia.

1362
01:14:46,460 --> 01:14:49,900
That's not my battle, but I'm telling you, she's tough and, uh, I'll put her

1363
01:14:49,900 --> 01:14:51,900
against most men on most days.

1364
01:14:51,900 --> 01:14:52,540
Amen to that.

1365
01:14:52,540 --> 01:14:54,060
That's my stance too.

1366
01:14:54,060 --> 01:14:54,460
Yeah.

1367
01:14:54,460 --> 01:14:55,740
She's, she's pretty amazing.

1368
01:14:56,060 --> 01:15:00,700
So, uh, yeah, it's been, uh, she's been a big, big part.

1369
01:15:00,700 --> 01:15:05,020
And then for us to be able to do this workout together, uh, was really, uh, was

1370
01:15:05,020 --> 01:15:05,660
really awesome.

1371
01:15:05,980 --> 01:15:08,140
So she was, uh, she, she pushed me the whole way.

1372
01:15:08,140 --> 01:15:10,060
I think I only almost passed out twice.

1373
01:15:10,460 --> 01:15:15,100
So it actually worked out really well, but, uh, uh, I don't know if we'll do it

1374
01:15:15,100 --> 01:15:18,460
again, but if we do, uh, um, maybe you and I should do it sometime.

1375
01:15:18,460 --> 01:15:20,860
I was going to say, let me know if you do it again, I'll come up and do it too.

1376
01:15:20,860 --> 01:15:21,100
Yeah.

1377
01:15:21,100 --> 01:15:24,460
I've done Murph in my gear before and it was awful.

1378
01:15:24,460 --> 01:15:24,620
Yeah.

1379
01:15:24,620 --> 01:15:25,100
Awful.

1380
01:15:25,100 --> 01:15:26,460
That was mid-midsummer.

1381
01:15:26,460 --> 01:15:30,220
Um, one more person I want to make, I make sure we talk about as well.

1382
01:15:30,220 --> 01:15:35,500
So Mark's brother, Chris, Reedy Creek, we lost a fireman a few years ago, Brian

1383
01:15:35,500 --> 01:15:40,540
Prince, and, um, Chris came down away from Clay County, brought a check from

1384
01:15:40,540 --> 01:15:45,900
Clay County's union, the benevolent, um, to donate to, to Brian's family where,

1385
01:15:45,900 --> 01:15:47,340
where we're doing the fundraiser for.

1386
01:15:47,340 --> 01:15:50,460
And this was all the way down, like way south of Orlando and Pope County,

1387
01:15:50,460 --> 01:15:51,020
where we did it.

1388
01:15:51,660 --> 01:15:55,900
So again, that to me, showed me what incredible brotherhood they do have

1389
01:15:55,900 --> 01:16:00,620
there to come several counties over just to show up and, and be present on that

1390
01:16:00,620 --> 01:16:01,980
and, and, you know, make a statement.

1391
01:16:01,980 --> 01:16:04,940
So clearly, Clay County is doing something very, very right.

1392
01:16:04,940 --> 01:16:08,940
And then, and then the Hoffman family, they're just, um, they're such wonderful

1393
01:16:08,940 --> 01:16:12,220
people that reach out, they do so much good for us in the gym.

1394
01:16:12,220 --> 01:16:15,900
Um, I just can't tell you how much I'm proud of them.

1395
01:16:15,900 --> 01:16:19,420
I just can't tell you how much I appreciate having them.

1396
01:16:19,420 --> 01:16:25,740
Um, HM and Melody was, uh, Mark and Chris's parents are just, uh, the

1397
01:16:25,740 --> 01:16:28,940
support they show, there's family bond they have is unbelievable.

1398
01:16:28,940 --> 01:16:31,660
And it's something we should, it's something that everybody should strive

1399
01:16:31,660 --> 01:16:32,380
to be like.

1400
01:16:32,380 --> 01:16:33,420
Yeah, you know what?

1401
01:16:33,420 --> 01:16:33,900
I've, I've forgotten.

1402
01:16:33,900 --> 01:16:37,580
I think, I believe that they actually did the workout at the blackfin as well.

1403
01:16:37,580 --> 01:16:38,540
I'm almost certain they did.

1404
01:16:38,540 --> 01:16:41,500
And I think they raised money there on top of what, what Chris brought down

1405
01:16:41,500 --> 01:16:42,460
from the fire department.

1406
01:16:42,460 --> 01:16:45,500
So I think they, they both sides, you know, contributed.

1407
01:16:45,500 --> 01:16:47,500
So thank you to everyone for that.

1408
01:16:47,500 --> 01:16:47,820
Yeah.

1409
01:16:47,820 --> 01:16:51,820
And I also like to just mention Amanda, my wife, uh, in this whole thing.

1410
01:16:51,820 --> 01:16:56,140
Uh, the reason why my story didn't make it, uh, into mainstream media, like

1411
01:16:56,140 --> 01:17:00,380
it normally, any one of these shootings, uh, they generally make it into the,

1412
01:17:00,380 --> 01:17:01,420
the mainstream media.

1413
01:17:01,420 --> 01:17:05,020
And the reason why mine didn't is because Amanda didn't want it.

1414
01:17:05,020 --> 01:17:07,340
Um, she didn't want the notoriety.

1415
01:17:07,340 --> 01:17:12,460
She didn't want, she wanted our privacy was number one and, uh, she didn't want

1416
01:17:12,460 --> 01:17:16,220
people crawling around the neighborhood, you know, looking for boohoo stories.

1417
01:17:16,220 --> 01:17:18,700
And I think she did a phenomenal job with that.

1418
01:17:18,700 --> 01:17:23,580
Um, the local clay county government was able to take our, our names off the

1419
01:17:23,580 --> 01:17:25,660
property roles and they, they never found us.

1420
01:17:25,660 --> 01:17:26,540
They never offended.

1421
01:17:26,540 --> 01:17:28,940
If they knew who I was, they never, they never put it out.

1422
01:17:28,940 --> 01:17:31,180
I can find you on the bloody GPS this morning.

1423
01:17:32,540 --> 01:17:32,780
Yeah.

1424
01:17:32,780 --> 01:17:33,020
Yeah.

1425
01:17:33,020 --> 01:17:34,540
So she, yeah.

1426
01:17:34,540 --> 01:17:37,420
So she, uh, she, she did a great job.

1427
01:17:37,420 --> 01:17:41,660
Uh, another part of the story that I haven't told you yet, and I'll circle back

1428
01:17:41,660 --> 01:17:45,180
to when I was actually laying on the ground is, uh, and maybe this is something

1429
01:17:45,980 --> 01:17:49,180
that, that especially first responders or somebody that may be listening to this

1430
01:17:49,180 --> 01:17:50,860
and something catastrophic happens.

1431
01:17:50,860 --> 01:17:53,740
I want you to think about is spousal notification.

1432
01:17:54,540 --> 01:17:57,420
To me, this is, this is a huge part of this story.

1433
01:17:58,300 --> 01:18:04,620
So in my, in my agency, we're very Navy centric, uh, agency or at least my office is,

1434
01:18:04,620 --> 01:18:06,220
I can say the agency, just my office.

1435
01:18:07,020 --> 01:18:09,580
And usually if something happens, the boss gets dressed up, goes,

1436
01:18:09,580 --> 01:18:11,980
notifies the spouse in person.

1437
01:18:11,980 --> 01:18:16,220
Well, it just, when, when the shooting happened and the nine one one call went out,

1438
01:18:16,220 --> 01:18:23,180
obviously all the new stations put it out in, uh, put it out as a news alert, you

1439
01:18:23,180 --> 01:18:25,740
know, federal agent shot Oakleaf publics the whole thing.

1440
01:18:25,740 --> 01:18:28,940
And so Amanda was at, uh, she works for Chili's and she was at one of her,

1441
01:18:28,940 --> 01:18:31,100
one of her restaurants over in Mandarin.

1442
01:18:31,100 --> 01:18:34,220
And she knew I was in publics cause I'd called her and told her I was going.

1443
01:18:34,220 --> 01:18:35,980
And so she gets an alert on her phone.

1444
01:18:35,980 --> 01:18:39,180
It says federal agent shot Oakleaf publics.

1445
01:18:39,180 --> 01:18:40,540
Well, how do you want to hear that?

1446
01:18:40,540 --> 01:18:40,940
No.

1447
01:18:40,940 --> 01:18:41,900
So she knew it was me.

1448
01:18:41,900 --> 01:18:45,340
She, she, she, she, or she, at least she, she was pretty sure it was me.

1449
01:18:45,820 --> 01:18:51,900
So, um, the, so our office did what we normally would do was boss gets

1450
01:18:51,900 --> 01:18:52,940
dressed up, goes to the house.

1451
01:18:52,940 --> 01:18:53,580
Amanda's not here.

1452
01:18:54,300 --> 01:18:56,220
You know, they don't know where she, they don't want to call her.

1453
01:18:56,220 --> 01:18:57,420
They want to notify her in person.

1454
01:18:57,420 --> 01:19:02,460
Well, she had already left and she was in such a state of shock that she just

1455
01:19:02,460 --> 01:19:04,140
started driving around Jacksonville.

1456
01:19:04,140 --> 01:19:06,940
And she didn't even come towards the hospital that I was in.

1457
01:19:06,940 --> 01:19:09,100
She ended up in a, at a Burger King parking lot.

1458
01:19:09,100 --> 01:19:11,340
Whenever somebody finally called her and said, where are you?

1459
01:19:11,340 --> 01:19:12,460
She's like, I don't know.

1460
01:19:13,260 --> 01:19:15,740
So they said, just pull over and tell us what's around you.

1461
01:19:15,740 --> 01:19:18,620
And then finally our guys went there and picked her up and brought her to the

1462
01:19:18,620 --> 01:19:19,260
hospital.

1463
01:19:19,260 --> 01:19:23,420
So if it's some somewhere where you can't control the information, you

1464
01:19:23,420 --> 01:19:27,020
know, maybe have a plan, you know, with your chain of command and how you want

1465
01:19:27,020 --> 01:19:31,500
your spouse or spouse significant other notified in case of emergency.

1466
01:19:31,500 --> 01:19:34,300
I, to me, that's a, that's a, that's a huge deal.

1467
01:19:34,300 --> 01:19:36,220
And it's a huge learning point for us.

1468
01:19:36,940 --> 01:19:42,380
And then I'll also do a plug for, for Chili's that she works for.

1469
01:19:42,380 --> 01:19:47,340
So while I was in the hospital, every day Chili's and also Mission

1470
01:19:47,340 --> 01:19:51,820
Barbecue showed up to bring food for however many people was there.

1471
01:19:51,980 --> 01:19:52,940
They were getting fed.

1472
01:19:53,580 --> 01:19:56,780
So the Mission Barbecue here in Orange Park and then Chili's in Orange Park

1473
01:19:57,100 --> 01:19:59,820
showed up with food every single day.

1474
01:19:59,820 --> 01:20:02,380
Chili's been an outstanding organization.

1475
01:20:02,380 --> 01:20:07,740
They, they, they gave Amanda all the time off that she needed with pay to, to,

1476
01:20:07,740 --> 01:20:10,380
to take care of me and, and to get me better.

1477
01:20:10,380 --> 01:20:15,340
And I thought that was, that was phenomenal of them to do that and take

1478
01:20:15,340 --> 01:20:16,540
care of their employees like that.

1479
01:20:16,540 --> 01:20:20,780
It's, it's little known how, how well this, this company treats their

1480
01:20:20,780 --> 01:20:23,100
employees, but, but they do a fantastic job.

1481
01:20:23,180 --> 01:20:23,660
Yeah.

1482
01:20:23,660 --> 01:20:25,180
And again, that's, that's humanity.

1483
01:20:25,180 --> 01:20:25,660
Yes.

1484
01:20:25,660 --> 01:20:26,620
It's the side that we want to hear.

1485
01:20:26,620 --> 01:20:29,580
We know that businesses, you know, they're not going to be able to

1486
01:20:29,580 --> 01:20:30,540
just make money.

1487
01:20:30,540 --> 01:20:35,340
We know there's some that are not so moral, but I love hearing that.

1488
01:20:35,340 --> 01:20:37,100
I think Publix have you've talked about a lot as well.

1489
01:20:37,100 --> 01:20:41,020
I saw a video of them sending trucks and trucks and trucks of supplies up

1490
01:20:41,020 --> 01:20:42,700
north for the hurricane victims.

1491
01:20:42,700 --> 01:20:42,940
Yeah.

1492
01:20:42,940 --> 01:20:45,100
And people will ask me, like, well, you're going to sue Publix?

1493
01:20:45,580 --> 01:20:46,700
No, I'm not suing Publix.

1494
01:20:46,700 --> 01:20:47,580
It's not Publix fault.

1495
01:20:47,580 --> 01:20:48,140
I got shot.

1496
01:20:48,140 --> 01:20:51,180
And I mean, why would I even, why would I even think of that?

1497
01:20:51,180 --> 01:20:54,380
They've been, you know, every time I walk into, so I went to Publix the day

1498
01:20:54,380 --> 01:20:57,900
after I got out of the hospital, that was the first place I went was to

1499
01:20:57,900 --> 01:20:59,980
this Oakleaf Publix where I got shot.

1500
01:20:59,980 --> 01:21:05,260
And it just so happened, just, I don't know how it happened, but I walked in

1501
01:21:05,260 --> 01:21:08,860
and then, because we didn't tell anybody we were going there and the fire station,

1502
01:21:08,860 --> 01:21:09,900
26 guys were there.

1503
01:21:09,900 --> 01:21:13,020
They were, as soon as I walked in the door, it was the same shift, the

1504
01:21:13,020 --> 01:21:16,860
Charlie shift, same one, same guys, same, I hobbled up to them.

1505
01:21:16,860 --> 01:21:23,260
I had a, I had a cane and, you know, I had my, my wound vac on and everything.

1506
01:21:23,260 --> 01:21:24,540
And I'm like, Hey, I'm Drew.

1507
01:21:24,540 --> 01:21:26,620
I'm the guy you saved out here at a parking lot.

1508
01:21:26,620 --> 01:21:30,300
And they just, they all gave me big hugs and then their bells went off and they

1509
01:21:30,300 --> 01:21:31,500
had to run out and could do something else.

1510
01:21:31,500 --> 01:21:33,340
So I didn't even get a chance to get a picture with them.

1511
01:21:33,340 --> 01:21:38,780
But yeah, they reminded me, I saw on, on Facebook, someone put a picture of,

1512
01:21:38,780 --> 01:21:40,460
I guess an undercover cop.

1513
01:21:40,460 --> 01:21:43,180
It was like a joke, but he had a t-shirt that said, not a cop.

1514
01:21:43,180 --> 01:21:44,300
It's definitely not a cop.

1515
01:21:46,380 --> 01:21:47,660
Yeah. That's all that too.

1516
01:21:47,660 --> 01:21:54,060
Yeah. So anyway, it's just been, the, the, the act of getting shot was terrible.

1517
01:21:54,060 --> 01:21:58,860
It was awful pain, awful experience, but man, everything I've learned and just,

1518
01:21:59,660 --> 01:22:05,740
just how much, how many good people there are on this planet has been such a,

1519
01:22:05,740 --> 01:22:08,460
that part of it has been such a wonderful experience.

1520
01:22:08,460 --> 01:22:13,100
And again, to be able to work for Air Marine who has been, they, they have been

1521
01:22:13,100 --> 01:22:16,780
phenomenal to me and my family through the entire process.

1522
01:22:17,420 --> 01:22:19,020
I can't thank them enough.

1523
01:22:20,300 --> 01:22:22,620
Along with all of customs and border protection.

1524
01:22:22,620 --> 01:22:25,020
I mean, they sent me cards from all around the country.

1525
01:22:25,020 --> 01:22:28,140
I mean, when I was recovering and I was able to sit down and start reading the

1526
01:22:28,140 --> 01:22:32,220
cards, there was some stuff I can't mention, but they were, they were, they

1527
01:22:32,220 --> 01:22:33,100
were some pretty funny stuff.

1528
01:22:33,100 --> 01:22:33,820
This is an R-rated show.

1529
01:22:33,820 --> 01:22:34,940
You can mention whatever you want.

1530
01:22:35,500 --> 01:22:36,620
Yeah, but not to my agency.

1531
01:22:38,380 --> 01:22:40,940
So no, they, they were very, they were very good.

1532
01:22:40,940 --> 01:22:41,500
Yeah.

1533
01:22:41,500 --> 01:22:45,340
Well, and that's, that's what I love hearing because, you know, part, some of

1534
01:22:45,340 --> 01:22:48,380
the things that we talk about in this are where the ball is dropped in some

1535
01:22:48,380 --> 01:22:52,220
agencies, you know, and, and trying to learn, not, not bitch and complain,

1536
01:22:52,220 --> 01:22:53,180
but say, here's the problem.

1537
01:22:53,180 --> 01:22:54,060
Here's the solution.

1538
01:22:54,060 --> 01:22:57,340
You know, here's maybe where we're forgetting the human elements in this

1539
01:22:57,340 --> 01:23:01,340
particular department, you know, to, to recapture that, but it's awesome

1540
01:23:01,340 --> 01:23:06,220
hearing, you know, your department seems like they did everything so well.

1541
01:23:06,220 --> 01:23:07,340
They did everything right.

1542
01:23:07,340 --> 01:23:13,100
So the, even right after I came out of the coma, Eddie Young is our guy,

1543
01:23:13,100 --> 01:23:15,420
who's our executive commissioner.

1544
01:23:15,900 --> 01:23:18,780
And so he came out and he came down and sat next to me.

1545
01:23:18,780 --> 01:23:22,620
The number one guy flew down from DC to sit next to me and say, Hey, we're

1546
01:23:22,620 --> 01:23:24,300
here for you and we're going to be here for you.

1547
01:23:24,620 --> 01:23:27,820
And my dad even asked him point blank and said, all right, in two weeks,

1548
01:23:27,820 --> 01:23:28,780
are you going to care about him?

1549
01:23:29,020 --> 01:23:31,900
He goes, we're going to be, we're there with them forever.

1550
01:23:32,220 --> 01:23:35,260
And, and, and I'll be damned if they haven't been, they have lived up to

1551
01:23:35,260 --> 01:23:35,820
their word.

1552
01:23:36,380 --> 01:23:40,380
He did that once I got home, the commissioner of customs, uh, uh, Kevin

1553
01:23:40,380 --> 01:23:44,380
McAleenan called me, uh, and he's like, Hey, just like, I just want to hear

1554
01:23:44,380 --> 01:23:44,780
your voice.

1555
01:23:44,780 --> 01:23:46,060
I just want to know you're okay.

1556
01:23:46,060 --> 01:23:51,100
Uh, so they, and they brought me to DC, uh, last week for a, an award called

1557
01:23:51,100 --> 01:23:52,700
the Invictus award or unconquerable.

1558
01:23:52,700 --> 01:23:55,580
So they actually flew me and Amanda up there and got to spend some time with

1559
01:23:55,580 --> 01:23:59,580
the commissioner and our leadership in headquarters and the rest of my family

1560
01:23:59,580 --> 01:24:00,300
came up as well.

1561
01:24:00,700 --> 01:24:03,100
And it was, it was, they just rolled out the red carpet for them.

1562
01:24:03,100 --> 01:24:06,540
And, and for me, for them just to be able to treat my family well, because

1563
01:24:06,540 --> 01:24:09,180
I'd, I'd been up there since and they've, they've been good to me, but being good

1564
01:24:09,180 --> 01:24:11,340
to my family was, was phenomenal.

1565
01:24:11,340 --> 01:24:14,940
And to be able to be up there with the commissioner, uh, uh, the governor

1566
01:24:14,940 --> 01:24:18,540
called, uh, Rick Scott called while I was in the hospital, talked to Amanda.

1567
01:24:18,780 --> 01:24:22,460
And then once I came out the coma, when I was in the trauma ICU, we called him

1568
01:24:22,460 --> 01:24:24,220
back and I talked to him on the phone for a while.

1569
01:24:24,220 --> 01:24:28,620
So it's just been an incredible experience with, with people, people

1570
01:24:28,620 --> 01:24:32,700
care about us, you know, and it doesn't get out as much as it should, but I'm

1571
01:24:32,700 --> 01:24:34,620
telling you that there's, there's a lot of good out there.

1572
01:24:34,940 --> 01:24:35,260
Yeah.

1573
01:24:35,260 --> 01:24:39,340
And I think it's to highlight something that they did very right, which I hear,

1574
01:24:40,220 --> 01:24:44,700
I've had a lot of conversations, people with the widows that, that, uh,

1575
01:24:44,700 --> 01:24:48,940
you know, everyone rallies around for the brother, sister that's fighting for

1576
01:24:48,940 --> 01:24:49,580
their life.

1577
01:24:49,900 --> 01:24:55,020
And then a lot of these terminal diseases, when they passed the widows say,

1578
01:24:55,020 --> 01:24:58,220
you know, like you were saying a month, two months, like your dad was pointing

1579
01:24:58,220 --> 01:24:59,420
out, are you still going to be here?

1580
01:24:59,580 --> 01:25:03,340
It's so important for us, whether it's someone injured, whether it's the family

1581
01:25:03,340 --> 01:25:07,420
of someone has passed away to keep checking up on them because they have all

1582
01:25:07,420 --> 01:25:12,140
this support and then in a bad scenario, they don't hear, and it's not anyone

1583
01:25:12,140 --> 01:25:16,060
being malicious. This is us not taking the time to go, I wonder if they're okay.

1584
01:25:16,060 --> 01:25:17,100
And just wrenching out them.

1585
01:25:18,380 --> 01:25:21,500
Yeah. And it's, uh, I mean that, that happens with us. I mean, they, they,

1586
01:25:21,500 --> 01:25:25,340
they still, they mean, are you, are you good? Are you okay? You know, if I, if I

1587
01:25:25,340 --> 01:25:29,100
was doing something else, if I happen to talk to somebody in DC or just at any

1588
01:25:29,100 --> 01:25:31,980
other office, we're like, Hey, how are you doing? How's your wife doing? How's

1589
01:25:31,980 --> 01:25:35,580
your family doing? You guys doing all right? How are you recovering? So, and

1590
01:25:35,580 --> 01:25:40,940
then, uh, and then air Marine has taken, um, taken the initiative to hire a, uh,

1591
01:25:40,940 --> 01:25:46,220
a PTSD doc to, for us to use. And, and that's, uh, I think it's, I think that's

1592
01:25:46,220 --> 01:25:51,180
huge to have that type of outlet that we can, that we can reach out to and, and,

1593
01:25:51,180 --> 01:25:55,660
and talk to someone if we need it. And it's, it's no questions asked. If you

1594
01:25:55,660 --> 01:25:59,260
need it, you got it. Yeah. Yeah. And again, so they hired them. So obviously

1595
01:25:59,260 --> 01:26:02,780
they're very familiar with you guys, your career. Right. So there's no

1596
01:26:02,780 --> 01:26:06,460
surprises when you're showing up. Right. And it's a, and she, uh, and she

1597
01:26:06,460 --> 01:26:11,900
specializes in first responder, uh, PTSD as well. Yeah. Sounds like we could

1598
01:26:11,900 --> 01:26:16,540
learn a lot from your agency. They do. They do. Uh, uh, they get this right.

1599
01:26:16,540 --> 01:26:19,820
There's no doubt about it. They're very concerned about us and her and her and

1600
01:26:19,820 --> 01:26:23,980
they recognize that mental health is a, is a huge part of it. And, uh, and I, I,

1601
01:26:23,980 --> 01:26:28,860
I'm telling you, man, I James, I feel great. I really do. I feel great. Um, I

1602
01:26:28,860 --> 01:26:32,700
mean, I've still got a little bit of pain, but mentally I feel fantastic. I'm

1603
01:26:32,700 --> 01:26:36,540
very much at peace with what happened. Uh, it happened. There's nothing I can do

1604
01:26:36,540 --> 01:26:39,900
to change it. I didn't want it to happen, but, uh, it's, you know, we've got to

1605
01:26:39,900 --> 01:26:42,700
move forward. That's the only thing I can do. I can't sit there and worry

1606
01:26:42,700 --> 01:26:46,940
about that. No, no. I got it. I got it. I got to keep going, keep going and keep

1607
01:26:46,940 --> 01:26:50,860
moving forward. Yeah. And that's what's, uh, you know, it's an honor to sit

1608
01:26:50,860 --> 01:26:54,460
across from you and talk to some of the other people, Rob Jones and some of these

1609
01:26:54,460 --> 01:26:58,860
people that have been through trauma, lost limbs, um, or, you know, in your

1610
01:26:58,860 --> 01:27:03,020
case, obviously, you know, the trauma that you had internally and then just be

1611
01:27:03,020 --> 01:27:06,140
like, all right, this is, this has happened and then we'll talk about it in a

1612
01:27:06,140 --> 01:27:09,580
minute, but now how I'm going to turn this into a project that's going to do

1613
01:27:09,580 --> 01:27:12,940
even more good. But I want to discuss that one more thing that before I forget,

1614
01:27:12,940 --> 01:27:17,980
you mentioned, um, you know, the star training, clearly you fell back on your

1615
01:27:17,980 --> 01:27:21,340
level of training, which is something we talk about a lot, just kind of paint

1616
01:27:21,340 --> 01:27:24,940
the picture of what, what was your training like? How, how did you prepare?

1617
01:27:24,940 --> 01:27:29,980
You know, were you, were you well versed in training for the worst case scenario?

1618
01:27:29,980 --> 01:27:36,780
I would say yes. Uh, I was, I was well prepared. Um, I was mentally prepared.

1619
01:27:36,780 --> 01:27:40,380
Something may happen to me at some point. I realized not all cops are not

1620
01:27:40,380 --> 01:27:43,580
everybody, you know, there's a lot of this can never happen to me and

1621
01:27:43,580 --> 01:27:47,500
complacency and that type of thing. I was aware that this could happen to me. I

1622
01:27:47,500 --> 01:27:52,460
just didn't, I didn't think it would, but it did. Uh, so when we do our training

1623
01:27:52,460 --> 01:27:56,940
out in Oklahoma city, first day is medical training. And that's what they

1624
01:27:56,940 --> 01:28:00,620
do is they put us in the medical scenarios and, and with the tourniquets

1625
01:28:00,620 --> 01:28:03,740
and, you know, evacuating people out there because we're at aviation. So we,

1626
01:28:03,740 --> 01:28:06,860
you know, airplanes on fire, you got to evacuate people out of it, or you just

1627
01:28:06,860 --> 01:28:09,900
crashed a helicopter or something like that. And then you have, or you walk up

1628
01:28:09,900 --> 01:28:12,460
on somebody and they have these catastrophic injuries. And so they, they

1629
01:28:12,460 --> 01:28:15,580
put us through this training of how to stop blood, how to put a tourniquet on,

1630
01:28:15,580 --> 01:28:21,020
how to do basic stuff until the professionals can arrive. And, uh, and

1631
01:28:21,020 --> 01:28:24,300
that's a huge part of it. And that's just, that's one day of the course, the

1632
01:28:24,300 --> 01:28:28,940
medical part. Uh, we also do water survival. Uh, we do active shooter

1633
01:28:28,940 --> 01:28:32,940
training while we're there. We do some legal training. So that, that's all one

1634
01:28:32,940 --> 01:28:37,020
part of course, but get into the, uh, we do land survival as well. And then to

1635
01:28:37,020 --> 01:28:41,660
do, uh, the, but this part, I, it's near and dear to my heart, obviously, the,

1636
01:28:41,660 --> 01:28:45,820
the medical part, and then the, the preaching, the will to survive, you've

1637
01:28:45,820 --> 01:28:50,780
got to have that will to survive. To me, that's just, that's huge. And, uh,

1638
01:28:50,780 --> 01:28:53,900
that's huge. Cause if you think, I guarantee you, if I thought I was going

1639
01:28:53,900 --> 01:28:56,940
to die in that parking lot, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now.

1640
01:28:56,940 --> 01:28:59,980
There's no question. If I, if I, if I would have just rolled over and said,

1641
01:29:00,940 --> 01:29:05,180
I'm dead. Yeah. Yeah. Well, also what, what, you know, rang true to me when

1642
01:29:05,180 --> 01:29:09,900
you were telling that story is the whole time you just been hit, you were lying

1643
01:29:09,900 --> 01:29:14,940
there, you didn't go into victim mode. You were still in, let me engage the

1644
01:29:14,940 --> 01:29:19,580
target or does he have another person, you know, and that, that again, if, if

1645
01:29:19,580 --> 01:29:23,500
you hadn't trained the way you train, you would have, you know, just succumb

1646
01:29:23,500 --> 01:29:26,700
right there. And what if he had been the guy walking over, you would have taken

1647
01:29:26,700 --> 01:29:29,420
him out before he, you know, when he came around that truck. And I think that

1648
01:29:29,980 --> 01:29:34,060
is such a powerful lesson for all of us listening is if you're complacent,

1649
01:29:34,060 --> 01:29:37,820
that's ironic. I just put a post on this today on social media. When the shit

1650
01:29:37,820 --> 01:29:41,660
hits the fan, there's no hiding then. And it's too late. Right. Yeah. Cause

1651
01:29:41,660 --> 01:29:46,140
you know, whenever it hit the fan for me, uh, I was in the middle of a

1652
01:29:46,140 --> 01:29:48,860
parking lot. I couldn't go to concealment. I couldn't go to cover.

1653
01:29:48,860 --> 01:29:51,500
There was no, there was, there was nothing there. I mean, it was, it was

1654
01:29:51,500 --> 01:29:55,740
just, it was, it was instantaneous. Um, I've had a lot of people ask me about,

1655
01:29:56,460 --> 01:29:59,020
you know, why do you put a cover shirt on that type of thing? And again, it's

1656
01:29:59,020 --> 01:30:02,700
just, I mean, I'm in a nice area of Jacksonville and this is very, very

1657
01:30:02,700 --> 01:30:07,340
poor law enforcement, very pro military, you know, it just never even, it just

1658
01:30:07,340 --> 01:30:10,380
never even dawned on me to do it. I mean, it's just, we just don't have these

1659
01:30:10,380 --> 01:30:14,540
types of issues that happen here. And so I just didn't, so I just didn't think

1660
01:30:14,540 --> 01:30:19,740
about it. And then I'll get asked about the vest, uh, not having a vest on. And

1661
01:30:19,740 --> 01:30:24,220
my response to that is, is obviously we should wear our vests. I'm not saying we

1662
01:30:24,220 --> 01:30:27,420
should never wear a vest. We should wear a vest. Uh, the, again, this was an

1663
01:30:27,420 --> 01:30:33,260
administrative function that I was doing. Um, but here's the way I see it is that

1664
01:30:33,260 --> 01:30:37,180
had I had my vest on, so it didn't hit me anywhere. My vest covered for one.

1665
01:30:37,900 --> 01:30:42,700
Um, and let's say the bullet may have called the vest here on my upper right

1666
01:30:42,700 --> 01:30:46,460
side, but you know, if that would happen, what if the bullet would have tumbled?

1667
01:30:46,460 --> 01:30:49,740
You know, what if it went through my lungs and my heart, you know, that type

1668
01:30:49,740 --> 01:30:53,340
of thing. So I kind of think about that. And then, uh, the other thing is a

1669
01:30:53,340 --> 01:30:56,300
shoulder holster. I haven't wore a shoulder holster since that day and I'll

1670
01:30:56,300 --> 01:31:00,220
never wear one again. Um, if I'd had a waist rig on and I thought about that as

1671
01:31:00,220 --> 01:31:04,220
well, but then you think about, you know, what if that first bullet would have

1672
01:31:04,220 --> 01:31:07,100
hit my breakthrough artery? What if I would have missed shooting him? Cause I

1673
01:31:07,100 --> 01:31:10,460
think I could have got the gun out. Yeah. What if I'd have missed him and hit the

1674
01:31:10,460 --> 01:31:13,660
guy sitting in his van on the other side of the parking lot with a 40 caliber

1675
01:31:13,660 --> 01:31:18,220
hollow point, you know? So the way I kind of see this is this, this worked out the

1676
01:31:18,220 --> 01:31:25,340
way it was supposed to the bad guys dead. I'm here. Uh, nobody else got hurt.

1677
01:31:25,340 --> 01:31:29,660
Um, I, you know, I've got some, I've got some scarring. I got a little bit of

1678
01:31:29,660 --> 01:31:33,900
pain, but you know, big deal. Who cares? I'm, I'm, I'm going forward with life.

1679
01:31:33,900 --> 01:31:37,660
So this thing worked. He was, he was going to kill a cop that day and he was

1680
01:31:37,660 --> 01:31:41,580
unable to kill a state trooper. You know, he may, he may have walked up on the guy

1681
01:31:41,580 --> 01:31:45,580
doing paperwork and just like Jesse Hartnett was shot and put, and put

1682
01:31:45,580 --> 01:31:48,620
bullets through a window, which I think is what he would have done. You know, so

1683
01:31:48,620 --> 01:31:53,180
he didn't get a, he didn't get a Florida highway patrol guy. He didn't get a, uh,

1684
01:31:53,180 --> 01:31:55,820
Clay County Sheriff's department. He didn't, you know, he did all these other

1685
01:31:55,820 --> 01:32:00,220
ones are Jacksonville Sheriff's office. He did, he got me, you know, he got me and,

1686
01:32:00,220 --> 01:32:03,980
uh, and I was able to take it. I was able to take the five and, uh, if I got to

1687
01:32:03,980 --> 01:32:08,940
take five again for my brothers, I will, I don't want to, it sucked, but I'll

1688
01:32:08,940 --> 01:32:12,780
certainly do it. Um, it's not an experience I ever want to have again, but

1689
01:32:12,780 --> 01:32:16,460
if it comes to protecting them, then that's what I got to do. Yeah. And I

1690
01:32:16,460 --> 01:32:19,980
know there's funny people talk about, you know, wearing a vest, not, not showing

1691
01:32:19,980 --> 01:32:24,300
that you're, uh, law enforcement. That's the wrong focus. The focus is how the

1692
01:32:24,300 --> 01:32:28,940
hell do we stop these innocent little toddlers that giggle around and chase

1693
01:32:28,940 --> 01:32:31,900
balls around a garden, turning into these shit bag gang bangers. That's what

1694
01:32:31,900 --> 01:32:35,180
we've got to fix. That's, that's exactly right. I think you're right on there.

1695
01:32:35,180 --> 01:32:38,700
And part of this, people ask me, you know, what have you changed? I said,

1696
01:32:38,700 --> 01:32:42,860
I haven't changed anything. Uh, he's not changing me. He's just not, it's just

1697
01:32:42,860 --> 01:32:47,100
not going to change me. I'm going to be the same guy that I was. Um, it's just

1698
01:32:47,100 --> 01:32:51,340
going to be the way it is. The way I feel about it is if I, if I change, he

1699
01:32:51,340 --> 01:32:57,180
wins and I'm not letting him win. Um, I think going, going forward, you know,

1700
01:32:57,180 --> 01:33:02,700
we've got to, we've got to figure out how to get kids not to want to kill cops.

1701
01:33:02,700 --> 01:33:06,140
That's what we thought that that's what we've got to do is figure that out.

1702
01:33:06,140 --> 01:33:09,020
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I was talking to somebody that I think it was in an

1703
01:33:09,020 --> 01:33:15,180
interview. Um, I grew up loving hip hop, you know, and rap, but it's kind of

1704
01:33:15,180 --> 01:33:20,380
ironic that the one guy that sang fuck the police now plays a policeman on TV

1705
01:33:20,380 --> 01:33:25,980
and movies guy that sang cop killer plays a policeman on TV. So, you know, you,

1706
01:33:25,980 --> 01:33:31,500
you, if you, if you're going to allow people to, to promote that and then, you

1707
01:33:31,500 --> 01:33:35,340
know, obviously do the polar opposite when it comes to being offered money and

1708
01:33:35,340 --> 01:33:39,500
realizing that's just empty rhetoric anyway, that's the mentality we need to

1709
01:33:39,500 --> 01:33:42,700
change the video games. I had Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman on twice now.

1710
01:33:43,020 --> 01:33:47,100
Absolutely right. You know, grand theft or you're running around murdering police

1711
01:33:47,100 --> 01:33:50,940
officers and prostitutes. You know, these horror movies that talk about that is a

1712
01:33:50,940 --> 01:33:56,460
part. If we're entertained by a cabin full of teenagers being murdered and mutilated,

1713
01:33:57,100 --> 01:34:00,700
maybe we need to take a step back and look at what, you know, what we classify

1714
01:34:00,700 --> 01:34:04,380
as entertainment. Yeah, I totally agree. And then you think of, you know, these

1715
01:34:04,380 --> 01:34:08,300
kids, they, they, they play the video games and then they think, well, I'll go

1716
01:34:08,300 --> 01:34:11,180
and I'll commit suicide. What am I going to do? I'm just going to respond somewhere

1717
01:34:11,180 --> 01:34:16,700
else. And it just doesn't work that way. Um, you know, and it's, uh, and it's a

1718
01:34:16,700 --> 01:34:20,940
problem and I'm hoping, I was talking to you about this before, I'm hoping to

1719
01:34:20,940 --> 01:34:23,900
eventually start a foundation. If I could figure out how to do it right now, I'm

1720
01:34:23,900 --> 01:34:28,060
just in the brainstorming mode of either, uh, you know, hard to kill foundation or

1721
01:34:28,060 --> 01:34:32,940
H2K foundation probably would be a more appropriate name for it. Um, and that's

1722
01:34:32,940 --> 01:34:39,740
to, and that's to help, um, PTSD with, with, uh, cops, firefighters, uh, and

1723
01:34:39,740 --> 01:34:44,220
trauma docs, trauma nurses, and even at risk teens, you know, if, if parents can,

1724
01:34:44,220 --> 01:34:48,060
can identify this and then have a retreat, uh, that we have a funding

1725
01:34:48,060 --> 01:34:52,780
source for, there's lots of retreats out there with, with, uh, clinical help where

1726
01:34:52,780 --> 01:34:57,660
we can send them out, send kids out there and send cops, firefighters, like I said,

1727
01:34:57,660 --> 01:35:02,620
and, and the, I think trauma docs and nurses are, have been left out of this.

1728
01:35:02,620 --> 01:35:07,580
And then they need to very much be a part of it and, and get them some help. Um,

1729
01:35:07,580 --> 01:35:12,460
and, uh, I think that's probably the reason why I was left here and I've got

1730
01:35:12,460 --> 01:35:17,020
to figure out how to get this thing started and, um, and get some funding and,

1731
01:35:17,020 --> 01:35:20,620
and get some help for, for people that need it. Yeah. Well, I do, and you're

1732
01:35:20,620 --> 01:35:26,460
going to join a long list of guests that I've had that have given so much in the

1733
01:35:26,460 --> 01:35:29,740
service and then something happens, whether it's just retirement, whether

1734
01:35:29,740 --> 01:35:35,580
it's injury, and they immediately turn around and go, how can I use this as, as

1735
01:35:35,580 --> 01:35:39,340
a way of doing even more serving even more. So I don't think you're going to

1736
01:35:39,340 --> 01:35:41,900
have any problems getting that off the ground. I think it's a great idea. And I

1737
01:35:41,900 --> 01:35:46,380
think the mentorship of, of the youth is how we fix it. I mean, I've seen

1738
01:35:46,380 --> 01:35:52,780
Lamone and I's martial arts change kids' lives. I've watched, uh, Pat Russo, he's,

1739
01:35:52,780 --> 01:35:58,460
um, got a boxing club, NYPD started, and they've, you know, just turned around

1740
01:35:58,460 --> 01:36:01,580
these street kids and made them successful in school, successful in the

1741
01:36:01,580 --> 01:36:06,060
ring. And that's what we have to do. And we need, we need mentors instead of

1742
01:36:06,060 --> 01:36:09,900
pigeonholing each other and playing the blame game. And you highlighted

1743
01:36:09,900 --> 01:36:13,740
perfectly, why don't you sue Publix? Let's get rid of that whole lawsuit

1744
01:36:13,740 --> 01:36:17,340
mentality. No need to, no, and just start taking care of each other and

1745
01:36:17,340 --> 01:36:20,700
raising our children. And right. And so that's one reason why I started

1746
01:36:20,700 --> 01:36:26,780
volunteering at a local high school at Clay High was because, uh, I want to, I

1747
01:36:26,780 --> 01:36:29,340
mean, it's a put up, just put up or shut up. I could sit here and say whatever I

1748
01:36:29,340 --> 01:36:33,340
want, but it's better what I do. So being, being able to go to that school and

1749
01:36:33,340 --> 01:36:36,460
stand in front of those kids and talk to them and have them ask me questions or

1750
01:36:36,460 --> 01:36:39,660
just go in and sit in there and hang it out with them or, or during the day with

1751
01:36:39,660 --> 01:36:42,780
their, uh, with, you know, with their teachers and just being able to sit

1752
01:36:42,780 --> 01:36:45,980
there and say, Hey, you know, Mr. Stokes, maybe I got a, I got a problem. How can

1753
01:36:45,980 --> 01:36:50,220
I do this or how can I do that? And, and, um, the, the, that's the way, just the

1754
01:36:50,220 --> 01:36:54,460
way the Academy set up and I could go in there and talk to them and, uh, and, and

1755
01:36:54,460 --> 01:36:58,460
be a mentor to them. And also Jake Hawkins, uh, he, he actually goes down

1756
01:36:58,460 --> 01:37:00,780
there with me too. He actually went to the high school. That's where he

1757
01:37:00,780 --> 01:37:04,460
graduated from. So him and Mandy are both climbing down and, and, uh, and

1758
01:37:04,460 --> 01:37:08,220
helping mentor these young kids. And I think that's the way forward, uh,

1759
01:37:08,220 --> 01:37:10,860
especially with the, like I said, with Mandy and the young girls. I mean,

1760
01:37:10,860 --> 01:37:14,540
whenever, you know, she's 35 years old and tells her story to these 18 year

1761
01:37:14,540 --> 01:37:18,060
old, 17, 18 year old girls, and they're just enamored with her. Hey, this, and

1762
01:37:18,060 --> 01:37:22,300
she's such a good role model. So that's, I think that's how we go forward is, is

1763
01:37:22,300 --> 01:37:25,980
it's going to take, it's going to take our generation to reach down and say,

1764
01:37:25,980 --> 01:37:29,740
listen, you know, lean on us for help. We'll, we'll, we'll help you guys.

1765
01:37:29,740 --> 01:37:33,580
Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing. If you think that we all started as these

1766
01:37:33,580 --> 01:37:38,380
innocent preschoolers stop that middle part where, where they go down the wrong

1767
01:37:38,380 --> 01:37:41,820
part. And then like you said, if, if we've all seen the houses there, they

1768
01:37:41,820 --> 01:37:45,420
are out there where you look at them and like, these kids don't stand a chance.

1769
01:37:45,420 --> 01:37:49,260
That's when that local community needs to step up. And I actually, as we're

1770
01:37:49,260 --> 01:37:54,780
sitting here, um, tomorrow's guest is going to be Steve O'Michael, who grew up

1771
01:37:54,780 --> 01:37:59,340
in a horrible part of Orlando, right next to where my station used to be, um,

1772
01:37:59,340 --> 01:38:03,980
came out of that ended up in university in Colorado and then went back, became a

1773
01:38:03,980 --> 01:38:08,220
firefighter, um, and then serves that same community that he grew up in. And

1774
01:38:08,220 --> 01:38:12,380
it's like, it looks like, you know, third world country in there. And that's it.

1775
01:38:12,380 --> 01:38:15,500
Is it, if you're a member of that community and you've come up and you've

1776
01:38:15,500 --> 01:38:19,580
come out the right way, then understand that you have a duty now to, to fix the

1777
01:38:19,580 --> 01:38:24,220
rest, whether you're an athlete or, uh, you know, a rap star, whatever it is, you

1778
01:38:24,220 --> 01:38:28,940
can either be an egotistical shit bag where you can actually truly help the

1779
01:38:28,940 --> 01:38:29,980
hood that you are from.

1780
01:38:29,980 --> 01:38:34,060
Yeah, I agree. I agree. And the shooter for me was, uh, he lived in this

1781
01:38:34,060 --> 01:38:40,220
neighborhood, you know, that's, I mean, he was a well off Caucasian kid, you

1782
01:38:40,220 --> 01:38:45,180
know, who just lost his damn mind. Yeah. It's, it's sad. It's unfortunate for,

1783
01:38:45,180 --> 01:38:48,940
it's unfortunate for him. It's unfortunate for his family that this

1784
01:38:48,940 --> 01:38:51,340
happened. So, yeah.

1785
01:38:51,340 --> 01:38:53,900
All right. Well, I want to transition to some closing questions because we've

1786
01:38:53,900 --> 01:38:57,980
been chatting for coming up on almost two hours. So it's been a hell of a

1787
01:38:57,980 --> 01:39:01,180
conversation. I hope people are still listening. No, no, I'm sure they are. I'm

1788
01:39:01,180 --> 01:39:05,980
telling you that they're transfixed. Um, so the first one I love to, to ask

1789
01:39:05,980 --> 01:39:10,700
people, is there a book that you love to recommend can be about the general topic

1790
01:39:10,700 --> 01:39:14,700
we've talked about or something completely different? Um, I read Jocko

1791
01:39:14,700 --> 01:39:19,900
Willick's book, uh, extreme leadership. I think that's a, that's unbelievably

1792
01:39:19,900 --> 01:39:26,940
well written and, uh, Jocko's is such a, such a sharp guy. And also there's a

1793
01:39:26,940 --> 01:39:33,100
book called Out of Captivity, uh, that was written about some contractors that

1794
01:39:33,100 --> 01:39:39,020
were captured in Columbia. Uh, and they were, they were held captive for like

1795
01:39:39,020 --> 01:39:43,180
five years and to hear their stories was just, uh, just unbelievable. And

1796
01:39:43,180 --> 01:39:46,540
actually, uh, during that mission, I actually flew on their missions, their

1797
01:39:46,540 --> 01:39:50,300
rescue missions in the beginning days after their airplane crash. So that's,

1798
01:39:50,300 --> 01:39:53,660
uh, when it comes to survival and that type of thing, Out of Captivity is a

1799
01:39:53,660 --> 01:39:58,140
fantastic book to read. Oh, wow. And you, you, so when they first crashed, you

1800
01:39:58,140 --> 01:40:00,780
guys are looking to, it's the same ones that five years later were finally.

1801
01:40:00,780 --> 01:40:03,580
That's, yeah, that's correct. Okay. How were they released? I don't want to be

1802
01:40:03,580 --> 01:40:07,100
the, you know, the, the cliffhanger, but, uh, it was, uh, eventually the

1803
01:40:07,100 --> 01:40:10,460
Colombian government, I was, I was able to, was able to rescue them. So it was an

1804
01:40:10,460 --> 01:40:14,460
airplane crash in Columbia and they got, they got captured by the local guerrillas.

1805
01:40:14,460 --> 01:40:18,540
Okay. And what about a movie and or documentary?

1806
01:40:19,660 --> 01:40:23,100
Movie. I mean, Forrest Gump's my favorite movie of all time because it's just, uh,

1807
01:40:23,100 --> 01:40:29,500
if it comes on, I just can't, uh, I just, I just can't stop watching it. Uh, and,

1808
01:40:29,500 --> 01:40:34,700
and, uh, you know, like Narcos and I'm such a student of, uh, I'm such a student

1809
01:40:34,700 --> 01:40:40,620
of drug smuggling. Uh, just, I, I soak it all in and I learn about it. And, uh,

1810
01:40:41,580 --> 01:40:44,300
so when it comes to the documentaries, you know, stuff like drugs incorporated

1811
01:40:44,300 --> 01:40:49,900
and things like that, I study those things. Right. Um, on a side note, um,

1812
01:40:49,900 --> 01:40:52,940
God, I'm just going to have to cut this bit out. I'm sure I remember his name now.

1813
01:40:54,620 --> 01:40:59,660
Sam. So there's an author, Sam Quinones, who wrote a book called Dreamland. And

1814
01:40:59,660 --> 01:41:04,140
it talks about the specific, and I forget the name of it now, but specific town in,

1815
01:41:04,700 --> 01:41:12,140
uh, Mexico and how they started going to the lesser known cities and bringing,

1816
01:41:12,140 --> 01:41:15,500
uh, black tar heroin. So they were having, they were getting addicts that were

1817
01:41:15,500 --> 01:41:19,820
initially on pain pills. Then the government changed their stance on it.

1818
01:41:19,820 --> 01:41:23,740
The pill mills went away. And so they started coming in and doing it, but it was all from

1819
01:41:23,740 --> 01:41:28,060
this one small town. It was a fascinating interview, but I'm sure that's something

1820
01:41:28,060 --> 01:41:32,060
that you're probably very familiar with. Yeah. Not that in particular, but I'd like

1821
01:41:32,060 --> 01:41:36,380
to learn about it for sure. Yeah. Great book. He writes it very, very well. It's

1822
01:41:36,380 --> 01:41:41,500
Dreamland was a giant pool in Ohio that started off as this kind of idyllic place in the

1823
01:41:42,380 --> 01:41:46,140
fifties, sixties, I think it was. And then now you see the kind of the town fall apart

1824
01:41:46,140 --> 01:41:50,860
and the addiction come in. And then the connection between that town is tiny town in Mexico.

1825
01:41:50,860 --> 01:41:55,340
But there is one other book I want to mention, and it has nothing to do with any of the topics

1826
01:41:55,340 --> 01:42:00,700
we've talked about, which I recommend. And the name of it is called the art of racing

1827
01:42:00,700 --> 01:42:06,780
in the rain. And it's a book I'm a, I'm an animal lover. And so we have three dogs

1828
01:42:06,780 --> 01:42:13,420
and the book is written about a dog's life from the point of view of the dog. So the

1829
01:42:13,420 --> 01:42:18,860
dog wrote the book from start to finish. Anyway, it's if you're a dog lover and especially if

1830
01:42:18,860 --> 01:42:23,820
you've maybe lost an animal recently or something like that, it's a phenomenal read, phenomenal

1831
01:42:23,820 --> 01:42:28,780
read the art of racing in the rain. I've never heard that recommended before. So I will add

1832
01:42:28,780 --> 01:42:34,620
that. Thank you so much. It's a, I think my wife read it in one night. So I remember up in bed,

1833
01:42:34,620 --> 01:42:39,740
she's had tears in her eyes. So yeah, so it's a, it's a wonderful book. Excellent. All right.

1834
01:42:39,740 --> 01:42:44,540
The next question, is there a guest that you would recommend to come on this podcast to talk to the

1835
01:42:44,540 --> 01:42:50,620
first responders, military ER nurses and doctors that we have listening to the show?

1836
01:42:53,820 --> 01:42:58,700
I mean, I would love for obviously for Mandy and Brett to talk about what it's like to be a

1837
01:42:58,700 --> 01:43:05,420
firefighter family to both of them being firefighters and trying to raise two kids in the

1838
01:43:05,420 --> 01:43:12,300
in the, in the massive effort that that takes. I think that would having those, those two on board

1839
01:43:12,300 --> 01:43:16,940
would be phenomenal. I'm not sure I mean, husband, wife, firefighters that work for two different

1840
01:43:16,940 --> 01:43:20,780
cities or two different counties are out there, but I think that would be a pretty good interview

1841
01:43:20,780 --> 01:43:26,940
for you. Some of the, some of the trauma docs and nurses at Orange Park Medical Center,

1842
01:43:28,300 --> 01:43:32,860
I'd be interested to hear their point of view, not just for my story, but for,

1843
01:43:32,860 --> 01:43:36,940
for lots of stories and just working in the ER and working in trauma as a whole.

1844
01:43:37,980 --> 01:43:40,620
Yeah, no, I agree. That's, that's, that's the thing we talk about.

1845
01:43:42,140 --> 01:43:46,700
Traumatic injuries, whether it's from car wrecks or violent crime. And again, those are the,

1846
01:43:46,700 --> 01:43:52,140
those are the heroes of that. Like we can reverse, you know, diabetes and stop a heart attack and

1847
01:43:52,140 --> 01:43:57,020
bring someone back from cardiac arrest. But when it comes to trauma, it's pretty much transport

1848
01:43:57,020 --> 01:44:01,820
just to the experts. They're going to cut them open. Yeah. Just like whenever we had a party,

1849
01:44:01,820 --> 01:44:06,060
a man and I threw a party for all the, for everybody who helped in my recovery at Intuition

1850
01:44:06,060 --> 01:44:12,220
Health Works here in Jacksonville. And I was able to bring most of the trauma staff up there.

1851
01:44:12,220 --> 01:44:18,220
Unfortunately, Dr. Shrock-Luke had made it, the rest of them. And if, if, if someone's listening

1852
01:44:18,220 --> 01:44:25,900
and you guys are in the medical field, doctors, nurses, I appreciate the path that they took.

1853
01:44:25,900 --> 01:44:33,100
It's a hard, that's a hard, hard path, a long, hard path to get through. And, and I really,

1854
01:44:33,100 --> 01:44:39,980
really appreciate people that do things that are hard and, and they work their butts off as,

1855
01:44:39,980 --> 01:44:45,020
and they basically lose their entire twenties for probably most of the, the most funnest part of

1856
01:44:45,020 --> 01:44:50,220
their life. They've, they've put on hold specifically so they can go save people's lives. And, and I

1857
01:44:50,220 --> 01:44:55,660
really appreciate that. And I understand that. And I couldn't be more thankful for those folks. And

1858
01:44:55,660 --> 01:45:03,180
the sacrifices that they've made personally, financially, they sacrificed everything to go,

1859
01:45:04,140 --> 01:45:06,780
to eventually save someone's life. And I think that needs to be,

1860
01:45:08,300 --> 01:45:13,980
people don't understand how hard it is to be a doctor, to be a physician. It's a very hard,

1861
01:45:13,980 --> 01:45:19,660
very, very hard path. And to choose that path and to do well at it is not easy. And I just,

1862
01:45:19,660 --> 01:45:24,380
I can't thank them enough. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've always said, you know, all those professions,

1863
01:45:24,380 --> 01:45:29,180
you know, if you save just one life in your whole career, you know, 20, 30, 40 years,

1864
01:45:29,180 --> 01:45:32,620
it was worth it. Everything else is a bonus. And to sit across from you and know that everyone

1865
01:45:32,620 --> 01:45:37,900
involved in that whole chain of your survival did just that, it is incredible. Yeah. And my

1866
01:45:37,900 --> 01:45:42,300
recovery, survival and recovery, it's just been, you know, I don't know why I'm so lucky, James.

1867
01:45:42,300 --> 01:45:46,460
I have no idea. I don't, anyway, I'm here and I'm going to make the best of it. Yeah. Well,

1868
01:45:46,460 --> 01:45:51,820
I'm looking forward to the Hard to Kill H2K project. I think that's going to be very, very good. So

1869
01:45:51,820 --> 01:45:55,180
we'll talk about in a moment how people can reach out if they want to help you with that.

1870
01:45:55,180 --> 01:46:01,500
One last thing before we do that, what do you do to decompress when you're not cross fitting and

1871
01:46:02,220 --> 01:46:09,580
removing your colostomy bag? I don't have it anymore. I'm good to go. I'm in, I'm a big

1872
01:46:09,580 --> 01:46:16,860
NASCAR fan. So I go to races. I usually get all speed weeks in Daytona. So I enjoy going down

1873
01:46:16,860 --> 01:46:21,100
there for that. I have a motorcycle, so I do a lot of Enduro riding. I like to ride off road,

1874
01:46:21,100 --> 01:46:26,700
on road. We have, I mean, I have a camper. We go camping, we go to a lot of live music and that

1875
01:46:26,700 --> 01:46:32,380
type of things, festivals. And then we like to travel as well, as much as we can. My wife is on

1876
01:46:32,380 --> 01:46:38,380
the board of directors for a no kill animal shelter. And so we volunteer some time for that as well,

1877
01:46:39,740 --> 01:46:43,580
taking care of the animals and visiting families, just like everybody else. You know, I like to do

1878
01:46:43,580 --> 01:46:48,620
same things everybody else does, but usually it comes out to me, you know, usually camping,

1879
01:46:48,620 --> 01:46:53,580
riding a motorcycle. I love to fly, although I'm not a pilot. I've never, for some reason,

1880
01:46:53,580 --> 01:46:56,700
I've never gotten my pilot's license. I've always wanted it. I just, I guess because I fly in

1881
01:46:56,700 --> 01:47:01,580
airplanes for a living. I just, I like to fly. Sometimes if somebody goes recreational flying

1882
01:47:01,580 --> 01:47:07,500
and invites me along, I'll go. So that's, that's generally, that's what we do. Besides that,

1883
01:47:07,500 --> 01:47:12,700
like I said, every day I go to work and I go to, I go to Blackfan and I come home and just

1884
01:47:12,700 --> 01:47:17,980
wash, rinse, lather, repeat, you know. Brilliant. All right. Well then the most important thing

1885
01:47:17,980 --> 01:47:23,980
then, so let's, let's try and help you get this H2K project off the, off the floor. So if people

1886
01:47:23,980 --> 01:47:27,660
are listening, want to reach out to you, what would be the best avenue of communication?

1887
01:47:28,700 --> 01:47:31,820
Wow. For right now, if I didn't know where we were going to do this, I would have,

1888
01:47:31,820 --> 01:47:39,500
I would have made a Gmail account. But right now just send me an email. It's skyfuzz at gmail.com

1889
01:47:39,500 --> 01:47:47,500
and then we'll see if I can, I can get another, another email. It's a very English word fuzz.

1890
01:47:47,500 --> 01:47:53,740
Yeah. It's kind of like a flying cop type thing. So yeah, that'd be the, that'd be the first way.

1891
01:47:53,740 --> 01:47:58,780
Like I said, I don't know the legal part of setting up a, some sort of a, you know, 501C,

1892
01:47:59,660 --> 01:48:04,700
C3, I guess. And then the accounting part of it. And I just don't, I just don't, I don't, I have

1893
01:48:04,700 --> 01:48:10,220
the idea and I just don't know. I just need guidance on getting it in the, headed in the

1894
01:48:10,220 --> 01:48:14,380
right direction. Yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure there's people out there listening that can, can give you

1895
01:48:14,380 --> 01:48:19,500
advice. I mean, I know, I know some people that have, have gone down the pure charity road and,

1896
01:48:19,500 --> 01:48:23,980
and said, you know, there's some barriers as far as expenses and things, but I think with what

1897
01:48:23,980 --> 01:48:30,220
you're trying to do and I can reach out to some of the people that already have, you know, similar

1898
01:48:30,220 --> 01:48:35,020
platforms that maybe can, can help as well. So, right. Yeah. And like, like I said, I know,

1899
01:48:35,020 --> 01:48:40,460
I know nothing about this. You know, it is, it is no money for me. I would never even take a dime

1900
01:48:40,460 --> 01:48:45,900
from it. It would all go, every, every single dollar would go towards, towards helping people

1901
01:48:45,900 --> 01:48:50,860
that need help. I don't, I don't need money. So it's not, it's not about, it's just, it's just

1902
01:48:50,860 --> 01:48:55,260
about helping other people. Brilliant. Well, I looked forward to seeing that project grow and

1903
01:48:55,260 --> 01:48:59,020
helping promote it when it's off the ground. Thank you. Yeah. And design, you know, somewhere

1904
01:48:59,020 --> 01:49:03,260
in it's my desire to design a logo. I mean, I can think of all these things I need help with.

1905
01:49:03,260 --> 01:49:07,980
Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually I know one guy who just reached out to me to see if, if I needed any help

1906
01:49:07,980 --> 01:49:14,460
with this. And he just came out of a radio school. I think it was. So I'm sure the whole design,

1907
01:49:14,460 --> 01:49:19,660
social media thing is his forte too. So we could see if he's interested when things are rolling a

1908
01:49:19,660 --> 01:49:24,940
little bit. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you. So I just want to say an amazing story.

1909
01:49:24,940 --> 01:49:31,180
It's an honor to be sitting across from you. It's an honor to tell the story for everyone else that

1910
01:49:31,180 --> 01:49:37,020
was involved in that journey. Like you said, that took part in saving your life and putting you back

1911
01:49:37,020 --> 01:49:42,060
on, on the streets, you know, where you belong. And yeah. Just thank you for having the courage

1912
01:49:42,060 --> 01:49:47,020
to tell the story and let me into your home to listen to it. Yeah, no problem. It, it helps me

1913
01:49:47,020 --> 01:50:05,740
to talk about it. And I'll talk about it as long as somebody will listen, I'll talk cause it helps me.