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Like a good neighbor? State Farm is there. Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. There's a recipe for getting your car running just right. And whatever you're cooking up in the garage, you'll find what you need at eBayMotors.com. They have over 122 million car parts and accessories in stock, all at the right prices. And that can help you turn your ride into something really tasty.
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They're some of our favorites. And up next, a curious case of contract law. In 1996, one John Leonard sued Pepsi over a promise that he saw as Renegdon. But that's only half of the story. Here's our own Monty Montgomery to help tell the rest. Court cases are serious business. If I put this knit cap on, who am I? I'm still Johnny Cochran with a knit cap. Court cases are important. If Douglas touches me, you will not be happy, Your Honor. You know what? If Douglas beats you to a pulp, I'll be delighted.
Get out. And there's one court case in the 90s that was truly astounding. And no, it's not the people versus O.J. I'm talking about Leonard versus PepsiCo, Inc.
Here's Sean Kernan of Medium with this dramatic story of deceit, twists and turns, and contract law. In 1996, Pepsi rolled out one of its Drink Pepsi, Get Stuffed campaigns. It was your usual promotion where you get points for purchases that you can later use.
The TV ad targeted teenage and early 20s customers. It showed all these cool things you could win with Pepsi points. They showed a kid wearing a Pepsi t-shirt, 75 Pepsi points. He was wearing a leather jacket that was 1,450 points.
He had sunglasses on that were 175 points. They then boasted, the more Pepsi you drink, the more great stuff you're going to get. Then, it escalated. The commercial ends with that same kid who was wearing the leather jacket and sunglasses landing a Harrier jet in front of a school. Everyone's papers were blowing off of their desks, and kids were crowding to the window to see the jet landing.
And there, in the courtyard, is a literal Harrier with the kid in it. The jet is armed to the teeth, and below it, it says, Harrier Fighter, 7 million Pepsi points. The campaign was mostly a success, as sales increased significantly, but there would be an interesting twist in this promotion.
A 21-year-old business student, John Leonard, saw the commercial and took a particular interest in that jet. To get the Harrier, he would need to buy millions of Pepsis. Most winning Pepsis only had one point on the label. Some had three and five, but there were no 1 million Pepsi point bottles.
But there was a workaround. John noticed the fine print said you could buy points to get the merchandise instead. Each point was 10 cents. So, for example, the 1,450-point jacket cost $145.
The 175-point sunglasses would cost $17.50. Notably, both items likely cost a fraction of that to make, but it was good margins and smart business. What Pepsi failed to notice was the margins on the Harrier, which wasn't listed in the catalog, but was advertised in the commercial. John did some quick math and realized that the 7 million point Harrier would cost $700,000. Back in the real world, a fresh Harrier sells for north of $30 million. John Leonard found four investors who all pitched in. He then sent the check for $700,000 directly to Pepsi, his check said he wished to redeem his points for the Harrier they'd advertised in the commercial.
And thus began a war of letters. Pepsi's marketing team wrote back, the item you've requested is not part of the Pepsi stuff collection. It is not included in the catalog or in the order form. Only catalog merchandise can be redeemed under this program. The Harrier jet in the commercial is fanciful, but it is not included in the order form.
The Harrier jet in the commercial is fanciful, and is included simply to create a humorous and entertaining ad. We apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that you may have experienced. We are including some free product coupons for your use. John Leonard was not satisfied. His lawyer wrote a response. Your letter of May 7th, 1996 is totally unacceptable. We have reviewed the video tape of the Pepsi stuff commercial, and it clearly offers a new Harrier jet for 7 million Pepsi points. Our client followed your rules explicitly. This is a formal demand that you honor your commitment, and make immediate arrangements to transfer the new Harrier jet to our client. If we do not receive transfer instructions within 10 business days of the date of this letter, you will leave us with no choice but to file an appropriate action against Pepsi.
Pepsi's senior marketing executive, Raymond McGovern, then jumped in with his own letter. I find it hard to believe that you are of the opinion that the Pepsi stuff commercial, really offers a new Harrier jet. The use of the jet was clearly a joke that was meant to make the commercial more humorous and entertaining.
In my opinion, no reasonable person would agree with your analysis of the commercial. This is when formal court cases started firing up. Quite comically, Pepsi had to file an official case stating they shouldn't be required to furnish a Harrier jet to John Leonard. For the next three years, this case weaved through court systems before a judge ruled in Pepsi's favor for two key reasons. One, a commercial is not a contractual offer. Two, the commercial was clearly tongue-in-cheek.
No reasonable person would have thought the offer was real. Lastly, and quite humorously again, the judge added this commentary. In light of the Harrier jet's well-documented function in attacking and destroying surface-to-air targets, armed reconnaissance and air interdiction, and offensive and defensive anti-aircraft warfare, depiction of such a jet as a way to get to school in the morning is clearly not serious, even if the plaintiff contends the jet can be delivered in a form that removes its military use. Pepsi went on to amend its commercial, changing 7 million points to 700 million points.
They would also add a small print to the advertisement, saying, Just kidding. If there's any silver lining to all this madness, the case has now become a staple in law schools. A good majority of legal students will end up studying Leonard v. PepsiCo, Inc., as the case offers an entertaining look into the infinite gray area of contract law. All that being said, a small part of me still wishes they'd just given the guy the Harrier, or done something cool for him besides offering a few coupons.
And a great job by Monty Montgomery, and just a delight to listen to, and in its own way, a kind of prank. I mean, I just wanted to see what would happen, but the idea of wrangling together $700,000 to just, well, stick it to Pepsi. Just have some fun, and of course, the court stuck it right back to these folks, but they've always had this story as a result, and a great law case. The story of John Leonard and a suit against Pepsi for a Harrier jet, here on Our American Stories.
Help us keep the great American stories coming. That's OurAmericanStories.com. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year, and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare.
Helping people live healthier lives. Hey, you guys. This is Tori and Jenny with the 90210MG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango? It's true! I had one that night, and I took my NerdTech ODT, and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully, NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults.
So, lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners, too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. And we're back with our American stories, and up next, a story from Wat Hoang. Today, Wat is a surgeon, but his journey to getting there was far from ordinary. Wat was here to share the story of his family fleeing Vietnam and arriving in America with nothing. Growing up in South Vietnam, I was really young at the time, but the things that we remember are the things that we did all the time. And so, we were Catholic, so we went to Mass all the time. Every morning, we would go to church. Our village was along the seashore. And so, my dad was a commercial fisherman. He would leave every morning, come in every night.
And so, we would run out to the dock to see the day's catch. We didn't have running water. Though we had the electricity, it was really limited, so we had a light in the house. And my grandparents, my dad's parents, they had the only TV in the village.
And so, all of us would swarm to his house and watch his TV. We didn't have an ice machine. We had an ice box. So, my mother, if she needed ice, she would send me to the ice factory. She always ordered the bigger block of ice because I would walk along the beach in the hot sand. When I picked up the big block of ice and started walking home, ice is cold. So, the ice would fall on the sand, and then it would start to melt. So, then I would pick it up and start walking a little bit more, and it would fall again.
So, by the time I made it home, that block of ice was a lot smaller than the block that I started with. So, those are some of the simple, fond memories of the things that happened all the time. But at that time, the North Vietnamese communists, which they were supported by China and by the Soviet Union, were trying to overtake South Vietnam, which was non-communist. So, we were the democratic side of Vietnam, and there was a civil war going on during that time.
And so, ultimately, South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese communists. That's when I remember things such as the troops storming South Vietnam and people just scrambling under military fire. I remember, as a six-year-old hiding underneath the mattress, underneath the bed, and the North Vietnamese troops would run through our house, and ransacking the house, and hearing gunfire in the village, and thinking, oh my goodness, this is not going to end well.
I remember hearing them yelling, you know, where's your dad? Because my dad was part of the South Vietnamese military. He had served a while back, but at that point, any grown man was considered a foe to them.
And so, they were looking for any men. So, the North Vietnamese, as they came down, we knew democracy was going to end because Christianity was not going to be loud. There was going to be a lot of tyranny as far as religion, as far as the economy, as far as finances. And my parents knew that was coming, and so, when South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese, and that was April 30th of 1975, when it happened, it happened in a hurry. The North Vietnamese troops came in rapidly, and my parents decided to flee. And so, as the troops were storming the ground, the only place you can flee is to the ocean. We knew that the U.S. had some presence in the ocean, and so we thought, okay, well, if we stay on land, you know, we're doomed. But maybe if we head out to the sea, maybe there would be somebody to receive us. We just had to flee.
We didn't have time, really, to say any goodbyes. My immediate family and cousins and aunts and uncles, we all jumped on my dad's boat. I had three siblings, and one of them was a newborn, and as we fled land and headed out, we saw a larger vessel, and we thought, oh, thank goodness, you know, here's somebody that can help us.
And as we approached that ship, come to find out, that was a communist ship. And so, they started firing on us, and my grandmother was hit. And, of course, she was hurting, and she told her husband, my grandfather, listen, we need to get back to the land because I won't be able to survive this. So, when we went back on shore, my grandfather told my dad, son, there's no life for you here. Take your family with you.
Take the kids. We've lived a good, long life, and you go make a new life for yourself and your family. I think back now, and I think, okay, so I'm a dad now with two kids, and I can't imagine my parents telling me that. And I had to choose between, do I stay with my parents, or do I take my family to a new opportunity, whatever that opportunity was.
We didn't know that it was going to be better. We just knew if we stayed, it wasn't going to be good. So, my grandparents stayed, and I can't imagine my dad, what he felt. He took the four kids, the wife, my mother, of course, and headed back to sea. And, eventually, we came upon a U.S. ship that received us.
We really had no idea of what a U.S. ship was going to look like versus a communist ship. And so, when we came and approached one, and it turned out to be friendly, my dad boarded first, and then my mother handed me to my dad and then handed my youngest brother, who was a newborn at the time, to my dad. And so, the three of us got on the naval ship first, and right then, they cut off any more people coming onto the ship because the ship was full. So then, my mother and two other siblings were still on my dad's boat, and so they separated us then because they had no more room. We're now parted from one another, and who knows when we would see each other again.
You just literally watch it float away. That was hard on my dad because my youngest brother was still breastfeeding at the time, and so here he is with a newborn baby being breastfed, and he can't feed the baby. I learned pretty quickly where to find milk in the ship, and so we just stumbled through it, but eventually got my younger brother fed. I do remember the first good memory of being on that US ship was when we were looking for something to eat, and the first US food that I ever put in my mouth was a Hershey's chocolate bar, and it was the best tasting thing I had ever put in my mouth.
Gosh, that Hershey's bar was good. So, of course, we were fearful and not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, but several weeks later, we were all reunited. We all met together back again in Guam, which was US-owned at that time.
Basically, we just stumbled across one another on that island. Then, we were all brought to Florida. We were at an immigration camp there, and from there, the different families were sponsored by American and US families to different locations within the US. So, there was a farming couple in Kentucky, Campbellville, Kentucky, that through the US Catholic Charities Association, they sponsored my parents and the four kids, and so we packed up, got onto a Greyhound bus to Campbellville, Kentucky from Florida.
There, my dad, who worked in the ocean his whole life, was now transplanted into a farming community. At the time, none of us spoke English. The only English we knew was yes and no. So, I started kindergarten in Kentucky, and somehow along the way, we were supposed to bring a blanket to take a nap with. Well, not understanding English.
My parents didn't pack a blanket, and so when I showed up for the first day of school, and all the other kids are napping, and they all had their blankets, and I'm standing around looking at the kids, I don't have a blanket to take a nap with. And so, we quickly learned and adapted. I do remember things that made it easy. For example, math, because two plus two will always be four regardless of whatever language you speak. And whether you attend a Catholic mass in Vietnam, or you attend one in Campbellville, Kentucky, it's, hey, we all worship the same God, we all have the same Savior, and we're all trying to get to the same location.
But the rest of it, it comes quickly when you have to speak that language. The material things that you accumulate over time, all of that you set aside, hoping you'd find a new life, a better opportunity for yourself and for your kids. And you're listening to Watt Wong tell the story of what happened to so many families when Saigon fell, when South Vietnam was captured by the Communists, and there were consequences when we left Vietnam. But my goodness, Americans did step up.
The role the Catholic Charities plays in so much of this, and all kinds of Protestant Charities as well in stepping up and taking care of the least of these. When we come back, more of this remarkable story, Watt Wong's story, here on Our American Story. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more.
UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. Hey, you guys, this is Tori and Jenny with the 90210mg Podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th Poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango?
It's true. I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family.
But thankfully, NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners, too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. And we return to our American stories and to the story of Wat Hoang. After fleeing Vietnam, we'd heard about how he and his family had begun to assimilate into American life.
Here's Wat to tell us about more of his adventures here in America. I think in growing up and in hindsight, you see the things that your parents do or did. You appreciate their efforts. You know, my parents made a lot of sacrifices along the way. And I hear stories like, for example, growing up in South Vietnamese culture, we eat a lot of rice.
And in Kentucky, it was all potatoes. And so my dad would come back and come home from a hard day's work and the farming couple that sponsored us, they would have a little bit of rice and so we would cook it up and there really wasn't enough to go around. And so my dad would just go hungry and sacrificed it and saved it for us.
And so there's no telling how many countless sacrifices that I don't know about. They've made, but they instilled on us the work ethic, the faith that is required through life. And so I tried to teach that to our kids as well.
So in South Vietnam, Catholicism was not necessarily the most prevalent religion, but it was for us and it was impactful for us. And my parents, if they had their preferences, I would be a priest right now. But I didn't go that route, much to their dismay.
So I went to med school instead. That's a funny story. My younger brother was asleep and my cousin and I were playing while he was taking a nap. And we had a coin, maybe a quarter or something like that, and we were just spinning it on top of my brother who was asleep on his forehead thinking, oh, this is kind of fun. That quarter landed in his mouth. He woke up and inhaled and swallowed that coin. So that got us in so much trouble. So we went to the emergency department. The doctor came to see him, took him to surgery, took the coin out, saved the day, came back out. My mother, of course, is still mad at us, but her son is saved. And I thought to myself, you know what, that's pretty neat, he saved my younger brother's life.
I think I want to do that one day. It was just by chance doing something silly, something I shouldn't have been doing, that kind of piqued an interest. We never know what's in front of us and the experiences that we go through.
At the time that we go through it, sometimes you don't really appreciate it until much after the fact. When we were growing up, we were poor in the U.S. We were poor and my parents were not educated, so they did mostly labor jobs. And one of the jobs that my mother did was we worked in a crab factory. We picked the meat out of the crabs. And so here I was, middle school and in high school, picking a stinky crab.
And why am I doing this? All my friends during the summer were hanging out at the house, watching TV and all that, and I'm going to a stupid crab factory. We were paid by production, so the more crabs you crack, the more meat you get, the more you get paid. What I'm getting at is the motor dexterity that's required to crack a claw precisely to get that meat out so that there aren't any shells in that meat. It helped improve my hand speed, my manual dexterity, so my left hand is as good as my right hand.
And yes, my mother woke us up at 4 o'clock in the morning every day to go to the crab factory, and it smelled horrible, and I hated it, and I dreaded it. But here I am as a surgeon 30 years later with finger and hand dexterity could not have been more polished than because of that manual work that I did. So another something that I thought, gosh, why am I doing this, which then I later appreciate. So in college at LSU, during my freshman year, as I was walking around campus thinking about what I was going to do for a summer job, I saw a flyer about the Southwestern Publishing Company, and I had no idea what the Southwestern Publishing Company was, but it said $400 a week summer job, and I thought, man, $400 a week. That's good money for a college student in 1987. And so I went to one of their seminars not knowing what I was getting myself into, and so come to find out it was door-to-door book sales, blind cold calls, knocking on the door, seeing if a mom or dad might want to buy educational books for their kids. And I thought, there's no way. But I gave it a try, and so we learned how to approach someone, a complete stranger, try to determine what their needs were, and maybe provide a product or service that can help them and their children do better for themselves.
So fast forward 20 years later. I'm sitting with a patient who I've never met before. This person could be from any walk of life, and they have a problem, an unmet need. And so you try to identify with that person, see what their needs are, and how can I make their life a little better. And so that experience as a 19-year-old college student knocking on 180 doors per week, cold calling, really shaped how I communicate with people to this very day, trying to identify what their needs are and hopefully make a difference in their life. As you're going through these experiences in life, most of the time it's there for a reason. We just don't realize it at the moment, but you do learn to appreciate those things later on. As I was growing up, I had a lot of horrible dreams about the troops storming the village and crawling under the bed and the nightmares with them, and that lasted for decades.
It took a long time for those dreams to go away. The U.S., and I say we because I feel like obviously I'm part of the U.S. now. We're a welcoming society, and every one of us has a culture and a background that's interwoven into one another, and so the U.S. was welcoming. And the U.S. Catholic Charities Association really did a great job with bringing us in and finding families and assimilating us within the U.S. I just remember the kindness of our sponsoring families. They had kids and grandkids that were about our ages, and so my siblings and I played with them and ran around the farm and did silly things. But I just remember their kindness.
If it wasn't for them and what all they did for us, we wouldn't be where we are now. I can't imagine what my parents went through. Everything has fallen apart around you. You're leaving your parents. You don't speak the language. The only thing that we had was literally the clothes on our backs.
Who knows where you're going. Not everyone came to the U.S. It all depended on the immigration services and where they decided, so we just happened to be within that group that came to the U.S. You never know what happens in life and how that might impact you later on, but appreciate it for what it is when you're going through it and try to make the most of it. And great work by Madison on the production. And a special thanks to Wat Wong for sharing his story with us and what a quintessentially American story it was. His parents wanted him to be a priest. He disappointed them and became a doctor.
He took a look at the Crab Factory. Well, that helped him with his hand dexterity and also his discipline. He had to get up at 4 a.m. His door-to-door book sales gig taught him to listen, taught him empathy. That helped him with his bedside manner.
He had bad dreams, he said, from all that happened in South Vietnam, but they diminished. And the U.S., he said, well, it's a welcoming society. Our cultures are interwoven.
My Sicilian grandparents, my Lebanese grandparents would agree. And a special thanks to Catholic Charities for all the great work they do. The story of Wat Wong. The story of America.
In the end, here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.
It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare.
Helping people live healthier lives. Hey, you guys. This is Tori and Jenny with the 90210MG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango?
It's true. I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family.
But thankfully, NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident.
See, they're small business owners, too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. This is Our American Stories, and now we bring you a story brought to us by the Coalition for Better Health at Lower Costs. At Loma Linda University Health, they've sought not to see patients as customers, but as people. And they seek to treat the whole person through lifestyle disciplines inspired by Blue Zone principles.
You can find out more about Blue Zones through Dan Buettner's book, The Blue Zones. Andrew Millard's primary work is with Loma Linda's proton cancer patients. Here's Andrew. I tried to get out of health care a couple different times, and I just kept getting pulled back into it. I've got experience in the whole nursing home industry.
I did a year doing nursing home administration for a company that used to own about 50 nursing homes in California. And I didn't like being a part of that experience because, one, it kind of just felt like a trap. People come and they stay and they kind of have to be there and they don't want to be there.
They don't like to be there. It's complete opposite from the way Loma Linda is, you know, with our patients now. Because, you know, people are here by choice now and they want to be here and they love this. The experience is just completely flipped on its back here because in nursing homes there's no quality of life. But here that's all that we're doing is teaching the quality of life and showing people what quality of life can be like. I manage the patient services department here in Loma Linda, a very, very unique department down here. There's actually only two of us, but we're very connected with the patients and providing them with housing and connecting them with resources in the community so that they can come and be here. Because coming and being here is like a, you know, nine week, ten week investment.
So it really kind of unplugs you from your life to come down here. So we get to kind of be there with them, assisting them in that process and in the journey while they're down here. And we use these Blue Zones topics. We have educational speakers that come in all the time and speak to our patients once a week during our special support group. We bring in a speaker and we talk about Blue Zone nutrition, you know, and what it means to eat healthy, you know, to get away from foods that are more processed and get into the less processed, less refined, just more natural foods and natural existence. They talk about that sort of thing. They talk about the Blue Zone community and how really connecting with people and having a community to belong to can add, I think Dan Buettner said, four to 14 years to your life, you know, of extra life expectancy.
We talk about all that kind of stuff with our patients and they're here for this journey for nine weeks, you know, while they're down here. And they learn all this stuff, you know, they get to be a part of all this while they're here. It's so, so much fun to be involved with and just see the transformation that happens in people when it clicks with them. And you can tell when it's clicked because then all of a sudden they're interested and they're asking questions and they want to know more and they're really like connected with it. It's like they've got something.
They don't want to let it go. But the camaraderie, the experience here is not unlike an experience about like going to war. These guys, you know, they go to war and they're, you know, they're sleeping in tents together, they're sleeping behind rocks, you know, they're day in and day out. They're at war. They're in the front lines. Well, these people here are in the front lines of fighting cancer.
And so it's a similar experience. They're going through this with their buddy next to them and they have to rely on their buddy next to them, you know, because they've got questions, they've got experiences, they've got difficult things that they're going through while they're down here too. And lots of times just having somebody to talk to about those sorts of difficult things is really, really helpful for them. This kind of thing, these two people, three people, you know, we have 20, 25 people come into our group. They just get together and they share with each other and they uplift each other and encourage each other. And these people are bringing, I mean, it's incredible what they end up doing as a result. They're here being treated for cancer, but they're going around the hospital and they're praying for other people in the hospital because they want to be part of the healing experience. They're building wooden toys.
I had a guy recently built a bunch of wooden toys and brought them into the children's hospital around Christmas time to give the kids something to do. You know, they're here and they're in the middle of the healing and they're contributing to the healing of others. And so that's just like mind boggling for me. Our proton patients in the community are, like, well known for being just incredible patients. The restaurants we go to are like, hey, what are we celebrating this evening?
You know, is there a birthday? And people are like, oh, we're here being treated for cancer. And then, you know, we hear our waitress say, wait, what? You guys have been laughing and joking around this whole time.
What is going on here? You guys are kind of weird, you know? It's just incredible, like, what can happen with that. It's just the fact that people here, they care so much about getting the most out of life and just being alive to its fullest, whatever that means. Physically, mentally or spiritually, just being alive and they're excited about it.
So I'm in a unique position to where I get to kind of marry the Blue Zone community and mentality of this area, this community. I get to marry that with the treatment that we're doing here with Proton. Lots of them considered a new lease on life. There's a publication, a research publication, one of our patients shared recently about how men who are treated for prostate cancer lots of times, you know, take a new perspective on life after treatment. You know, once they've taken care of this cancer thing and it's behind them, you know, they've recovered, they've healed, they're in better health than before. And it's actually like a researched fact, there's statistical numbers on it.
It's pretty impressive. So that sort of thing happens when we start to kind of think that our lifespan may be, you know, coming to an end. Like it really does a number on our psyche.
It really does a number on our minds. And people don't know what to do with that. You know, they get scared, they don't know what to do with that.
Am I going to die? Well, then what's going to happen to my family? Well, when they come down here, you know, and they start experiencing this sort of just uplifting wholesome environment, the body becomes like a more healing anti-inflammatory state because it's like, you know, all this positivity you're surrounding yourself with and this exercise that they're doing and all of this sort of thing. So not only did they get a better edge on cancer, you know, a better chance to beat cancer, they learn about, you know, about God. And so that helps with the mind. You think, well, hang on, even if the end is tomorrow, you know, it doesn't have to be the end forever. Well, that's an interesting perspective.
So these people are thinking about this sort of thing. You know, we talk about this sort of thing in our groups and that really helps with the healing too, you know, because we're not meant to be stressed out and fearful. You know, how many times does it says, you know, have no fear?
I have not given you a spirit of fear in the Bible. And that's, you know, that's not something that people experience while they're here. They experience a love, you know, a really unique love. The first week that I was here, I was taking pictures in the bathrooms. This could sound weird, but I was taking pictures in the bathrooms of the of the Bible verses that people put on the walls here. Like you go into the bathrooms and there's uplifting Bible verses in the stalls and stuff. And for me, it was like, what kind of uplifting place is this?
So I'd say I'd take these pictures and send it to my wife, you know, and she'd kind of get a giggle out of it. It's really cool. It's amazing to me to be able to see the transformation that happened. We do a graduation ceremony for all of our patients that are leaving and Tuesday nights we get together, we have this potluck and we have the graduation programs. And so people that are getting up and leaving us, you know, they tell about their journey and their experience and, you know, what's happened to them. Well, just last week, we had a guy from Jersey who graduated and he started a journal while he came down here. And so the first entries in his journal, he told us where I didn't read his journal, but he told us about his journal. And he said the first entries were, you know, things like, oh, you know, we went to go get treatment today.
I had a sandwich at the cafeteria and then, you know, about six o'clock tonight I was going to catch the game and then we went to bed. You know, I mean, it was just basic stuff like that. But at the end of his journal, after his nine weeks of being here, the things that he was exploring about his beliefs and his spirituality and his growth, just the depth that he got into in his journal was just night and day from the beginning to the end because of this whole experience. He's writing about, you know, what's next for him and his family and his dreams and his visions of the future, you know, with these high hopes and dreams of affecting change in his community going home.
And it's not writing about a sandwich that you ate for lunch, that's for sure. The transformation that he had was huge. And he's one of the guys that left here and said, Andrew, this place is incredible. We consider this our radiation vacation. You know, we came here for treatment of cancer and we got treatment for everything. So it was a very heartfelt I mean, we had a full blown church service that night because everybody was just like, we didn't we don't feel like we got here by accident. Nobody lands here by accident.
So I love hearing those stories. You know, I mean, it's it's there's something happening here. And really, we've got to give credit where credit's due, man. God's responsible for this place. It's not a coincidence that this small institution in Southern California became the world's very first hospital based proton treatment center. That's amazing. It should have been some huge organization to do that.
But no, Loma Linda was the first one to do it. That's incredible. And it's it's just so happens to be one of the blue zones now. And it's like it's it's working. So I love being a part of it, man. I love it. And you've been listening to Andrew Millard's voice. My goodness. Calling something your radiation vacation. Well, that's some kind of hospital. Andrew Millard story here on our American story.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-16 12:51:03 / 2023-02-16 13:08:31 / 17