(dramatic music)
[man] Filming?
[Jennifer] Mmhmm?
Good morning.
I don't know if I should wave with my right hand
or try and wave with this hand.
Kinda hurts.
So maybe I'll just talk about today
and kind of today's significance
but I'll introduce myself to my camera first.
Eduardo Garcia, hi.
Today I'm going into an operation
where I've made a decision
to take off my own limb,
this big ole...
left arm of mine I've had for 30 years.
And I don't know if it's always done great things
but it's always done great things by me.
(music playing)
* When I grow up
* I want to be a forester
* Run through the moss on high heels
* That's what I'll do
* Throwing out a boomerang
* Waiting for it to come back to me
* That's what I'll have
* Staring at a sea shell
* Waiting for it
* To catch me or hold
(dramatic music)
-(heavy breathing) -(heart beating)
[Garcia] I remember coming to
and not being able to move my body.
But I remember knowing that I had to move my body.
From that point,
from waking up and rolling over onto my hands and knees,
there's a gap.
(heavy breathing)
My next memory is the road.
I thought I was totally in a dream,
somewhere in the mountains.
There's no way I could be in this sensation
and not be in a dream state.
When I put it together that I wasn't dreaming
was I could hear birds.
(imitating chirping)
I could hear my boots scuffing
and that was real, that was then.
And then it clicked.
I was out hunting today.
I came across this metal barrel
that was in the earth.
I looked in it,
there's this decomposing or decaying carcass.
I want to check it out, I'm curious,
I take my knife out.
(dramatic music)
(explosion)
But it hits me like I'm being electrocuted.
I need to get down, I need to get to a house,
I need to ask someone to call 911.
(dramatic music)
There was no warning,
it was just this dead bear in a metal can.
How was I supposed to know it was on live power?
The outdoors was my first love
and then cooking was my second.
It came from my environment.
It was a place of freedom.
Food became this language
that I could speak with anyone
from anywhere in the world.
A passion that was defining who I was in life
and everything was just coming together.
Something that you've worked your whole life for
and having it yanked out from underneath you.
I don't know how else to describe that.
My phone just started to buzz.
I'm with your brother,
he's been hurt.
I spoke to the surgeon
and he said that I should speak to Ed on the phone
because it might be the last time that I speak to him.
I asked him, "Is he alive, will he live?"
He said, "I've seen cases
"where people survive something like this."
He said, "But he would have some significant handicaps."
[Daphne] There is a lot of maladies
that come out of an electrocution
because we just don't know how it affects
all the other tissues in the body.
And he just wrote something like "I love you
and I don't want to lose my hand."
(rapid breathing)
When Ed first arrived here,
he had several life- threatening injuries.
It was his hand
which is the entrance wound
and then it was the chest wall area, his ribs.
He had two areas on his head
which were exit wounds.
He also had a blow out on his left thigh.
I remember we landed
and the first thing I said
once I woke up when we landed was,
"So what time are we going home tonight?"
You know what I mean,
like I just had no idea how big this was.
[Man] Yeah, the amount of current that went through you
it's amazing that--
[Woman] You're alive.
[Man] Yeah, so amazing.
[Eduardo] Amazing I'm alive.
[Man] One sec, we'll clean it off.
[Eduardo] So just when I look at it,
it just looks gnarly man,
black and funky and-- There's exposed tissue there
and there's concern that maybe you cut the ribs,
maybe not very alive either.
[Jennifer] Baby, look at me and smile.
Smile.
It made me really sad to think of Ed waking up
without a hand and these horrific injuries
in a dark room by himself
with just a bunch of machines just beeping.
During the day is when everything's normal
and as soon as the night comes,
it's kind of when crazy stuff happens,
nightmares or whatever
like obviously Ed had a lot of nightmares
so I was really glad just to be there
so when he did stir in the night or whatever.
So really sleeping there in this chair
was way worth it
and I wouldn't have left.
Yes, he's right here with me.
He's in a little bit of pain
but nothing crazy, just happy.
That felt so good.
[Man] So that's you on the CT scanner.
It seemed like they really cared about each other.
I didn't actually know that they weren't dating
when I first met 'em.
I thought they were.
I could've been sleeping there
but is that what he needed?
My mom could've been there sleeping for a month.
Is that what he needed?
No, I think he needed Jen there.
We have to be supportive of one another
and if you're used to being the captain
like I was for example,
you have to let go of certain things
'cause it's really not about you that much at that point.
Being alive with a few handicaps
is much better than being dead.
That's for sure,
that's for damn sure.
Yeah.
(slow music)
[Kathie] Eduardo and Eugenio came in on August 4th, 1981,
seven and a half weeks premature.
We called them the boys.
Indra was two and a half years old.
We were living in Calabasas outside of Los Angeles.
Then, when they were three months old,
their father left
saying he would come back,
that he was gonna return to Mexico,
he was gonna return to this little island where he grew up.
I looked at Indra and then I looked at Eduardo and Eugenio
and I knew that I had to be there for them
and make the best of a difficult situation.
She's a very spiritual woman, my mom
and she founded a spiritual community in LA.
(slow music)
Almost the entire community moved to Montana,
I'm talking hundreds of people.
[Indra] There was definitely like singing
about being Montana bound.
We welcome you to the heart
and we sing the song of gratitude.
Here, oh universe, I am grateful.
[Eduardo] I just kind of think growing up that way
is a privilege.
There's others that saw our community,
definitely thought it was a little weird.
I always tell my mom that was the best move
she could've ever done
was getting us here.
For me it was almost like we moved
into the set of a National Geographic magazine.
The mountains had their own special magical allure
for a child's imagination.
We would spend our summers
fishing in Yellowstone,
running into the hills.
I definitely took to that very quickly
and made it my home.
[Jennifer] Hello, Ed.
Hey.
No, we're filming this for
just documenting my recovery for us.
[Woman] Cool.
Yeah.
[Jennifer] It's pretty hard for a YouTube video.
I saw it as part of the recovery process to film.
It was really important to me
that he didn't come out the other end of it
and be like, why did you sign that way,
why did you sign this way,
and not really understand.
[Woman] So we would go in
and raise up all these loose edges
and free them up
so that they can come together
and allow this hair to shift to this area.
Okay, and you think my eyebrows
are gonna be all like this?
[Woman] I hope not.
[Jennifer] Also for Ed,
filming actually kind of gave him something to do.
See you later, I'm going to get my head wound closed up.
I'm just kind of coming out of anesthesia.
[Jennifer] You want to look at me, Ed?
Very cool.
Ready Jennifer?
[Jennifer] I'm ready.
When you're in the hospital,
every day is the same.
Everything's getting better
but it's very slowly getting better.
Is it video, filming right now?
[Jennifer] Mm-hmm.
You close enough?
-[Jennifer] Yep. -Are you sure?
I think you should be closer.
Want to turn the light on more?
[Jennifer] No, I'm good.
You're good?
You sure?
[Jennifer] It just gave a focus
on something other than just the fact
that we're in a freaking hospital.
Yes, I got it!
Nailed that sucker!
I've been trying that for like 10 times.
[Boy] I'll help you.
[Boy #2] God it's cold.
Hurry up.
I didn't have a dad growing up.
There was really no one looking over us saying,
"Don't do that or don't do this."
It was really our world to discover
and make our own mistakes and learn from them.
I just remember that they were both crazy
and having them both together was chaos.
Yeah man, what's up with you?
Hey, bitch, come on.
Yeah, you think you're bad.
[Kathie] They had a lot of energy.
I tried the best I could
to keep Eddie in line.
[Eduardo] I guess my educational history
is kicked out of nine different schools
starting with preschool, disruptive behavior.
First grade was for filling condoms with piss
and throwing them down the hallway.
I started a fire in the boy's bathroom
so I got kicked out of that school.
[Eugenio] Got into a fight,
we kind of both got kicked out in that situation
but I think he was leading the charge.
Eugene, he was 11 years old,
never even thought about not having a father
and he goes, "I need to meet my father."
And she said, "Okay."
And within months,
it was literally that fast.
Where's dad and then we're in Mexico.
All I knew is he was this incredibly dark, tanned
pirate looking figure
that fished for sharks and lobster
and lived this crazy jungle lifestyle.
He was like a hero.
It was idyllic,
me and my twin brother running around
just having a blast.
Hi, mom.
Hi, guys.
(mariachi music)
We decided to get together again.
We went through a lot of changes, a lot of changes,
and then me becoming pregnant with Ellie
and integrating into a family.
[Eduardo] The first time my dad's actually
gotten to make a snowball.
I don't know if he expected himself
to play dad all of a sudden.
Hey, dad, no, don't throw it!
Say hi.
Hi.
And we're gonna go say hi to Eduardo
who's having lunch
and he does not know that dad is here.
(speaking in Spanish)
It's a surprise.
He doesn't know you're here.
No (speaking in Spanish).
[Eugenio] Whistle, whistle.
(whistling)
(speaking in Spanish)
Hey, how you doing?
How you doing?
Thank you, thank you to be here.
(speaking in Spanish)
[Eduardo] For many years, he wasn't really my dad,
he was a friend.
[Manuel] Watch it, don't break the line.
Don't break the line.
It's a big fish, wow.
It's big fish.
Ha ha!
[Eduardo] At 13, I started using drugs
and then I started smoking cigarettes with my dad
and doing drugs with my dad
and drinking with my dad
and he becomes my best friend
because he's not telling me no.
And I was already hanging with a crew
that was tripping on acid and doing coke
and everything else.
[Kathie] When Eduardo was 17,
he sat at the kitchen table and he said,
"I realize that my habits were hurting my family."
[Eduardo] So I'm tired of living in the shadows of lies
and I just want to level the field here
and me, Euge, Indra, dad,
we've been using drugs for years behind your back, mom.
I mean, I was livid.
And I think for Eduardo
going straight was essential.
[Eduardo] I decided if I want to make an impact in life,
I needed to get to business,
I need to get to work,
I need to be purposeful in my life.
I had already been cooking in restaurants since I was 15.
And then I decided culinary school
was going to be where I put all my energy
and through that,
I wanted to discover my potential
on my own without substances.
[Announcer] Eduardo Garcia.
(audience applause)
[Eduardo] Danielle, you want to see something cool?
Come here.
[Jennifer] Yeah, this is pretty cool.
So, this is lefty,
you now lefty, Danielle?
[Danielle] Yeah.
I can feel all my fingers still over there
even though they're not there.
That's my thumb moving,
this is my pinky moving.
Maybe I'll be able to get a prosthetic limb
that has like some kind of sensors.
I don't want the ones that are supposed to look like hands.
I want like cool, custom made like hardwood cherry hands
or oak or like titanium, I don't know, something cool.
[Woman] Antler.
Fucking yeah, antler, like bone,
kinda cool.
[Woman] That's awesome.
That is awesome.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Only time I was worried for him
was when he had his chest operation
because they'd never done anything like it before.
With the rib, you can't just cut it off
and leave a hole in the chest.
What we have to do
is try to find ways to cover that up.
[Jennifer] So we had like the burn team,
the plastic surgeon team,
the cardiothoracic team,
everybody around the bed
just kind of brainstorming essentially
what muscle they could take from where.
[Doctor] Everything that's dead.
-Gotta go. -[Doctor] Gotta go, yeah.
That may leave you with a hole on your chest this big.
Yes, sir.
[Doctor] Like kind of stick my head in it kind of.
Yes, sir.
The likelihood of you doing pull ups again is zero.
Pull ups again
-in a year? -Ever, ever.
You're gonna have,
your lat's gonna be turned around to here.
(knives scraping)
[Eduardo] I just wrapped up a very successful year
as a yacht chef,
11 years of hard work.
My way of cooking as a professional yacht chef
really became: get there,
figure out what's in the market,
what's local, what's in season
and then figure out how to put it together.
Definitely developing as a chef.
You're going around the world.
There were all kinds of adventures.
It kickstarted a time of life
where I was accountable to myself only
and myself was interested in letting loose a little bit.
So that is what brought me into hey,
been six, seven years since I've had a beer,
hmm, there's a drink being passed around, yeah, why not?
I remember sitting on the couch at the crew house
when Jen walked in
and where we connected
was she was game to have fun.
I wanted to go surf five a.m. and be at work by eight.
Hand went up, she's like, "I'm in."
[Jennifer] Most people just wanted to go to the bars.
He was the only person on the yacht
that liked to surf and run and skateboard
and all the things I like to do.
And we started hanging out more.
And then we started dating.
[Eduardo] She was keen to dance, to play,
to express, to live.
(laughing)
[Man] Ed's walking.
[Eduardo] I think I felt a responsibility
to be tougher than I should have been
because of how hard everyone was working around me.
[Woman] Okay ready? Turn around.
[Eduardo] There's gonna be someone else out there
that has it worse than you do.
Just be grateful for what you do have.
[Woman] Everything feel okay?
Yeah, I wish I could use this sucker.
You can yeah.
Pretend.
Yeah.
[Eduardo] Gotta pretend he's doing something.
That sucker has no free rides, man.
Thanks.
[Nurse] You done?
No, I'm not done.
I'm just saying thanks.
I appreciate it.
[Nurse] No problem.
This is my new typing attachment.
Gonna help me just do some simple typing
until I get my prosthetic in, kinda cool.
I never felt a fear for my life.
I felt anxiety about everyday matters of life,
how I'd get back to life.
This is awesome.
That's great.
I think hiking is gonna be
some of the best therapy I'll ever do.
(exhales)
You know, how am I going to be me again?
Not to be funny but this is my first stab
at working with a prosthetic
or any attachment on lefty.
Works.
And Jen invented, show the camera, Jen .
Basically it's this two foot fork
and one end's for scratching, one end's for eating,
do not confuse the two.
Thank you. Well done you.
I know it's kind of weird for you.
Not just kind of weird, very, very messed up
but well done you for hanging in there 37 days with me
and not abandoning me for some other whatever.
I wonder if I can just launch this carrot at my face.
Oh, yeah.
[Jennifer] We had this amazing relationship
but I had two minds,
part of me was telling me
that Eduardo was the most amazing guy ever
and then the other part of my brain was just telling me
that something was going on, he was disingenuous.
He just said that I was paranoid,
that I should shut up,
that all of his friends thought I was a mean person
for even suggesting such a thing.
[Eduardo] And I didn't make the connection
that me cheating on her would somehow
subconsciously speak to her.
And I don't remember how I said it,
I remember sitting on the port side of the yacht
and just spitting it out
like there was this time, there was that time,
there was this time, there was that time.
And then I was just destroyed, I think,
because it wasn't this kind of like one off thing
it was actually kind of two years of complete lies.
He's been cheating on me basically
for most of our relationship,
that just hurt.
[Eduardo] It was a recurrence of that same time when I was 17
like shit, how have my actions become actions
that are hurting people,
not who I want to be in life.
It was time to clean up my act.
I came home for seven months,
no drugs, no alcohol, just a lot of time in the outdoors,
a lot of time working.
I was so depressed,
so physically ill.
I had this cabin in Montana that was really rough
and I remember fixing up the interior
with a goal that maybe Jen'll come back to Montana,
no expectations,
I don't need you to get back together with me.
[Jennifer] Despite everything,
you love who you love
and I wanted to be there for him
and help him get through everything.
[Eduardo] It was the first time
her and I had been in the same space clean and clear.
[Jennifer] He was definitely trying to show me
that he was somebody that now did actually care.
So when I have my ridiculous photo ideas
he was up for that.
[Eduardo] When we start talking about something
and we're both into it, it's unstoppable
the amount of ideas that come out.
I left my full time career as a yacht chef after a decade
and I was ready for a career change.
Together with Jen, my brother, my sister,
we started a food company called Montana Mex.
[Jennifer] And on top of that,
we started planning
for Eduardo to have a outdoor cooking show.
Rolling.
[Jennifer] We're just on a rampage of creativity
and it was super fun.
[Eduardo] That's when I got to know Jen ,
like the business part of Jen ,
the intellectual part of Jen ,
the creative part of Jen ,
the challenging parts of Jen.
Look how big our ducks are.
That was the beginning of our friendship for sure.
And I put this on it
because otherwise when I'm in bed
it will just keep me up.
You've been doing it that same way every night?
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah. I don't know, I don't feel
like I need to sleep in a real bed at all really,
it's fine.
It was a very bizarre situation
'cause you're trying to care for somebody
who is going through the pit of hell
but at the same time,
I also had all these things
from obviously the relationship
that Ed and I had previously.
Did you make it?
No, it was so close.
It landed right side up.
Try it again, try it again.
Ugh, that's even worse.
Obviously annoys me at times but I love him,
I've loved him a long time.
I will always love him.
[Man] Please breathe in and hold your breath.
Start breathing again.
[Amalia Cochran] The testicle that had been damaged
from the electrical injury was not viable
and there was no way for us to help it survive.
So that's discussion number one that we're having
with a young healthy guy and his family
about it is our recommendation that we do this.
[Jennifer] For whatever reason,
he chose me to be the signer.
Especially because of the cheating thing,
it's like almost hilarious
this sense that the ex girlfriend that was cheated on
got to sign away his testicle.
[Doctor] Your charts look good, your blood looks good,
you kind of went through the basic and then
but we got some bad news.
The pathology report pops up
and low and behold there's a testicular cancer.
[Eduardo] Are you kidding me?
My focus right now is figuring out how to be an amputee,
other surgeries that are ongoing,
picking myself up out of the ground for the most part
and on top of that you're asking me to deal with cancer?
[Jennifer] And that's when they realized
it was second stage
because he had a tumor halfway up his spine as well.
[Eduardo] Any chance to see that tumor clot on my?
[Man] Yeah.
That's big, man.
[Jennifer] Basically
they couldn't do all the reconstructive surgeries
because he needed to get not chemotherapy immediately
before it went to his brain.
So...
I forgot one.
It just became my norm being in ICU,
you know what I mean?
It became my norm.
[Jennifer] How do you feel?
Mechanical.
[Jennifer] But in a cool way?
Yeah, I think so.
I think I was actually terrified
to leave the hospital.
The doctors in the burn unit
decided I was healthy enough to go home
or leave the hospital today.
So we packed up our stuff
and put it in the truck.
Pretty amazing that we're out of here,
pretty fucking glad I didn't die.
I don't have my left hand.
But otherwise we're in really great shape,
really great shape.
I think I got over there
two or three days after he was discharged
and I worried about them both.
Although they were pulling together,
there was an atmosphere
because they were both so exhausted,
both so exhausted.
(laughing)
We didn't know what to do for Christmas
and I think I'll never, ever forget
the fact that we decided to go to Arches National Park
and it was just unbelievable
when I could see Ed's face
thinking that even he had said
he never thought that would happen.
(laughing)
[Eduardo] What's happening now?
Let's check it out, let's check it out.
Just stay shoulders right over your feet, okay?
Yeah, you're good, it's no problem.
Look at Jen and your feet.
[Corinne] Then they got me across this high thing
that was so steep I didn't think I'd get across
but he said, "No, you're scared,
"we'll get you across this."
[Eduardo] Take it like that,
two, three steps at a time, pause,
two, three, don't think of it as a big wall,
okay, very good, very good.
You did great.
That was, this is just fear, isn't it?
He'd survived,
nothing else, the fact that he'd survived through
in a wonderful place.
[Eduardo] She's insane, huh?
Ed was, even at that very short space
that he'd been out of hospital,
no one would guess that he was going through
what he was going through.
[Eduardo] I don't remember the day I arrived home.
It must have been momentous in that sense
but I don't remember walking in
to my house for the first time
and opening the door.
What I remember was wanting to hide,
I don't even know why.
Locally I live in a small community.
They knew I had been electrocuted.
You couldn't hide that I was missing a hand
but you know what,
I could hide the fact
that I was going through cancer.
Today is February the seventh
and it's official, my hair is falling out.
Bucket.
You see that?
Bink, how disgusting.
Bink, bink, oh my.
Jen, do you want to try this?
You might enjoy it.
[Jennifer] I will.
Holy, look at that.
[Jennifer] I can make a bald patch.
Hey, baby, do it systematically.
[Jennifer] I'm turning you into my dad.
Look at you.
[Jennifer] This is just like my dad.
Does it not hurt at all?
This is excellent fun.
No, if it hurt, I would ask you to stop.
It hurts a little.
Grab a clump and just go for it but.
Pink.
It's literally like having a cat.
You've always wanted a cat.
(slow music)
(laughing)
(dramatic music)
[Jennifer] How are you doing?
I'm hanging in there.
It's been a long week.
Pretty nauseous almost every day this week
but we're hanging in there.
I'm getting my pick line taken out today
so it'll be nice.
[Jennifer] Happy?
Yeah, thanks.
[Nurse] You're welcome.
Back on Monday, Monday at noon.
[Jennifer] When he was going through everything
the priority was get him rehabilitated
and get him back to life.
But further down the list
is what is the deal with our relationship as a whole?
How are we gonna get out of this as friends?
What's gonna happen in the future?
(hens crowing)
The doubt didn't start
until I tried actually getting back to life again.
All of a sudden overnight at 30 years old,
I had to rethink how to do every single task.
Ashes is one of my favorite place to hike anywhere.
You now had my mom, Jen , my sister, my brother, my dad,
take a bear spray, don't hike alone.
Really concerned about my ability
to be the guy I was a few months before.
[Jennifer] Ed losing his hand
is really something that everybody sees
but not many people know
that he also lost so much of his muscle mass
from his torso, from his legs, from his arms.
The fact is that he operates
with way less muscle than most of us do.
[Eduardo] It's such a horrible thing, you know,
to have someone care for you
and for you to think, "Hey back off,
I need a moment to see if I can do this again.
Give me a second to fail on my own."
[Jennifer] I think what a lot of people see with recovery
is this grand coming out of oh I'm recovered
and actually it isn't that.
It's this kind of never-ending process
of a million little achievements.
Undoing these knots
is definitely proving to be a little more difficult
but I don't think undoing knots
is ever easy for anybody.
There it goes.
That's a deer.
I love to hike for elk antlers
and my goal was I want to be able to hike
a solid eight miles into the back country
and feel strong about it.
Being outdoors was my recovery, 110%
and that was where I,
it was my way of rehabilitating.
That's a heavy pack.
I would get home at 5 p.m.
and there'd be a race.
If I couldn't get a meal under my belt by six,
I would be too sick to cook a meal,
I would lose all interest.
I guess as a bonus,
I don't have to worry
about cutting the fingers
off of my left hand anymore when I'm chopping.
I'd be pretty crushed if I couldn't cook anymore,
be pretty crushed.
It was only until I actually started
getting back into trying to cook again
that it all started to click.
I'm like, "Wait a minute,
my career is built off of the ability to work quickly,
efficiently with my hands.
Fuck, I got one hand and a forearm."
That's hot.
We knew that my chemotherapy treatments
would be a three-month ordeal
and we just had to survive that
and the day it ended my focus immediately shifted
to, "Okay, let's get back to recovery.
We've got a long list of things
that still need to be healed."
[Jennifer] Do you want to describe what was here
when you were electrocuted?
Not a big box with working locks on it.
I'd have probably stumbled straight down here.
Let's see if it goes to a road.
[Jennifer] Yeah, you want to follow it?
-Yeah. -[Jennifer] Okay.
I don't know if I saw some of these trees.
Incredible, I can't remember.
I didn't like being up there standing next to that box.
It was hard.
Trying not to feel anger through this whole event
and then you go back to the site where you nearly died
and you're looking at it
and it's...
locked up, posted, sealed,
huge padlocks, shut down, safe.
That's how it should've been
when I was up here hiking.
That's how it should've been.
It angered me to see that.
One tiny event can rock you so hard.
I didn't feel a need to stay there for too long,
it turned me.
Hello.
(speaking in Spanish)
Dad, you're here early though, man.
[Manuel] Huh?
(speaking in Spanish)
I was totally joking with dad
but I guess he's here to work.
That's harder.
Isn't that weird?
You see the circulation missing in that finger?
It just gets, they get cold.
I think there's nerve damage or something.
The scar's healing nicely.
Yeah.
I'm glad it's got nice and flat.
Try to open it up a little bit.
That's better,
you got some blood to it now.
Good job, Indra.
Yeah.
[Jennifer] When we were in the hospital,
Indra and I,
we'd like shamelessly get out all of our paperwork
and we'd be running our company.
Let's make sure that our company
doesn't go completely under.
We've got stuff to do,
we've got stuff that needs to happen,
we have things that need to not be lost because of this.
[Eduardo] That will come off.
[Man] There you go.
[Eduardo] That's pretty cool.
[Man] So how you gonna trigger it?
Just bring it up.
Oh, just click it on your cheek.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah.
Alright.
There was one online for 1,100 bucks
and I figured we could make one
so it's like I'm $33 into it right now.
And exactly, and Montana style.
I mean, I think we could tweak it maybe a little more but,
You got this?
Jesus.
Alright, step one.
[Eduardo] I like it.
Super lightweight, super strong, it's cleanable.
It's just a--
You guys are doing this right here?
This is what we're about to build?
Yeah.
That's so neat.
What's going on?
(whirring)
(hammering)
It's pretty just phenomenal
to be able to sit in this shop all day long,
make these little changes almost immediately,
go back and forth, go back and forth
without having to ship a product back to the maker
and then get it a week later,
that kind of a process.
That was quick.
I'm ready to take it off.
Yeah, let's do this.
That's it, destruction, it did well, that thing,
that thing's done well.
It's pretty cool.
I think I'm gonna have a hard time beating this up.
It'll be like a new surf board.
Once you get the first ding the it'll be alright
but until then, polish it off at the end of every night.
Crank down.
Crank it down so you can really just--
Do a pull up.
Yeah, and that's kind of when it's gonna be necessary.
[Woman] Nice, wow, fantastic.
Good work.
That's a start.
The guy before the injury,
very confident about where I was in life
to overnight being a guy with one hand instead of two,
holes in my ribcage,
cancer also on top of that.
A year worth of surgeries in front of me,
no idea what my long term capacities were gonna be,
and no idea if I could even go back
to the career that I'd worked since I was 15 on.
There you go.
See if you come over here, Sam,
see it's almost like the snow kept it from freezing
on top of something.
Except for the one thing,
never doubting that I would live.
The second my eyes opened on that forest floor
and I had a heartbeat,
I'm gonna get myself out of here
and I'm gonna get myself back to that, back to life.
[Jennifer] How you doing today, Ed?
I'm good.
I'm about to fly out to New Mexico
for this catering gig
so getting my knives sharpened,
feeling a little time crunched right now.
I was just looking around
and it's pretty awesome place to be sharpening your knives,
out in your front yard.
I like it.
So marinade for the?
Yeah, dry, dry rub.
Ranga and I are doing a little at home testing
for this catering gig.
It's quite a big function.
It's over the course of a week, 150 people.
Working with guests
and what are people gonna think about the crazy hand
and I like the way this one looks.
I feel more confident with it, that's for sure.
I haven't put one of these on in almost a year.
That's the longest time I've ever gone
without putting one of these on since I was 15.
(upbeat music)
Firing it up.
Ranga, these hors d'oeuvres can go.
Guys how far are you
on having a single platter done?
Guess. Two minutes?
-Uh, three. -Let's go.
(upbeat music)
Summer squash salad, thank you.
Put that with the vinaigrette,
feel free to splash some shrimp, send it out.
Thank you.
Hold up, they're calling me.
It's Jen , I'm a little busy.
That's perfect, get it in.
Awesome.
Ah.
Nice work, Jeff.
[Jeff] You're working too hard.
It's August 4th, it's my birthday,
I turn 31 today.
I didn't die this last fall.
I've been thinking about that yesterday and today.
I could not be here.
It could've been game over but it wasn't.
* Happy birthday to you
* Happy birthday dear Eduardo
* Happy birthday to you
(clapping)
Thanks, guys.
(yelling)
Thank you.
[Woman] Have you had any surgeries or anything
since we last saw you?
No.
[Woman] Okay.
[Eduardo] I have a check up every six months.
I don't know if I'm gonna get good or bad news.
[Woman] Take a deep breath in and hold it.
I'm happy to say that today I'm cancer free,
I'm a survivor
and I don't know what is gonna happen six months from now
and that's always on my mind a little
but I'm not gonna let that take control of me.
Haven't used you since Costa Rica, have we?
You're gonna be a mess.
University of Utah Burn Center, Eduardo Garcia,
"Bethany Hamilton surfboard handle kit.
"The kit and this handle
"has enabled her to control her board underwater
"with only hand while duck diving."
I'm not gonna think for the people around me.
I'm not gonna wonder if they think I look weird
or "Oh my God, that guy's got a fucking hole in his head."
It's like an experience like this teaches you
to be incredibly happy with who you are,
no matter what you're going through.
And for that, I'm grateful.
(happy music)
I want to jump right into it and them I'm hurting myself.
I think if I hurt myself,
there'd be a lot of people pretty angry at me.
(upbeat music)
Well, hopefully we'll do it again, that's for sure.
Half experimental, half "How do I do this safely?"
There's a bull right down here
probably in this pocket.
(upbeat music)
There's two bulls sparring over there.
(bulls yelping)
Love that.
(upbeat music)
[Katie Couric] Eduardo Garcia was leading a life
most people only dream of
but when he returned home to Montana,
his life changed forever.
Please welcome the man known as the bionic chef,
Eduardo Garcia.
(audience applause)
Please welcome chef Eduardo Garcia.
Our chef Eduardo Garcia, thank you so much for joining us.
(speaking in Spanish)
(audience applause)
Wow, you're so handsome.
Oh, Katie.
How do you, tell us, does this allow you to,
obviously it allows you to do everything you need to do?
I mean I got a walnut crusher down here.
Did it come like that, that walnut crusher?
Did that come like that? Custom.
[Man] Custom crusher.
And if you have to like grab an apple or something,
you just go phew?
Whacha!
That's so funny.
So you've traveled a lot around the world.
What would you say was the most beautiful place you'd been?
Montana.
Montana, well that's where you live now?
That's why I live there.
Getting there.
We are getting there.
[Jennifer] Hello.
-(chicken clucking) -(rooster crowing)
Although Eduardo and I
aren't in a romantic relationship anymore,
we have one of the strongest relationships I've known.
Beyond there's Bing.
What are you doing in there Bing?
[Jennifer] I feel right now
that Ed and I are best friends
and that's kind of the way it should be, I think,
for us both to be who we want to be.
In the moment sitting there in the hospital,
I didn't realize how severe it was
and I obviously didn't realize
how impactful it was on you or my family
or even myself until now three and a half years later
and you and I are trying to get on
with our businesses and our projects,
trying to get on with our friendship,
with our relationship,
and realizing how much personal growth,
how much pain, how much struggle,
everybody experienced and how much was put on hold
just so that the focus could be
on Ed getting through recovery,
Ed getting through surgery.
It takes people like years and years and years
to like get out of where they are.
Then suddenly you're on TV
just like oh yeah, I happen to have this hook,
it's no big deal
and nobody sees that coming back home.
Sometimes I'm not in the mood.
I actually don't want to deal with this.
I don't want to have to explain...
any of it.
[Eduardo] I think I knew the pain that I felt
not having a dad
has stuck with me my whole life.
You know, like I made peace with my dad
and I have the opportunity of a lifetime right now.
I get to see his mistakes
and I get to apply those to my life.
If you had to say who you were,
how do you describe Manuel at 19?
(speaking in Spanish)
Where were you in your level of skill as a fisherman?
Not Mexico,
round trip ticket anywhere in the world right now.
Cancun.
No, besides Cancun.
Nowhere in Mexico, where would you go?
Nowhere.
Right here.
-Empanadas? -Empanadas.
Do you have any regrets,
things you would do different?
[Kathie] How is the person that you are today
different than the person that you were before?
We made it.
That was good, dad.
It's strange being like early 30s, no kids,
to think having a pet
is the first, it's like a starter kit,
it's that first step
to having some type of responsibility
or some type of thing
that depends on you at least a little bit.
I think it was the best thing Jen and I've done in years
was get this cat.
[Jennifer] Run along, Bing.
-Did you get that catnip? -[Jennifer] Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
[Jennifer] Oh, she likes it with you.
That's 'cause I crushed it,
I got the oils going.
Right, Bings?
Yesterday you were saying
how you feel
that you can't identify right now with yourself.
Well, to be in a relationship
is the immediate opportunity to hurt someone else, right?
Or to make their life amazing.
-Or to make their life-- -That's the point of it.
But I'm aware of that.
You're such a pain, man.
I'm trying to reconvince myself
that I am capable of being in a relationship with someone
without fucking them over.
You know, if it's somebody
who's really supportive of you and awesome,
it might actually make it a bit easier
'cause then you know that you have--
That's funny, that was you.
Well, yeah.
Yeah, well, hmmph, true.
My hope is that you and I continue to be better friends
than others can really hope to understand.
You know how impactful you've been,
you know that I can't,
I cannot pay you back
nor can I validate what you've done for me, like ever.
[Jennifer] I know.
At some point, I realized that he didn't need me anymore.
I didn't need to be there
100% of the time and the caregiver.
I chose to put my life on hold
but I've still been wanting to do things for me
and one of those things
has been wanting to do stand up comedy.
Honestly, I think the stand up thing
came from not being heard.
I'm very confident that I'm gonna struggle a lot
just to speak clearly,
just to not be so nervous
in a room full of people that are looking at you.
[Eduardo] I'm proud of us for surviving.
I have an undending amount of gratitude for Jen .
Do what you need to do,
be who you want to be
and tell me how I can support you.
My role, I'm a friend, I care.
[Announcer] We've got two first timers tonight.
Jen.
(happy music)
So, I'm on Tinder...
* The favorite parts are what we'll keep
* Ornamental parts of love and parts of memories
* So everything else has room to grow
* 'Cause in better light, everything changes
No, I don't think Ed owes me.
I think we did pretty well together.
What we've experienced and what we've been through together
forms a friendship which is pretty epic.
* There's no race, there's only a runner
* Just keep one foot in front of the other
* There's no race, there's only a runner
* One, two, three, and then you get tired
* Just keep one foot in front of the other
* There's no race, no ending in sight
* No second too short, no window too tight
* Turn off the lights when you leave
* 'Cause we've got everything we're gonna need
* We're on the run, we're on the run, we're on the run
* Tell our story
* We made something of ourselves
* One day, tell our story
* We made something, we made something of ourselves.
Okay.
[Eduardo] That is one of the most unique ones
we've ever picked.
Whoa.
She knows something's funny.
I wonder if she's picking up on,
this is all Jen's stuff.
Hey, come here.
Don't you worry, Jen is moving out.
She'll come back to us, Bing, don't you worry.
Don't you worry.
She's moving out but she is not leaving.
I told her that you're moving out but you're not leaving.
[Jennifer] Is he okay?
Look at Bing.
Bing was trying to hide in the mattress
so she could go with you.
[Jennifer] Of course she was.
That's okay.
(singing in Spanish)
(speaking in Spanish)
I know.
[Eduardo] I would say that my greatest struggle every day
is just being true to who I want to be.
My strength has always been
working within the physical.
The emotional challenges, I'm finding way harder.
A friend of mine recommended I check out a group
called the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
Good to see you, man.
You too.
At my first CAF event,
a lower arm amputee stepped right up to me,
pointed and said, "Hey, are you running
"with your prosthetic on?"
And that was the first time I can remember
really being in public with my nude forearm
without trying to hide it.
There was no denying it,
it was like boom, that's your amputation.
That was my "ah-ha" moment.
I am an amputee,
I am missing my left hand.
It is a part of who I am
and it doesn't define me,
I'm not Eduardo Garcia, the amputee,
I'm just Eduardo.
[Starter] Swimmers set...
(horn blows)
In my every day life,
I don't have any other amputees
that are in my close friend group
or in my community that I know of
that I can bounce my successes,
my losses, my hard times off of.
We inspire and motivate each other
by watching what we're capable of.
It's incredible.
Disabilities like what happened to Eduardo
in a way is like being born again
'cause your life gets flipped upside down
and you start over
whether you want to admit it or not
it's flipped upside down.
[Eduardo] Scoot back a little.
Okay.
[Willie] You ultimately, you gotta find who you are again.
[Eduardo] That was so cool,
I watched you catch that first wave in.
That was awesome.
Up and over.
I've never tried surfing without my prosthetic on
so that's gonna be a first.
I know it's kind of just,
it's a safe zone to discover
and really be super vulnerable and super open
and grow together.
I truly feel this urgent need
to say thanks at large
like that asshole kid that was so selfish
and focused on my own stuff,
I almost feel guilty
that I got so much given to me.
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for others
so my life moving forward
needs to be in some dedication to others.
I've inflicted a lot of pain in my life.
I've been a class A beep, I have, I have.
I have been so many times in my life
just focused on what I want.
I think I've always been a driven person,
I think I've always had more energy
than anyone knew what to do with.
You get kicked out of nine schools, I mean,
but I think this experience it did a couple of things.
It fortified my interest in making every moment count
and it also encouraged me
that this is a life worth living
and it's a life worth living really, really, really well.
I mean, I have bad days, for sure, this sucks, it does,
but I'm not gonna live in that.
My choice is I'd rather wake up and say,
"Hey, I'm gonna put a stainless steel plate
"on the bottom of that and now I've got a hammer."
The curiosity that maybe got me electrocuted
"Oh, what's that? It's a dead bear,
that's kind of weird looking." (buzzing)
Maybe that curiosity is what pushes me through.
I'm fortunate to just still be alive
but it's those mistakes that you make,
you learn from 'em,
I'm not touching any more bears.
But it doesn't mean I'm not lifting up twigs
and looking for things
and seeing where opportunity lies.
Here's the thing
is caregivers kind of get the blind sight, right,
like I had the People magazine write up
and I was on Good Morning America
and I got flown to New York
and there's been a lot of publicity on me
and absolutely zero on every single person that helped me
and without them,
I wouldn't have made it through that.
So I would encourage, if you're out there right now
and you're helping your best friend,
your little brother or sister, your mom, your dad, whoever,
to get through a hard time
and you feel like all the attention's on them,
they can't do it without you and without your support.
So I want any number of people
to join me right here,
grab my left hand, grab my right hand,
join it up with that corner,
join it up with that corner
and I want to see if this entire room in the next minute
can connect hands, go.
Everybody find your pulse.
That pulse is now going through every single one of us.
We are connected.
[Man] Thanks.
Yeah man, 100%, you too.
You can just like hold on to it like.
Just listening to your story about troubles in school
is just very inspiring for me
because everything that you've said
I could kind of relate to.
Thanks for coming out.
My brother was in the ICU about the same time as you.
He got hit with a firework and was burned,
he's seven but it's been tough.
How's he doing?
He's doing really good.
Nice.
Sounds like you've been there for him though?
Yeah.
That's awesome, man. That's the stuff.
(upbeat music)
I left this parking lot four years ago today at 10:30.
You look at my experiences leading into this injury,
maybe I'm doing myself no favors
by just continuing to push through
and not stopping to take a full appraisal
of why I am the way I am
and how much it means to change.
Everyone that has encouraged me and supported me
and forgiven me and held me accountable
has brought me to today
and how I make my life moving forward.
You're damn right I would go back.
Funny last time I was here with Jen
I couldn't even stand here.
I was so pissed, man.
I was so pissed.
It feels like a long time ago.
It feels like more than four years ago.
It feels like a lifetime ago.
You know what I'm saying?
(dramatic music)
* All my fears are running wild
* Dragging me mile after mile
* Think it's time I take the reigns
* Playing a hero for a change
* 'Cause I'm stronger, I'm stronger than my
* Fears
* Over fields of doubt I march
* Fighting hard to frame my heart
* Still I hear my old fears call
* Who are you to stand so tall
* Well I'm stronger, I'm stronger than my
* Fears
* Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
* Every day we have a choice
* Fear has nothing but a voice
* It may whisper, it may scream
* Well I'm no longer listening
* 'Cause I'm stronger, I'm stronger than my
* Fears.