Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story

1

(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.

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