Episode Eighty-Four: The Byte - Dr. Andrew Lustig

Dr. Lustig is the President and Founder of Global Outreach Doctors - but he had multiple miracles before that as an EMT he saw things that defied explanation, and the survival of his son after a tractor ran over him is a miracle indeed.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 84 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

In this episode,

I get to interview Dr.

Andrew Lustig,

Who,

Among many other careers in his life,

Is currently working with an organization that he founded and of which he's the president,

Global Outreach Doctors.

On their website,

It says,

With its first mission in Nepal for the massive 7.

8 earthquake,

On April 25,

2015,

Global Outreach Doctors sent an initial team of nine medical and search and rescue staff with three canines within only 64 hours of the disaster.

And they've been doing good works like that ever since.

While Global Outreach Doctors is heavily involved right now with the humanitarian crisis that's happening in Ukraine,

They've also done good works in the Democratic Republic of Congo,

Iraq,

Kenya,

Ethiopia,

And Nepal,

Among many other places.

They are a team of dedicated volunteer medical professionals,

Including doctors,

Nurses,

Paramedics,

Naturopaths,

Homeopaths,

Acupuncturists,

And psychologists.

Again,

From the website,

The Global Outreach Doctors staff and partners collectively have worked in almost every corner of the globe.

And so while doing research for this episode,

I discovered that Dr.

Lustig was once the CEO of a media company in New York.

Which begs the question,

How does one go from CEO of a media company to doing great humanitarian works in the world?

I just knew that his journey and his story was going to be one of the miracles I heard when I talked to him.

I just love the story of people's journeys.

They're always so surprising.

Where you think you're supposed to end up sometimes is not where you end up,

But somehow you end up in exactly the right place.

And when you listen to this episode,

I think you'll see that Dr.

Lustig is exactly where he's supposed to be.

So now,

Without further ado,

Episode 84 of Bite Sized Blessings.

On two occasions,

I was in the back of an ambulance and I was alone because other team members were outside of the ambulance doing something else.

And the person,

The patient I was caring for died.

And in both occasions,

The monitor went flatline.

They were not,

They had a do not resuscitate or there was another reason why they would not be,

Receive CPR.

And within just a few seconds,

I witnessed sort of this shape move from their head up into the air above them.

You know,

As an EMT for many years,

I'm still licensed.

I don't practice anymore.

I don't practice naturopathic medicine either.

I run my charity,

Global Outreach Doctors,

Full time.

I have enough medical knowledge to know who to deploy into what areas and what skill sets they'll bring to bear.

As an EMT,

And like many paramedics that have worked any kind of acute chronic ambulance work,

You know you will most likely experience a death,

Several.

There was a period of time when I was working in the ambulance very regularly and there seemed to be a string of people that,

For whatever reason,

Were acutely sick and died.

On two occasions,

I was in the back of an ambulance,

And I was alone because other team members were outside of the ambulance doing something else.

And the person,

The patient I was caring for died.

And in both occasions,

The monitor went flatline.

They were not,

They had a do not resuscitate or there was another reason why they would not be,

Receive CPR.

And within just a few seconds,

I witnessed sort of this shape move from their head up into the air above them.

In one case,

The woman expired and I saw some type of shape,

Some type of image come from her head and move into the space above her head.

And,

You know,

I thought of at the moment,

The weight of a dime,

Which people know is the weight of a dime is what a deceased person weighs less than when they were alive.

And in another occasion,

Somebody also died.

And I was,

As I said,

Alone in the ambulance.

And I think I'm clarifying that I was alone in the ambulance because I think that's when sort of it's just you and them,

You know,

And there isn't a lot of distraction and your eyes are looking at each other.

And there aren't a lot of other eyes looking and there's not a lot of other commotion.

And so that sort of unique bond between you and your patient at the time that they die could produce what I witnessed,

Which was this image lifting from their body.

I'm intrigued.

Were you,

Did you step back,

You know,

In your mind and think,

Wait,

What's going on here?

I think I was stunned because the first time it happened to me,

Of course,

I didn't have a history.

The second time,

It's like,

Oh,

I've seen this before.

This is familiar.

The first time I was just,

I just was frozen for a few seconds saying to myself,

What did I just witness?

I know I saw this.

I'm pretty practical.

You know,

I'm pretty much not somebody that believes in a lot of foo-foo,

Woo-woo stuff.

This caught me off guard.

And when it happened the second time,

It's like,

OK,

This is what happens.

Yes,

You know,

I get it.

You know,

When I was a young father and my son was,

I think,

About six or seven,

We were on our farm in Connecticut at the time when I lived there.

And my son and I were picking apples and I was driving a large seven thousand pound tractor.

And I would give my son a ride in the front bucket of this tractor.

And so he would sit in the tractor and then I would park the tractor,

Put the brake on,

Lower the bucket.

He would jump out and we would start picking apples.

So we were doing that exact thing.

And I lowered the bucket and he stepped out and I put the parking brake on and I walked out off the tractor to meet him.

And the tractor brake released and rolled over my son.

And the tractor's back tire came to rest on my son's six year old son's head.

It had rained extensively the day before and the ground was soft.

I got back on the tractor and backed this seven thousand pound vehicle off of my son's head.

At the time,

I did not have medical knowledge and I picked him up and saw the treadmark on the side of his head.

But what I noticed was that his head had pushed into the mud because the ground was soft and the tractor had rested on him between two large treads.

So there was somewhat of a space.

And I rushed him to the emergency room and I explained to them that a seven thousand pound tractor landed on top of my son's head.

And they said,

Oh,

Do you mean you're a lawnmower?

No,

I said,

No,

I mean a almost commercial seven thousand pound tractor.

So they grabbed him from me and rushed him into new scans of his brain.

And miraculously,

He had no injuries.

You know,

It's it is quite miraculous because everything had a line up there.

It had to have rained.

The ground had to be soft.

The space between two massive treads on very,

Very large five foot tires had to to rest between my between my son's head.

And there is something special about my son,

Because that is not the only incident that that happened when he was young.

My son had another incident which happened only a few years later.

My family and I were sitting in a cafe with a large glass front and the cars would come and park in front of that glass front and you'd go through the front door and sit down.

We were all sitting having something to eat in a car,

Came barreling through the parking area and went right through the glass front.

And at the time,

We were not sitting close to where that car came into the store.

But my I had sent my son to go take something to the recycle bin,

Which was directly in front of where that vehicle came through.

The car crashed through the ceiling,

Came down glass everywhere and stopped six inches from my son and who was standing there stunned.

And of course,

I rushed over and he was basically sitting under the car,

The front bumper of the car,

But had not been struck.

It just you just fell back and I grabbed him and inspected him.

He had a few scratches from the shattered glass,

But he was fine.

Another amazing miracle,

The timing of which I mean,

What if he had made it to exactly the location he was getting rid of the recycle?

And because that that was that was crushed.

What if he was not sent to go recycle and he was still sitting with us?

What if that car moved just a few feet more?

So,

You know,

A stunning example of just and that is also when I kind of look up and realize.

How fortunate I was in that incident,

But I also have a very fortunate life.

I don't live the expansive,

Expensive life of the East Coast anymore.

I live in a rural community in New Mexico and I don't have a high pressure job and I don't make the kind of money I used to make.

And so I'm in incidents like what happened with my son.

I just stop and look up because there is some guiding force that protected that young boy.

And there is some guiding force that's protected me to be able to give back to thousands and thousands of people that we have saved their lives or improved their lives.

I don't think there are many accidents.

I think there are synchronicities and I think my leaving corporate America to be able to provide kindness and support to those in need is very fulfilling for me.

Thank you so much for listening to Episode 84 of Bite Sized Blessings,

Where I had the distinct pleasure to interview the kind and fearless Dr.

Andrew Lustig to read more about the group Global Outreach.

Doctors go to global outreach doctors dot org.

There you can find out more about the many missions they've embarked on in the world,

But you can also donate to this very worthwhile cause.

I need to thank the creators of the music used for this episode as well.

Alexander Navarata,

Raphael Crux and Sasha End.

For complete attribution,

Please go to the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite sized blessings dot com.

On the website,

You'll find links to other artists,

Books,

Music,

And especially under Dr.

Lustig's episode,

A link to Global Outreach.

Org.

I hope each and every one of these lightens and brightens your day.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Andrew.

Be fearless.

Be inquisitive.

Be open to the mystery and have trust and follow that mystery no matter where it takes you.

And follow that mystery no matter where it takes you.

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,