Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you a little bit about John Parter.
Speaker 2: Struggled through high school and graduated in nineteen seventy five
Speaker 2: in Wisconsin. John had no desire to go to college,
Speaker 2: so he worked for three years in the fast food
Speaker 2: industry before he decided he did want to go to college.
Speaker 2: John graduated from college in nineteen eighty two of the
Speaker 2: degree in hotel management. Went on to have hotel management
Speaker 2: positions in Chicago, Saint Louis, Melbourne, Florida, Milwaukee, and John
Speaker 2: developed a very bad addiction to alcohol, went through an
Speaker 2: alcohol treatment program in nineteen eighty eight. Has been sober
Speaker 2: ever since. John became blind in August of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: To this day, there is no conclusive evidence of why
Speaker 2: he went blind. He has agreed to be interviewed this
Speaker 2: hour on Coast to Coast John Welcome, Thank you, Hello George.
Speaker 3: Great to be with you, and the listeners of Coast
Speaker 3: to Coast they am George. Before we get to me,
Speaker 3: I have two quick comments, please sure. I wanted to
Speaker 3: wish you much success this weekend at your event in
Speaker 3: the Desert with George Napp and all the other experts.
Speaker 3: Sounds like it's going to be a wonderful educational opportunity
Speaker 3: and I think everybody's going to have a great time.
Speaker 3: And then, George, I wanted to give you a happy
Speaker 3: birthday early. Your birthday is Tuesday, June fourth, and your mother,
Speaker 3: who just turned ninety five, is amazing and my prayer
Speaker 3: is that you would be blessed with that same longevity
Speaker 3: of good health. George, So enjoy your birthday.
Speaker 2: Thank you John very much. So let's talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about you. And you have fascinated me since you
Speaker 2: started calling the program with your wisdom, your intuitiveness, and
Speaker 2: I got to tell you you were able to do
Speaker 2: things that I'm not sure I would be able to do.
Speaker 2: You're doing this without any vision. So you you were
Speaker 2: you could see when you were born. You went blind
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: What do you think happened, Well, George, what happened was
Speaker 3: in January of twenty seventeen, I purchased a business. A
Speaker 3: little over one year later, in March of twenty eighteenth,
Speaker 3: the business failed. Now that's not unusual, that's not unique. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: that happens to a lot of people. But here's the
Speaker 3: huge mistake I made. After my business failed in March
Speaker 3: of twenty eighteen, I went into a seventeen month depression.
Speaker 3: It was much stress, and the mistake I made was
Speaker 3: I didn't seek any help, either medically, psychologically or otherwise,
Speaker 3: and I was got depressed. I did get a new job,
Speaker 3: was able to work, but I go home from work
Speaker 3: at six or seven at night and want to go
Speaker 3: to bed and had a difficult time getting out of
Speaker 3: bed at six or seven the next morning. So by
Speaker 3: not going to a doctor at all during those seventeen
Speaker 3: months of stress and depression, one day I was driving
Speaker 3: home from work and my right eye itched, just felt weird.
Speaker 3: My hand over my good eye and I couldn't see
Speaker 3: out of my right eye. So I got into the
Speaker 3: doctor right away the next morning. And wonderful. By the way,
Speaker 3: all the doctors I've seen in the Wisconsin and at
Speaker 3: Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland, Ohio have been wonderful. But after
Speaker 3: losing the one eye, the doctor says, well, John, I
Speaker 3: really don't know what's the matter, but there's probably only
Speaker 3: a twenty percent chance you would lose your other eye,
Speaker 3: so carry on. So I carry it on. Well, A
Speaker 3: couple of weeks later, we were driving home from my
Speaker 3: mother's and father's home at the time in suburban Milwaukee,
Speaker 3: and my wife and I lived in northern Wisconsin. Well,
Speaker 3: my wife is also disabled and she can't drive, and
Speaker 3: we had no problem driving down there, but driving home
Speaker 3: I was struggling to keep the car on the road.
Speaker 3: And this was August, so it was sunny and nice,
Speaker 3: no problem with the weather. Thank god, we made it home.
Speaker 3: The next morning I went into the doctor again. She said, John, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: you're losing your other eye, so we need to get
Speaker 3: you right down to the hospital and pump you full
Speaker 3: of steroids and try to try to say he was
Speaker 3: the other eye. Well, after four days of test, George
Speaker 3: and I mean every test, a spinal tap, MRI, brain scan,
Speaker 3: a bunch of tests I can't even pronounce, the main
Speaker 3: doctor came to me and said, Jehan, you're an excellent
Speaker 3: health you're going blind and we don't know why. We
Speaker 3: recommend you get a second opinion. So then I did
Speaker 3: eventually get into the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Wonderful people,
Speaker 3: wonderful clinic, and met with their one of their top doctors,
Speaker 3: and she basically had the same conclusion. I said, is
Speaker 3: there anything else I can do or see? And she said, well,
Speaker 3: we have three neural ophtalmologists, once on maternity to leave
Speaker 3: and the other are booked up for a year. So
Speaker 3: get an appointment to come back.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: I came back a year later. I met with this
Speaker 3: wonderful doctor and they came up with a theory, George,
Speaker 3: which is probably correct. During those seventeenth months that I
Speaker 3: did not seek medical or psychological help, most likely my
Speaker 3: blood pressure elevated and caused optic nerve to clamp. Now,
Speaker 3: the optic nerve runs from the brain to the eyes
Speaker 3: and furnishes the eyes with blood. When that clamped, it
Speaker 3: killed my eyes. But the unusual thing, George, I'll wrap
Speaker 3: it up on this. The unusual thing is it rarely
Speaker 3: happens to both eyes, and in Cleveland they couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3: They never had anybody there before that happened in both eyes.
Speaker 3: That you lose both eyes from the optic nerve. So
Speaker 3: that's what happened. And I went completely blind in August
Speaker 3: of twenty nineteen. And here I am today, thankful to
Speaker 3: be alive and well and talking to you.
Speaker 2: I was going to mention the optic nerve. It sounds
Speaker 2: like that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 3: Well, the eyes are very, very sensitive, and they're sensitive
Speaker 3: to stress. So what I do now, George, and what
Speaker 3: I've done over the last four and a half years,
Speaker 3: is I try to share my story with others. I
Speaker 3: was sixty two when it happened, so I could couech
Speaker 3: social security and a little bit extra disability. So we're
Speaker 3: prop along find there. But it's important that people know that,
Speaker 3: whether you have stress or depression, don't be too proud
Speaker 3: to seek help because it cost me my eyesight.
Speaker 2: Can you rejuvenate the optic nerve?
Speaker 3: Not? Now? There's nothing available. Probably I'm sixty seven, George.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it will be in my lifetime,
Speaker 3: but I think eventually they'll be able to do some
Speaker 3: type of an implant to start the optic nerve again.
Speaker 3: And that's doctors told me they're just not there yet.
Speaker 3: They're doing some experimental work, but they're just not there yet.
Speaker 3: And I offered to, you know, be a patient that
Speaker 3: they could experiment on or whatever. But you know, I'm
Speaker 3: doing I'm doing okay, George. I'm feeling good.
Speaker 2: Are you totally blind? I mean, can you images or anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's what I can see, George. If I'm in
Speaker 3: a completely dark room and you flick the light on,
Speaker 3: I can see the light flick And to me that's
Speaker 3: huge because it's, you know, just my wife and I
Speaker 3: living in the home, and we have a dog and
Speaker 3: a cat. And when I can see that light flick
Speaker 3: on and off, I kind of know where I am
Speaker 3: in the house. But I couldn't tell you what the
Speaker 3: light looks like. I couldn't tell you what anybody looks like.
Speaker 3: So I'm virtually blind, with the exception of that light flicker.
Speaker 2: When I closed my eyes and move my hand across
Speaker 2: my eyelids, I can see that. Is that a little
Speaker 2: bit like what you can see with the light exactly?
Speaker 3: And in fact, I was just my wife and I
Speaker 3: moved the suburban Milwaukee where I'm originally from. We moved
Speaker 3: here in January to my parents house. They book passed away. Well, anyway,
Speaker 3: I've got new doctors down here now, and that one
Speaker 3: of the exercises was to wave my hand in front
Speaker 3: of my eyes, and I can see something go by.
Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you it's a hand, but I can
Speaker 3: see the motion and I said to the doctor, to me,
Speaker 3: that's a great sign. And maybe one day, I say,
Speaker 3: we'll come back. Who knows, George. But I'm just just
Speaker 3: thankful that the rest of me is in good health
Speaker 3: and I'm just fine.
Speaker 2: When you wake up in the morning, How do you
Speaker 2: know you're awake.
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I guess just psychologically you do, George. Now,
Speaker 3: my schedule is a little different than most people. I'm
Speaker 3: on what you call a coast to Coast AM schedule.
Speaker 3: When I discovered Coast to Coast AM in August, I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: in November of twenty nineteen, I believe it was. I've
Speaker 3: probably only missed two shows because I enjoy Coast to
Speaker 3: Coast AM so much. I learned so much. So I
Speaker 3: get up at ten PM at night, listen to the
Speaker 3: local news. And I'm in Wisconsin, so we're in the
Speaker 3: Central time zone, so Coast to Coast AM comes out
Speaker 3: at midnight, and my body, in my mind just knows
Speaker 3: what time it's waked up. I don't even have to
Speaker 3: set an alarm anymore. I just automatically wake up. So
Speaker 3: that's what it is for me, George, and I don't
Speaker 3: have to get up and go to work because I'm retired.
Speaker 3: You know, for people that are blind that have to
Speaker 3: work are considerably younger. You know, they have more challenges
Speaker 3: than I do.
Speaker 2: But when you wake up, you know you're awake. It's
Speaker 2: not like you're in a dream.
Speaker 3: Correct. Yeah, I know I'm awake, And it's interesting. I
Speaker 3: was just talking to one of your dream experts a
Speaker 3: few weeks ago on Coast to Coast AM was on
Speaker 3: a Saturday or sunn I think it was with Connie Willis,
Speaker 3: and I explained to her that when I went blind,
Speaker 3: I had nightmares almost every night for probably the first
Speaker 3: three and a half four years, and they were the
Speaker 3: same kind of nightmares wherever somebody was chasing me, or
Speaker 3: I was late for work, I was missing appointments. Well,
Speaker 3: then in January of this past year, I inherited my parents'
Speaker 3: beautiful home in suburban Milwaukee. My wife and I moved here,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, I started to get more
Speaker 3: peace in my life because of that, and our finances
Speaker 3: stabled and my nightmares turned into dreams, and so now
Speaker 3: it's so much better in that regard.
Speaker 2: George, how do you get around? You? Do you remember things?
Speaker 3: I have a blind cane. And fortunately the house we
Speaker 3: live in with my parents' house, they've had it for
Speaker 3: forty six years. I'm familiar with the house. The toughest
Speaker 3: thing for a blind person, George, it's to put them
Speaker 3: in an area they've never been to before, because you
Speaker 3: don't know where you're going. You don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 3: When a friend of mine takes me, and I do
Speaker 3: all the grocery shopping because I just enjoy that. A
Speaker 3: friend of mine takes me grocery shopping and I hang
Speaker 3: out of the back of the cart, he hangs out
Speaker 3: of the front of the cart, and I get around
Speaker 3: just fine, just fine. And people are respectful. They see
Speaker 3: the big white cane. You know, they give us plenty
Speaker 3: of latitude, so you know, it goes a lot better
Speaker 3: than you think it probably would. But my heart leads
Speaker 3: for the younger people that go blind or never did see.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm very fortunate, George. I had sixty two
Speaker 3: years where I had eyesights.
Speaker 2: So you know, colors, when we talk about red, you
Speaker 2: know what red.
Speaker 3: Was exactly, you know what red was. I mean, I
Speaker 3: remember what you know, George, Norri looked like because I
Speaker 3: saw your picture actually before I went blind.
Speaker 2: So the point is I was going to say that
Speaker 2: probably made you go blind.
Speaker 3: George. You're a very good looking man, and I told
Speaker 3: you that the other night on the air. And you know,
Speaker 3: the key is for you to stay healthy, and you're
Speaker 3: doing a great job of that.
Speaker 2: If you had your vision back for two minutes, what
Speaker 2: would you want to see?
Speaker 3: Well, I'd wife. I'd walk up to my wife and
Speaker 3: give her a big kiss because I haven't seen her
Speaker 3: in almost five years. Then I would hug my Newfoundland dog,
Speaker 3: who I absolutely love. That I hug my big fat cat,
Speaker 3: who I absolutely love. And then I would go to
Speaker 3: church and thank the Good Lord for giving me a
Speaker 3: couple of minutes of eyesight.
Speaker 2: Now do you go? Do you shower? Do you do?
Speaker 2: You do?
Speaker 3: I take care of myself very well, George. There's no
Speaker 3: problem in the shower, there's no problem getting dressed. I do.
Speaker 3: I make my own coffee. You know the three things
Speaker 3: I cannot do, George, is I cannot drive a car,
Speaker 3: I cannot open the mail, and I cannot read everything else.
Speaker 3: And pretty self sufficient?
Speaker 1: How do you?
Speaker 3: How do I eat well? My wife and I were
Speaker 3: kind of heat and serve people and we just you know,
Speaker 3: she's not disabled to the point where she can't turn
Speaker 3: the oven on stuff. My wife had a stroke twelve
Speaker 3: years ago and it was more of a cognitive stroke
Speaker 3: and she's doing quite well. It wasn't a serious stroke.
Speaker 3: But between the two of us, George, we make it work.
Speaker 3: Anybody could make it work. I mean, if you become blind,
Speaker 3: or if you become disabled, you know you have two choices.
Speaker 3: You know, you can go down a further rabbit hole
Speaker 3: or you can make the best of it. And you
Speaker 3: know what I like to tell people, especially young people
Speaker 3: at George, is in life, it's not what happens to
Speaker 3: you that is important. It's how you handle what happens
Speaker 3: to you that is important. And I've had many setbacks
Speaker 3: in my life through poor decisions, and I've learned from
Speaker 3: from them, and as I've gotten older, I've made, you know,
Speaker 3: easier decisions. So you know, when you look at me, George,
Speaker 3: my eyes look perfect. You wouldn't even think I'm blind,
Speaker 3: because my problem is behind the eyes. They were hazel,
Speaker 3: and my wife said, they're still a pretty hazel color.
Speaker 2: When you are awake and you see in the darting
Speaker 2: past you no, you don't see that no, no.
Speaker 3: I can't. I can't see anything except when my hand
Speaker 3: is right in front of my eyes and I go
Speaker 3: back and forth. I can see a motion in their movement.
Speaker 3: I couldn't even tell you it with a hand or
Speaker 3: the flicker of the light. That's that's it, George. And
Speaker 3: I asked all the doctors. I said, you know, since
Speaker 3: I'm such a unique case by losing both eyes sights
Speaker 3: from the optic nerve clamping, is there a chance that
Speaker 3: some of them may come back? And they were not
Speaker 3: very optimistic, and I was, I'm okay with that. And
Speaker 3: what brings me peace and enjoying now George is sharing
Speaker 3: my story like I am with the wonderful listeners of
Speaker 3: Coast to Coast AM and making sure that they do
Speaker 3: everything they can to prevent what happened to me, because
Speaker 3: my blindness was preventable.
Speaker 2: I told Tom a couple of months ago. I said, Tom,
Speaker 2: one thing I've always wanted to do on the program
Speaker 2: was to interview someone who is blind, because I've got
Speaker 2: to tell you, John, I don't have your guts you
Speaker 2: with George, you would I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Oh, you would you would have if you went blind?
Speaker 3: You would be self sufficient like I am, and most
Speaker 3: people would as well, because you have to you have
Speaker 3: to persevere, you have to carry on, and it's maybe
Speaker 3: not as difficult as it sounds. It really doesn't, but
Speaker 3: you would do. Just find George. I don't wish this
Speaker 3: upon anybody, And again I just feel bad for the
Speaker 3: younger people that won't get to have me.
Speaker 2: If you're ever going to lose a sense, another sense,
Speaker 2: and you had all of them back, but you had
Speaker 2: to give up one, what would it be.
Speaker 3: Well, I would never want to lose my hearing, okay never,
Speaker 3: and I would never want to lose my sense of smell.
Speaker 3: So if I had to lose one of the senses.
Speaker 2: It would be the eyesight.
Speaker 3: Because I can do everything else, George enjoy life. I
Speaker 3: can listen to great shows like Coast to Coast I am,
Speaker 3: and I'm a classic rocker. I can listen to my music.
Speaker 3: I can hear the minister preach at church. So I
Speaker 3: think it'd be devastating to lose your hearing and your
Speaker 3: sense of smell.
Speaker 2: You came out to our Pat Boon luncheon months ago.
Speaker 3: Yes it was fabulous, And you know, whenever there's a
Speaker 3: Coast to Coast am event like there is this weekend
Speaker 3: in the desert with you and your colleagues. I just
Speaker 3: encouraged the listeners to take advantage of it. The event
Speaker 3: in Burbank, which was a year ago in February, was fabulous.
Speaker 3: First of all, the people were wonderful. You and Tommy
Speaker 3: were great, Pat Booin was fabulous. You know, Gina and
Speaker 3: the rest of the staff are so nice and just
Speaker 3: good people. So I'm looking forward to attending a future event.
Speaker 2: We're going to open up the phone line soon with
Speaker 2: John Potter to give you a chance to talk to him,
Speaker 2: a coast listener who has battled himself back and has
Speaker 2: done a marvelous job. And we've got open lines next
Speaker 2: hour and you're still able to call it. Call in
Speaker 2: on that truly remarkable John.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, George, here's how I look at it too.
Speaker 3: So I've had some stepbacks in my life, all self induced,
Speaker 3: and I could, you know, feel sorry for myself or whatever.
Speaker 3: But I remember what I was taught many years ago,
Speaker 3: and it's a quick phrase. You may have heard it before,
Speaker 3: but it goes like this. I used to complain about
Speaker 3: the only pair of shoes I owned until I saw
Speaker 3: the man with no feet.
Speaker 2: My mother used to tell me that poem.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that just sums everything up. You know, everybody
Speaker 3: has setbacks, everybody has you know, unfortunate things happen, and
Speaker 3: usually most people have it worse than you do. And
Speaker 3: in my case, yes, I'm blind, I can't do a
Speaker 3: lot of things, but I can do a lot of things.
Speaker 3: So I'm just trying to make the best of the
Speaker 3: time I have left by sharing my story and enjoying life.
Speaker 2: She used to say, I cried because I had no
Speaker 2: shoes until I saw someone with no feet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's actually probably a better way to put it,
Speaker 3: a better way to put it. So if we remember that,
Speaker 3: no matter what happens to us, if we remember that,
Speaker 3: you know, be thankful for what you have and the
Speaker 3: things you can't control. You can't control that, so why
Speaker 3: make it by, you know, letting that pull you down.
Speaker 3: And George, trust me, if something negative happened to you,
Speaker 3: you would do just fine.
Speaker 1: You would.
Speaker 3: You can't imagine it now, but you would, and others
Speaker 3: do as well.
Speaker 2: Well. I would tap into people like you for assistance
Speaker 2: and help, That's for sure.
Speaker 1: I'd be available listen to more. Coast to coast AM
Speaker 1: every weeknight at one a m. Eastern and go to
Speaker 1: Coast to coastam dot com for more