Unlocking The First African American Transplant Patient With Robert Chelsea

Robert Chelsea (00:00.403)
What? What? I'm on, I just talk.

Skot Waldron (00:03.392)
Okay. I love it. Okay. So Riverside is a platform. It's going to be recording high resolution on your side and high resolution on my side. If sometimes I might get pixelated or look fuzzy, don't worry about it. It's still recording high res on your side and high res on my side. when I stopped the recording, do not leave. Don't make sure you don't.

Robert Chelsea (00:13.725)
Good.

Skot Waldron (00:30.734)
leave yet until it's done uploading. I'll tell you when you can, when you're good to go. And the computer will also say you're good to go, you know? so we're just going to talk. We're going to probably talk maybe, I don't know, 25 fish minutes or so. And then, then we'll, we'll kind of end it at that point and then stick around and I'll debrief you after that. So good.

Robert Chelsea (00:38.309)
Okay.

Robert Chelsea (00:49.904)
Okay.

Robert Chelsea (00:58.671)
Okay, yeah, do me a favor. I really would appreciate you asking your audience to support us because that still is a challenge in terms of non -profit. It's one thing to, yeah, very, very important.

Skot Waldron (01:18.539)
Okay.

Yeah.

Skot Waldron (01:24.562)
and you're, you're involved with a lot of different things. it, is that stamp man?

Robert Chelsea (01:33.373)
The stamp man is this. provide custom rubber stamps, badges, death signs, wall signs, for the registrar recorder. Everybody uses stamps. Vinyl records, have to stamp, documents, marriage certificates.

Skot Waldron (01:38.188)
Mm -hmm.

Skot Waldron (01:51.66)
Yeah. And that's the nonprofit.

Robert Chelsea (01:56.913)
No, that's that's my that was a business before I was in the accident.

Skot Waldron (01:59.064)
That's your business.

Skot Waldron (02:04.079)
I see. Okay. Okay. Okay. And then, the nonprofit, what, what's the name of the nonprofit?

Robert Chelsea (02:10.301)
Profit is Rocker Chelsea Foundation.

Skot Waldron (02:13.56)
The Robert Chelsea foundation. Okay. All right. We'll talk about that.

Robert Chelsea (02:22.321)
Go to party.

Skot Waldron (02:22.518)
I don't have that on this bio that you sent me today.

Robert Chelsea (02:28.309)
the investment on the... Okay, anyway, yeah, you don't have to read all that on the bio. My prior life was self -employed in business. So the stunt man was a part of that all the way until the time that I was in the accident.

Skot Waldron (02:45.528)
Okay.

Skot Waldron (02:49.464)
Gotcha. All right. So let's, let's, let's talk a little bit about that. We're going to kind of start off with the accident, which I'm sure you've told a hundred times by now, thousand times by now. but I want to, I think it's such a relevant part of your story, obviously for, for what you're doing. So, all right, you're ready to go. Okay. There we go.

Robert Chelsea (03:02.917)
huh.

Yes.

Skot Waldron (03:11.443)
Robert, it is so good to have you on the show today. Thank you for joining me.

Robert Chelsea (03:16.103)
Yeah, thank you.

Skot Waldron (03:18.322)
I want everybody to hear this story. It is so powerful and impactful. In fact, I heard it and I instantly reached out to you. immediately one of my colleagues on LinkedIn shared your story with me I said, I've got to have this guy on the show. please tell us a little bit of your story. So before the accident and then what happened and then.

your life now.

Robert Chelsea (03:49.907)
Sure. Well, before the accident, I'm just like anybody else, moving along business -wise. You know, I'm a parent. My daughter is, she's 35 years old now. She was in her early 20s when the accident occurred. And they're...

I guess man would say there's certain achievements that I have had as well as failures and I think the failure portion is probably far outweighed. The failure portion probably covered up any kind of so -called achievements. But nevertheless, God saw fit to allow me to live long enough to believe it or not to have...

an auto accident by which a drunk driver ran into me on the freeway. My car blew up, which caused me to be burned up from basically top to bottom. You see my face is different. It doesn't have a scar or anything on it because I have another face. I have a

face transplant. So to back up a little on the accident from the drunk driver running into me, car blowing up, I was still conscious at the time. I won't try to get into all the details since we are sort of short on time, but I will say that

As soon as I got into the ambulance, I laid down on the gurney and I went to sleep thinking that somebody would come by and pick me up. The first thing that helped me out of the car's name was Richard Robes. And he helped me to be a contractor who had a fire extinguisher in his truck.

Robert Chelsea (06:07.931)
And he jumped out and found himself spraying me down. He said he tried to take my arm, but my arm was melted. So he had to try to get a belt buckle and help escort me to a safer area. My hands, you can probably see my hands, these are cadaver skin.

They had to put that on because of the burns that I had my arms. I don't know if you can see all of that, but most of this is grafts. And my legs, my whole body was like that. So as a result, I was actually laying on the gurney thinking that I wasn't severely burned. I had no idea that I was, you know.

I in a coma the first six months. So I gave you an idea of the extent of the burns and the physical condition that I was in. After recovering, which took about three and half, four years to recover, I then...

was introduced to the idea of a face transplant because my lips were burned off, part of my tongue, and scars on my eye, and part of my nose was melted. And, you know, anyway, I don't know if you have any pictures, but you can always go to my website and see if you want to see something that might be somewhat horrific.

in terms of look. I looked like a Halloween mask basically. So as a result, the plastic surgeons and dermatologists, none of them felt they could do anything other than place a flap on my lips so that they would cover my teeth and gums. But they couldn't figure out a way to give me any kind of control so I could open.

Robert Chelsea (08:19.707)
and close my lips or move them around. And then my last plastic surgeon, whom I still work with today, he had a friend that studied under my current surgeon, Dr. Bolden -Pomahawk. Bolden -Pomahawk is the premier face transplant

surgeon in the world. I say world, it's undisputable. There's only 15 face transplants that's been done in the United States and he has done 10 of those. No one in the world has done any more than two. So, Dr.

Bolton Palmerhock clearly is the premier face transplant surgeon. I happen to be the first black to receive a face transplant in the world as well. I also, because of my particular condition, at the time, face transplants was only 46 in the whole world, done through about nine different countries.

And as I mentioned, 15 of those were in the US. And as a result of that, every one of those face transplants, all of them were not full face transplants. Some were partial. Some were only the head. Some were only the cheeks, only the eye sockets. And that...

Quite a few individuals that have had base transplants were subject to attempted suicide. And they, you know, they would, but they may have blown off their whole chin or other parts. So as a result of that, those have been primarily the candidates.

Robert Chelsea (10:33.907)
or injuries that had severe accidents. Certain people have had lye poured on them, electrocutions, etc. So we're talking about something that's very, serious, critical, life -threatening, etc. During that time, the cutout date for a candidate for a face transplant was 50 years old, but I was already 64.

when we started talking about face transplants. Currently I'm 73, I'll be 74 this year in November. So that's basically, I don't know if that's a good backdrop or not, but at least you have an idea of what has transpired with me, but hopefully you also get an idea of what our...

the future and opportunity is for others. I don't know of anybody in your audience that might have had kidney failure, heart failure, know, transplants are done with liver, lungs, stem cells, bone marrow, heart, and so on. And now, face transplants have...

been successful with the few people that there's been. Also, and leg, or as it's referred to limb transplants, are also being investigated. Some have already been done, and I do know some of those individuals because, you know, everyone wants to talk with them as well.

So now, Scott, if you want to ask me questions or you want me to go on and just talk away, it's up to you.

Skot Waldron (12:30.254)
Yeah, I could listen to you talk for a while, Robert, your stories. mean, it's something that 99 % of the people on this planet probably won't experience. And it's amazing what you've had to overcome, I imagine, as part of this whole experience. And that's what I want to start with is...

What was your mindset? You were in a coma for six months. You come out of that coma and you have this life altering experience. you are now hospitalized. You are, I imagine probably still in some amount of pain and emotional, mental and physical pain. What was your mindset when you were.

In that hospital room, when you were, came out of your coma and you're starting to understand the gravity of your situation. What was your mindset at that point in time?

Robert Chelsea (13:38.003)
I am so grateful that what I experienced is, you said 99 % of the people, well, what I experienced may not even be close to 99 % because I had no pain, Scott. Other than the first day or the night that it happened, I did feel

pain in certain spots, but nothing as severe as it really was as you would imagine, if you will. And coming out of the coma, God had kept me in such a way that I had no complaints. Obviously there's an inconvenience, the flesh doesn't, you know, can't do this, I can't do that.

I'm wondering what's going on and why. But the why wasn't why to do it to me, but the why was if there's anything you want me to do, I'm glad to do it because of how I was treated throughout my experience.

It would be considered an ordeal to someone else, and it is. And it's certainly challenging. But God has a way of conquering them too. And you, as an individual, or myself, we do all we can to comfort our loved ones. Well, how much more? I mean, it's exponential.

the degree of what God can do to comfort us. And so I, referring to that 99%, I experienced that kind of comfort where I was not in any pain. So what was my mindset? It was in a state of rejoicing, adulation, appreciation.

Robert Chelsea (16:06.651)
Rudefulness.

I was able to realize that in spite of conditions, that there is a way that, you know, David, in the book of Psalms, David wrote so many beautiful words. I'll zero in on one where he says, though I walk through valleys and shadows of death, I fear no evil, for God was with me.

his Rod's style comforted me. Well, you know, we read these things and they just sound so beautiful, we love to go back to reading them again. But I know for sure that David just wasn't being poetic, he just wasn't writing nice, words about God. But David was writing what he had personally experienced.

I went through valleys and shadows of and I didn't have to fear either. For God comforted me. And so, you might think that that's rare, but man, now that I have gone through it.

Robert Chelsea (17:33.753)
I know for my own self that this is an aspect. You want to find out techniques on how to overcome, how to be a leader, how to guide individuals, if you will, in a direction that can be worthwhile, beneficial to not only the leader, but to also those that are being led.

Robert Chelsea (18:03.857)
Now I know I can rely on certain tools. One is trusting God.

Robert Chelsea (18:16.349)
So that's one of the ways that I was provided. You don't just ask for no pain. know, what you're going through, there's no way that you can expect no pain, major discomfort, and so on. I had amputations also. My fingers and toes had to be amputated because they were gangrene.

So through it all, it's not a matter of just being positive or optimistic or having faith or belief or trust, but that's something you have to know.

And so this is where I'm at. I would rather stand on what I know, solid ground, versus any form of faith or trust or belief or concept or theory.

Robert Chelsea (19:27.909)
And I think the best advice a man especially can give anyone is to stand on what you know. Then, based on that form of knowledge, wisdom can be developed when you apply knowledge in its proper place. In other words, the proper application of knowledge.

is defined as wisdom.

Robert Chelsea (20:02.437)
If you don't apply your knowledge correctly, then it's unwise. It could be even considered foolish. So, to use wisdom, first obtain knowledge, things that you know, and then you can apply it in the right way, and that defines wisdom. So...

That's where I'm at. I'm glad that I know that God can bring me out of anything. I know when Shadrach, Meshach, the Hebrew boys went in the pirate, I know that God brought him out now. It wasn't just talk. It's just not a good story. I know that the Red Sea was open to Moses.

I know that Noah built that ark for 120 years.

So now I can speak not just with confidence, but assurity. If anything, I'd want to give that to your audience. You, all of us, deserve to have something that we, to be offered something we don't.

Skot Waldron (21:26.978)
So let me ask you this, the, the, I mean, your mindset coming out of that, lot of people could have been angry. They could have been afraid. They could have been, and maybe there's parts of that that came into your life every now and then. Right. But the fact that you're talking about this idea of gratitude, I felt grateful. felt appreciative. felt like rejoicing.

Like those expressions of, of hope are so amazing after coming out of what you came out of for leaders today that are running companies. they may be listening to this going Robert. Man, that's amazing. What you experienced. That's, that's just a personal triumph. That is something that is so for you, but that doesn't really apply to me as a leader. Like you've said some other things, right? That,

Hey, but I like these, this idea of verifiable truths. How can verifiable the thing you call verifiable truths help leaders today lead their companies.

Robert Chelsea (22:37.847)
It's not about leading a company. It's about leading yourself, in my opinion. I mean, what in the world are you going to do with anyone, a company that has no pulse? But the individuals you work with, or recommend, or suggest, or lead, direct, instruct, they do have a pulse.

And so I think it's not always, it is attitude, it is attitude that has a factor. But you can establish yourself in a particular posture or thought and attitude, behavior or pattern. You can establish that.

know, a gangster has to stay in that mode, right? In order to be successful, to compete with all the other gangsters. So a football player has to have his mind set on, you see. But I think when we have a...

Robert Chelsea (24:02.451)
clear enough interest in the truth of a matter. You mentioned fears and things like that. I realized that my carnality, my natural instincts could be anger.

as a result of the accident and so on. It could be a lot of things. I could be judging the drunk driver. You know, people will say for sure that he deserves to be judged. But am I the right one to judge? And if I do that, particularly a judge in an unrighteous way, I won't know that unless I find out what's righteous.

So you want to advise someone and find out the truth. Find out the right way. There is a very famous person that said, he wrote a song, he said, why don't you check out your mind? It's been with you all the time. Another very famous individual,

He put a song together as well. And that song went, let's see, I'm looking at the man in the mirror and asking him to change his ways. If you want to make a place, you want to make a place, no, you want to make a life a better place, then take a look at yourself and change.

Robert Chelsea (26:00.587)
So the point I'm getting to Scott is first start with you want to be a leader? Well you can be what you want to be but are you a leader no matter how much you want to be? My desire to be a leader doesn't qualify me as a leader.

Robert Chelsea (26:24.273)
No. So I think there's another man that said circumcise the foreskin of your heart. See? You want to get things in order to help somebody else to lead in the right... I'm not going to lead somebody in the right way and I'm not right myself. That's the difference I think.

in what's referred to as equality versus iniquity.

We know a lot about what appears to be when individuals are not equal or not considered equal or not treated equal. But iniquity is hidden sin of the heart. Now sins, you know, I can sin right now and you can sin right now, ends over with. So whatever it is, a lie or...

a terrible thought, whatever it might be. But iniquity is the conditions that we have in our own heart that we're just not going to get rid of. I don't like it and I'm not going to change about it and I feel comfortable with not liking it.

Well, fortunately for me, here's an accident. Anyone would say, you got to be angry with the guy that you... Well, that's the best opportunity for me to not... In my case, I didn't even, you know... I didn't have to forgive the guy. I just considered how many accidents that I may have caused. How many? A cause. How many times a year cause someone to stumble?

Robert Chelsea (28:30.003)
Have you ever deceived anyone, misled them? Have they ever lied, cheated? Have they ever overpriced someone? Yeah. So what nerve would I have to blame him for an accident? This is an accident. I've been causing accidents all my 70 years. See? So I...

feel it's an inward conditioning that must be eradicated, mortified, eliminated. As much as I can work on me, I then am cleaning or purifying myself as a, this is an illustration, a living illustration of what

my men keys should do.

Skot Waldron (29:33.166)
Mm -hmm.

Robert Chelsea (29:35.495)
The more I live righteously, the more they can. Who else is a better example than your leader?

So you're going to lead, what are you going to lead? To righteous or unrighteous? You're going to lead to foolish or wisdom? So it's knowledge and the proper application of it is what's going to help whoever it is that's watching you, listening to you.

responding to you. And so you better make sure that your knowledge is properly applied. And it cannot be unless you, when I say you of course I'm talking to myself, unless Robert cleans his act. I share this with you. When I was, after I got out of the coma, I didn't know that my lips were burned off.

you know, all the things that I could do. didn't, of course I didn't know I was in a coma. So after about three or four months outside the coma, they finally tried to get me out of the bed and put me in a wheelchair to get me out to the hospital, because my organs still weren't working right. And so they just figured I would die.

So when they finally got me to a point where they put me in a wheelchair, was able to see through an aluminum paper towel holder, I could see the reflection of my face as they rolled me out. We went right past the sink and I got that aluminum...

Robert Chelsea (31:37.619)
I saw the reflection of my face. So I realized then, this is why everybody's making them feel so bad about me because my face was all messed up and mangled and looked like this. All over, all over. No lips. All my teeth is just showing.

Robert Chelsea (32:02.705)
When I realized that, then I began to ask God, I know you're not going to put more lips on me. And part of my tongue was burned off also. So how can I share your wonderful ways, what you've done with me and the things that you've shown me and the love that you've had for me? How can I express it to anybody?

in these conditions. And so as I'm venting on complaining, if you will, to God about, you know, I want to really let everybody know this love that I have for you, the joy that you provided for me, the comfort that you give me. How am I going to do it? And before I could really finish all of my verbage,

I heard his word, verbal word, audible word, that's how you say it. He said, kindness. That's I heard, kindness.

and Scott immediately.

I realized he was saying to me, don't need an ellipse, I don't need a voice, I don't need a platform, I need to be a sweet spirit.

Robert Chelsea (33:37.551)
And others, you you didn't know me, but others might say, well, you know what, you were always a gentleman. You were always, know, this nice guy and all. But God, He, I knew He was saying, I am not anywhere close to where He expects us to be.

I need to, he wants a holy people and he can have a holy people.

And as a result of that, we're talking about all these people now, all these different men, Abraham, he lied about his own wife, said that she was his sister. Yet God turned him around to a degree of what he refers to as holy.

So he was letting me know I could do that. That it's gonna require kindness and not, you know, a song and dance.

Skot Waldron (34:53.87)
Can you Robert, can you tell me, so all this stuff you've done, all of the things that you've been talking about, you've poured your heart and soul into what you now call the Robert Chelsea foundation. Can you tell me in the listeners, tell us about that foundation and, is that a reflection of this audible idea of kindness of pouring yourself into something of like the way you're spreading your message?

Robert Chelsea (34:54.013)
So.

Robert Chelsea (35:24.807)
Well, depending on the audience, for example, when I talk with schools, I like to talk with the middle school, high schools, junior colleges, because kids get teased. You know how kids are. And I wear loose clothing.

So that they can see just like I'm showing you you know I could lift my leg up if you can see it and you see all this well that's that's how my whole whole body looks well many of your employees and students and peers they may look the same way under the clothing they can't run like you ran or walk like talk

They may have had birth defects. You won't know that. And you think that it's kind of weird or they might have been in an accident. Some kind of way. Barbecue in the backyard. Any kind of grease hitting them. House fire. Cars. Whatever.

So I try to let them feel and touch myself and any other members that are with me at the time so that they can realize that we are still normal individuals that you can still communicate with, that you still can respect, love, care for, you know, they're...

So, so my emphasis there in the school system, if you will, is to let them know that overcoming these adversities really have to do with an inward to establish our own selves as not just I could do it, but with with God's guidance.

Robert Chelsea (37:46.381)
Anything can be done, no matter how your challenges may change. We can't anticipate this kind of severity. And yet, when or if it does happen, now you've got decisions, quick decisions, life -changing decisions.

that are forced upon you. So it's good to know that you should not judge yourself according to other men or other individuals. Judge yourself according to a worthwhile standard, which is God's standard.

Another worthwhile, and I'll say another because I see this as additional standard, and that is a kind standard, a gracious standard, a loving standard, a forgiving standard. In other words, when, when

I'll go back to the accident. People say, can you forget about it? But yeah, I had no reason not to.

Robert Chelsea (39:23.921)
My standard would be, hang him, you know. But God's says, unfortunately, if you have knowledge of him, now I can apply his standard to forgive. How many times? Now this is where iniquity comes in. How many times should I forgive him? Second times?

Well, Christ said, no, you forgive him second to time, So you take your standard out. We all think that we should rely on mom's standard, dad's standard, our organization's our culture's standard. No! Or the business standard, the company's standard. They're not worth 10 cents.

They compete with other company standards. So that's why we have to establish our own based on a worthwhile platform. In my case, it's God.

Skot Waldron (40:36.61)
That's amazing. Chelsea, Robert. mean, I love, I love the message. I love it. And I hope that leaders can learn to apply this, this idea of a standard or the idea of who are you leading yourself is not about the company. It's about leading yourself. So this is, this has been amazing. I'm going to put all this in the show notes ways for people to get in touch with you. Thank you so much, Robert, for sharing your story, for sharing your spirit, for sharing your kindness.

For sharing all the things that you've been sharing with us today. good luck with everything you're doing and, thanks again for being on the show.

Robert Chelsea (41:14.591)
yeah, my pleasure. I have a saying that kindness pays dividends. You want to quote corporate dividends? Kindness pays dividends that no man can measure.

Skot Waldron (41:31.328)
Amen. Amen. Well done. Well done, Robert. All right, man. Well, thank you for the kind of words. I appreciate you.

Robert Chelsea (41:38.161)
Yes, my pleasure, thank you.