toast. and i went and i, i looked at these scales and i looked at the people in the and it was like this joke just turned dust in my mouth. it was all ashes in my mouth. it was it felt like the joke was on us. it was yeah. it was tough. yeah. and like you said, i'm sure so many people, especially in the u.s., have similar experiences. no people with obesity who have struggled with obesity and related conditions. and i think that that's why all of this is so relevant and these weight drugs are so relevant and so i think we are just about out of time, but i am so appreciative your time today and it was so great to talk to you about this book so. thank you so much. you ask great questions and i admire your reporting for bloomberg. and i really enjoyed conversation.good evening, ever.

oh, wait, i learned. howdy. i'm learning. learning. thank you. thank. i'd like to welcome you tonight. thank you for spending some time with this evening. i would like to acknowledge we

have a couple of vips with us tonight. we have secretary andy card with the george and barbara bush foundation foundation. and ambassador chase on tomorrow here with us tonight. so again thank you for being here. i'd like to thank the foundation for supporting the library in these endeavors. it's with the support of the george and barbara bush foundation that we were able do these types of programs. now, i'll take the moment to remind you to turn off your phones and all the noisy things that you have with you and the aggie football closes on april 28th, so you don't have a whole lot of time if you haven't seen it yet. now's your time. the next exhibit is going to be really great to see. i expect to see you back then as well. we have the 41 at 100 celebration. and coming up in june, june 13th, please put a hold on your calendars. it's going to be a fanta day and you will not want to miss. and if you have any other questions, our programs here,

check out bush 41 dot org for of the information. i'm going to have a dramatic pause here so that our people know that the program's coming up in a moment. i will be posing the questions with our speaker tonight. but first, here to introduce our speaker is general jeffrey buchanan, lieutenant general buchanan. u.s. army has an amazing and storied career. his duties and assignments include command and staff positions. the united states army including with the 82nd airborne, the 25th infantry, 101st airborne and 10th mountain division, along with many others. he served numerous in iraq and afghanistan dan and he was the commander of, the united states army, north fifth army and senior of fort sam houston and camp bullis. in september 2017, he was assigned to lead all military relief efforts in puerto rico

following hurricane maria. general buchanan. wishes to remain. thank you. i want to express what an incredible honor it is for me to be here tonight to introduce one of my heroes. and that's dr. antonia novello. if i can, i'd like to take you back to september 2017. so we we were dealing hurricane maria. you may remember, especially if you live in texas, that wasn't the first storm that year we had harvey in the end of august really hit eastern texas, houston, orange, texas. and in a tough way then right on the of harvey when irma. u.s. virgin and florida dominantly and then ten days after irma was hurricane maria. now when i commanded forces down in september, late september of

2017, and i had a lot of help, i had four ships, 72 helicopters, three large expeditionary medical centers, five smaller hospitals, and about 15,000 of my closest friends, all with strong backs and a lot of great initiative. and that's when i met dr. novello and. she was also there to help people and save lives, but she was only there herself. she showed up and made her own way to puerto rico and was there to help. if you ask your typical american who heroes are, you're going to get names like, actors and musicians, professional athletes and even internet influencers. but from my perspective we've confused celebrity status or being famous with, being heroic. if you look the word hero up in the dictionary you'll see that

it comes from the ancient greeks. there's only two requirements to being hero courageous acts and a noble purpose. and as as a purpose goes, i can't think of a purpose more noble than serving other people. courageous. when we think of the word courage, we tend to think of bravery acting with, bravery, or maybe acting in spite of your fears or overcoming your fears. again, the root word to courage is french cure, which means heart. so those who act courageously act with a full heart. and the analogy works in spanish to corral chorus song. it's the same root for both words. dr. antonia novello is a true american hero because. she acts with a full heart. and serves others in everything that she does. and she is certainly one of my hero. and i know.

that she's going to be one of yours. dr. noble. for contracting ebola. we also have on the stage with us jill. she is an author, national speaker, an electrical engineer. and after more, 45 years in the electric utility industry, her professional focus now on women's advocacy worldwide. she's been inducted into colorado women's hall of fame and the colorado authors hall of fame. she's the coauthor of several books including duty calls lessons learned from an unexpected life service. jill, thank you for being here with us. it's my pleasure.

well, first of all, i'd like to thank you both for here with us today. it was really an amazing book and i and i can't to talk to you about it some more. so thank you very much. so this book starts out with your childhood in puerto rico. your experiences with congenital mega colon. and your years in the in the public health system and how did you decide what to include in your book. and jill, how did you take it from her brain and her memories and put it onto the pages. i think i'll start on that one. she had recorded 24 one hour interviews at the time that. we started working on this book. six of which had been transcribed, 18 of which had not. wow. it takes me 6 hours to transcribe a one hour interview tape. so after 108 hours, for those of

you that want to do the math, i dreaming in her voice. i was thinking in her voice. i was speaking in her voice and the process of doing those interviews also allowed me to see where the holes were. i wanted to learn about topics and we had a wonderful relationship. we are both, as she calls us, type a plus. oh, both. both of you. both of us. okay. our type. a-plus so i would send her questions and i would ask her for information, and she would provide me with all of the information i needed. and in the end, i ended up with. probably 300 pages, typed pages of information. and then i indexed. and when people about the

indexing process, they think, oh, i index out hurricane maria indexed, whatever what i did was it was topic areas. so it was congenital mega colon. it was the family. it was her years as surgeon general. it was 911. it was her years as commissioner. the department of health of the state of new york. it was hurricane. it was the earthquake, puerto rico. it was all of these topics. and as i that index together, it actually fell out in order. here are all the topics. here's the chronology, how it happened. and then writing the stories that went to all of those topics, how the initial draft. she knows me. so you talk to her great friends

now. how was the collaboration? it. was it easy? was it challenging. what what did how did you feel about it. well i some the beginning she was rather --. because demanding and i would deliver once she realized that once she asked even if i didn't sleep she would get it overnight. then since easter because she's very detail oriented and i never realized that light in the book will take away credibility of what happened in my life. so made me really realize very seriously what date and what time doing what. so whatever is there is true. i mean, i have never thought i would write a book so transparent, so real to the point that. i am a little bit petrified that people know me too much. however, if you're going to write a book, you might as well do it that way. otherwise it becomes a of who you are and you never really

yourself. i always say you were born an original. for god's sake, don't die a copy copy. one example on 11. dr. novello and her staff took a train from albany, new york city to do a conference about a little girl who had come from the dominican and had had a heart operation by the staff at columbia presbyterian. they were supposed to have a press conference that morning. she was representing the governor to thank the staff at columbia. well, that's when the plane the first plane hit the world trade center tower. and were told the press conference was and they were going to the office of the president at, columbia presbyterian. and she told me she seen the second plane hit the tower. well, i looked on the map and

it's actually a pretty far away from where the world trade center towers were. and i called of my friends who had been the ceo, columbia presbyterian, and asked where the office of the president was and what floor it was on. it was on the 14th floor and it's said 100 and something in. manhattan. well, and it's ten miles. could you see a plane hit the second tower. see this? is the whole thing. okay, that's fine. i'm an engineer, an electrical engineer. it's perfectly acceptable. and. and donlin is her name. she was the ceo. and she said, oh, i don't think so. but it was a beautiful clear day. tuesday, tuesday a beautiful, clear day. i lived in denver, colorado and i started measuring how far i could see on a clear day and i could see ten miles and. this was the 100 and something

floor of the world trade center. so if you're on the 14th floor and you actually have a view of the world center towers tower by then, unfortunately then you could that plane hit. and i had to do that work in order make sure that that could go in book. that's what she's talking about so everything is real because she has measured ten. your career has had so many varied topics as part of it and at the library we talk about the bush administration. and of course during the hiv aids beginning where everybody was a frightened and we didn't know what was going on. and one of the things we talk about in our our tours is when magic johnson became part of the commission, and that was under your purview.

can you tell us more about that, how that occurred? how was the bush administration involved in that? well, one of the things that is tremendously important is that i was a member of the task force hiv aids for the department and magic johnson was intrigued and he felt that he was getting better treatment and better cure. so he decided to go to the office of the surgeon general and alert us if we needed him. he could be helpful for messaging. so i was very pleased that that happened and i immediately realized for the time that the department has tentacles and everything happens and everybody knows what is happening, i get a call from the press director to the secretary of health telling she says she'd say, well, she did she said tell that everything that comes from no one, from johnson comes to the office of the secretary, not the office of the surgeon general, and she doesn't follow my orders. i'm going to hang her by her --. just touches things like that during the administration saying, wow, this, they didn't let me to the meetings of aids

anymore. and so i knew magic johnson was coming. so was a member of the team. so i just went to one meeting, got a chair climb as high as johnson, took a picture and then said goodbye. so it was one right after that then there was a thing, cisco. it was a cooler pink in the refrigerator and it was sold to the children. and so in the neighborhood it was called liquid crack. it was the equivalent of three shots of vodka, but it was in the refrigerator. so the person also made a big one and so forth. by sheer coincidence, one kid drank it, threw it over an overpass. the celebrated a girl. and then it was like the witch of the surgeon general came out. so i was sure to say, okay, you're going to change that, cisco. and we're going to change whatever is happening. so i was able to advocate so that it changed from a pink bottle to a brown bottle behind the counter. and that was something that was very important. but the issue is that there were many like that in the united states and no one was paying

attention because alcohol in some places, in some states really have as much alcohol for the point. the drinks that the kids drink behind the counter. so that was quite important me to be very strong. and one other thing that happened at the same time was when crazy horse was trying to be decided to be a beer. i just blocked it tremendously. so it became like the kahuna, the hunter that was always fighting for getting things that were done that's really prevalent in your stories, though, where you're really protecting the youth you were very protecting of of the american public. well, think that when i came, they told me you have to have an agenda i never thought i had to have and i never thought would be the surgeon general. how do you want me to have an agenda? dr. koop was my boss. how could i make something better than him? and sometimes i figured who could for the man? taller, fatter, more martinis at lunch? i don't know. so that puerto rican, left handed female. and so they me.

but i was at the national institutes health and so you learn vision and mission and i said i'm going to get one. otherwise there was no budget for the office so therefore it was traveling books, employment. and so $1 million is not enough for all you do for that office for four years. so at that moment it was very important for me to have an agenda otherwise. the institutes and the agencies will send me somebody for free, but then i would be running their agenda, not that money. so how did you define agenda? well, first, you cannot get rid. tobacco is part of your well-being and. so then i said women's health, vaccination were only at 67% in the united states under age drinking. it became something like a fierce thing for me. and then a domestic. so all of those things i put in there and i was able to work with the underage drinking five drinks, one after the other. it was rampant among, the youth. and then there were so many clauses that allowed it to happen in families and in communities that really we really work on that very, very, very hard hard.

well, this is for both of you. i am really attentive to women's rights and things that and the both of you such a storied career in stem typically male dominated stem careers. what would you tell young women who are looking move into that sort of a career. you go, okay, i have worked for 45 years to get women into stem careers. that's one of my my basic tenants. i not encouraged to be an engineer or in fact, i have a father was a ph.d. engineer at nasa's langley. those of you that have seen figures that actually the same the octavia spencer character started in 1943 at naca langley in hampton, virginia. so did my father. nobody ever encouraged to be an

engineer. i wasn't encouraged, apply for college where i wanted to go to college. and i started as a math major and that experience of transferring into engineering to find it has the right career for myself has just galvanized me for the rest of my career. i'm in the infrastructure business addition to writing 15 books so far and and i understand is electricity is my business. i understand what it takes to get those lights. and i think that anybody that wants to be in any of the stem careers any boy or girl should be encouraged to do. we have a lot infrastructure challenges. i mean a lot of the humanitarian work that dr. novello did when she was in puerto rico was hampered by lack of

infrastructure caused by the destruction of hurricanes and the earthquakes. and so we need people understand how to do those of things and how to fix them and put one of the conferences that i helped organize years ago said engineers make the world work. why would anyone want participate in a career in science, technology engineering, math, medicine that helps make the world better, helps make people's lives better? i think it has lot to do that women are so afraid to be good. society does not let me be good and we are supposed to work feet behind men and now we work neck and neck. and one of the things that happened during my tenure is that for the longest time, my had every single power. he had 3 hours of radio. he had 10 minutes of tv every

single day. he was the voice of washing and dc and i was accustomed to be behind him when i became surgeon general. i remember god every time people come, this was a good let it be for him not for me. i was petrified of shining. and that's just the way we are and we're born. and so now i have to say, you have to realize one thing when you're in stem in long term career, you will earn 840,000 more than if you have anything that has to do with arts. and that is not science. so if you can do it by outreach and intelligence, i do my money, but this moment is the fear of shining and is the fear of of making sure that you do not outdone anyone. so my mother always said study men never with women. so i studied women and i said, why should i? let me say first and foremost, they will share notes with you. second and foremost, they might you something with that they bring dinner a little things like that. so you are thing and top of that when you get the aid in that is just act shocked that i get and

they you got to be i have idea so under-promise and over is the consistency that gets you into problems but i think it's important that the girls have not been taught that you can be as good as you want to. and then sometimes in my generation and i'm sure my friends here will know women were not helped. women, it was very hard succeed because we so few that no one would give me a hand. and i remember i took some summer in one of those trainings that says life is like a tunnel. when you cross the bridge, you take somebody with you for the simple reason that the light at the end of the tunnel with blind you and you need someone to basically you will be able to return and says you did the end or really come back and bring somebody else with you. so always bring somebody else with you. why not stems so i feel very good when the smithsonian me and make me a stem and more than anything when i became one of

the 100 women of the century. i didn't believe it i it was just stupidity beyond belief. go somebody else and not send it. woman of century. what do you mean? so he says have you check the picture? i see ship. send it. oh, my god. when i saw me surrounded by the three women from this, i said, oh my, that's an important thing because who you meet and who you surround with says when i saw the three women of nyssa around me because they put me in the middle, i think it's because i don't that i was right there and then the woman who did the the languish during the second world war, the woman who did the flint water, the woman who does the apgar score. i was those ten. so i said to myself, please more respect. this is unbelievable. but no one allows you to feel good for your triumphs. you're always hiding a little bit. you don't challenge anyone and just the way it is, time has come to change. we don't have to hide well. we don't have to compete.

men can be in stem and then they can teach me to be better. just beautiful. that's beautiful. so i'm going to move to cigaret labeling if that's okay with you. you're so this was a significant topic during your tenure. how tell us more about cigaret labeling under purview. well, i was at the and most of the at that time were mormon and then i realized that there were senator hatch was a mormon. so i thought to myself and i always i don't work in a place where you don't feel pride, don't at a diploma unless you feel good about it. so i worked for him six months and i ended up working months during that time. they were two important things that happened. the labels of, the cigaret for the first time happened and it was really interesting that we had witnesses saying, i am a smoker, but i can swim. i say you can swim, but when come back, how do you feel? well, little short of response, no big deal. so i saw they were lying.

so i then hired this one to get was mother and children. nobody believes that there would be something that would be dangerous. why should tobacco be dangerous for children? but it is pregnant women to beware of smoke? so the senator was able to pass being the director of the health and human. health committee. and so we did that. the second one was in the united states. they were organs to foreigners that had $9,000 for a kidney. and so the poor people were waiting list forever and ever because the good kidneys were being paid. so we did immediately the organ transplantation act in where there was illness and the list came by by waiting for the right thing. and this is why we we felt it was important so that organ transplantation became something extremely important set for me, that when they use artificial intelligence to judge the chronic renal failure, the african-american many them were labeled normal. and no one put them in the list. so now lately, we're looking to see can we find those ones that

we miss when of them? probably didn't even survive. so it's extremely important do the law to find the reason which you exist and save the populace signs that need them. so those two legislations i feel very strong. it was a very important at the time. yes, they were really. well, you know, every life its ups and downs and we're supposed to learn from them, right. that's the way it is. can you share some lessons learned your life and maybe some teachable moments from your lives? well, sometimes book is a little bit too transparent, but i know some of you come here for the gossip. so i have to tell you a little bit because you always says, if i survive what i then i don't want to hear your history, you then can make it equally or better than me. and so i was born with a congenital disease called mega. and until i realized that only people with chagas disease have it. so then i decided i'm going to deeper. and it was her husband's

disease, which is a ganglion call them. that only means that the brain you to go to the bathroom and your intestines do not respond because the plexus that needs it is absent. i had 32 inches in where there was no. so even when i'm a little town and you have big bellies. the constipation. the town knows that and nobody cares. but when you go to college big bellies mean something else. and so i am in there in my birthday and all of a sudden a lady comes me and tells me when when you do, when are you having that baby? that was the end of my piece. and all of a sudden i look at mother and i say, mommy is a big bear, is means pregnancy flat bellies. look an abortion. i can take. so you have to find something for me to solve this. as i went into the bedroom and drank 18 ounces of castor oil, i passed out the morning after i woke up and mummy had got to me. the only doctor that we get because of the insurance that mummy had, which was in the teachers hospital, cardiac surgery, good one.

what is it? cardiac surgeon operated below the belly button anyway. the operation was worse than the constipation. and the thing is that when six or eight months ago i am reading his poems this season i realized it's a genetic disease i never knew when i was growing up i could have been a accompanied by mongrel ism. i have been deafness heart disease and spinal bifida and got me only the constipation so i feel god put me here for some mission and i'm about to do it. and so i became very concerned about so this doctor in particular operated on me, created a -- virgin fistula, lower pain in my back for a cystitis and i was a sophomore in college and he never told me anything of he had done so three years. i went with a fistula, i went miserable and my teacher knew physiology, told me, that's it

is history. you go have a colostomy. come back and take your final test. and all these laboratories that you miss because you're not feeling good i will repeat them in the summer. don't have a nice day. so june comes i come, i go to her and i says i you to repeat the stories that you told me i can remove the e remove the deficiency. i can go back to my second year of medical school. she says, darling i can help you. i'm writing a grant for the nih and i cannot really help you. but don't worry, losing a year is not nothing. i lost one. you look at me, i'm teacher. i was that. i don't know what emotion that i felt it was. devastation, anger, feeling lonely, impotent, i don't know. but i started crying and i came the steps of the medical school and found my professor of histology, which i cite him in the book. he says, what's wrong? and i say, i explain. and he says that which will. he said, i told the which she said you had a beat and told her

give you a d and pass you. and she said she has to make up her thing. so he said, have you ever heard of the mayo clinic? said, i'm going to get an appointment. i said, so he got me one october, which meant i missed my semester first. that's why i graduated in 70 rather than 69. i go to the mayo clinic and all of a sudden i fall in love with my doctor. he was like, marcus will be this. and he was like florence nightingale. i just him. and so he does my tests and he says, i'm going to send you to a gynecologist because the fistula send me to the gynecologist, which was very knowledgeable but distant. so he's examining me and he looks at me and says, what are you here for. i said, virginal fistula. three years. he says remove the speculum, which by then i was feeling, oh my god, i lost my virginity and. the diagnosis was not me. so he writing psychiatry consult. i sought three years of fistula. three years of secretion, three years of smeal. and this guy is going to find me crazy. so i go worse.

feeling worse? go to dr. anderson to look around as if we'll do a fistula gram. okay. we do a fistula gram because. we said good news and bad news. i said, yeah, good news. you have a fistula. but news is that the genetic malformation of here's gross had another malformation i had double uterus and double vagina and whether the men seen was the good ones so thought it was crazy probably and so the doctor me i mean dr. american just a remove everything put me in perfect and i went and joined in the class of 1970 and the rest is history until ten years later. i want to get i got married. i waited two years because you didn't want to have children when i was rotating the emergency room and we do this, there was a bingo games and everybody's diagnosed up and mangling the. okay, so they say you were, the only one who knew spanish called puerto rico. get your chart. the chart comes, there's a chart both tubes are in the operating field. the man had cut fallopian tubes, left me sterile and never told

me anything about my life. i was weak. both cry because years have passed and we so we had lost the hope time to sue the guy. so i forgotten about it. i get this award. ronan mcdonald, pediatrician of the year. they give me $100,000 after they needed to pro-bono i donated to the teachers hospital. i do a mammogram office dedicate the memory of my mother and i am about to say this is great an who comes in the podium. the surgeon and family of his was in charge of that and he says to the public everything she is she owes it to me. i came down the podium and walk out mother is behind me running like we live. how do you there do this to the doctor? during all my time that i have negative, i never told mother because i always thought that she felt that i had this disease and everybody was in the family was normal. i was not about to add any more problems to my mother. so i mommy, this is what this man did to me. and so let me sit now i understand. but so it took all those years,

all those years for me to understand. i never complained. so why i say if i'm here with all those surgeries and all those problems and you start feeling sorry for yourself, i have no empathy for you, mother had empathy, but mommy had no for me. i never was substance in school. i never was able to get away with not being. and it is so puts things behind and in my case everything that is an obstacle will build it and it will be better. and nothing is going to keep me behind. nothing's going to keep me behind. so if i made it, everybody else can make it so. please start doing what is best for you and for your life and don't sorry for yourself. never, never underestimate yourself. somebody else will do it for you. show them wrong. your mother has such a strong presence in this book and can you tell us more about her? she i mean from the book.

she sounds like an amazing person. and there was one time that i think you should know and that. mommy said, my, my, my, my, my father was handsome man, maybe 15 years old. and she married him. he was a policeman, mommy, a what they call the normal teacher, just two years of education. he moves into the little town in pa that would include you and all of this. suddenly i have a brother that is born in june and a brother that is born in october. from the maid. mommy, she says mommy went to him in december and says, take a good look at this too. thomas was six months. i was 18. take a look at them because you will never see them again. and i never met my father. he died when i was in seventh grade and i --. no dear, because i never knew him. but an 18 years of age i was a really sophomore in college. my brother was starting. and when we said we're going to go to that town and we're going to meet if you have any brothers

that you don't end up marrying a sister. so we go. we look perfect first. pretty cool if there's mother, my brother and i, we go and there's a huge house in, this countryside with tons of balconies, big ones and tons of those big things that keep the houses up and lots children jumping all over the place and here comes this lady went to the was a little bit chubby ugly as it could be and she was and my father wife. so let me says this is kind of your father's wife i said so mummy says kiss her. well kiss her no, i'm going to kiss her. do you have an that was that you know the arrogance of students you have any explanation that will satisfy me maybe i will mummy says you're going to kiss woman now because you didn't kiss her and she didn't exist. you will be one of those kids jumping all over. that's fine, so kiss her. of course. kiss the woman who was i not to follow my mother's orders.

he was able to stand that. so could i. and so that was quite an experience. but on the same token, my aunts trying to overpower my when i was in my first grade, all of your generation, remember the little dress and decide with the diploma and the way sucks. they take the picture and they send it to my father, my aunt. and so sneaking for my mother morning after i see my mother in front of the mailbox waiting for the mailman to come, she says, take everything out of that mailbox. when saw the letter with the picture in front of my eyes, they never missed out on me. my mother again in africa they say that kill ants when they mother was two elephants, she would strong but caring i had she was empathetic, but never sympathetic. it's amazing principal of the high school to which me into problems because they assume that got my grades because she was the principal never she told me you're going to take the test to enter medical to enter

college. no, i see mommy but i'm a junior. you're going to take it now and you're going. let me i'm going to be 15. i will not know. and i was like, you're going to take test to enter. so i took it. i here look, i was highest grade for that year, higher than seniors, but the principal never said anything neither did i. so on the year when everybody was taking, i was sucking some kind of something. my peers, while they were killing, i would your ice creams i would buy ice because i was already passing it. so i went to college and the rest is history. what medicine? i enter a mummy says i never told her it was a nurse or a teacher and i say, mummy, i have a letter acceptance to go to medical school and says as long as there's a bank that gives me money, you're going to go to medical school. and that's why all those episodes of failing such a shoulder burden on me because i feel she borrows money my time to that i'm going to do it my friend trust so i figure the weight of my tone my mother's money and that was on my shoulders.

i never wanted to fail. i'm still i don't afford it to myself. so what part of it what part of your career that mental attitude you had, what part of it was your own medical history and what part of it was something that president bush really was proponent of public service. what? at this moment, i think if he was alive, he would see all the things that we did for maria. earthquakes and the vaccination making puerto rico number one territory to do that. he would have gave me one of those medals that he has on the wall i secretary card. can you see what we can do about. and i i think all the things i learned i used them in september 11 because i was the first one who wanted to go home. i thought we were in the third world war when that plane hit. and i am in that floor watching that and then all these people

running. and i said oh my god, i want to go home. i said, oh, my god, i am the commissioner. and then all of a sudden there's there's no communication. all antennas on there. we're covering the for the state of new york. so only a walkie talkies. so he go to go to albany, get the bunker. the bunker is the first floor of the academy of merit of police with all kinds of divisions where i would exactly what was happening all the state and we no budget new york had no budget and that was tuesday crisply wonderful day so some kind of a plane that had to do with it had hit the tower and so cuomo had just decided not to run and so the primaries were canceled so at that particular time, everything i learned, first thing i said, okay, don't you ask anyone in this hospital, what insurance do you have. you're going to see everybody that comes in no matter what do. you're going to open everything to see the ones that are safe. and then we waited. no one came so that so i figure everybody needed day to be

visited and be told the us army was the best thing that ever. and because i was part of the uniformed services, they helped me beyond belief. they me more morgue bags because by then we were fingers ts whatever we could sign they send me nurses to cover the burned the general there in san antonio so that we would be able to take burns because we have 15 patients so burn they send me nurses so that saved many many lives and more than anything the guy that invented the first medication for aids had a dna company, california. i contacted him because new york only had one for the criminal system. so when they came was 800 specimens, a single. and so that's when the pictures started. that's when governor pataki started doing things the public like, yeah, we could remove money unless there was a of the cadaver a certificate. so he made everything for people to draw money, to take everything out of what they needed in the absence of a

cadaver. so new york shown tremendously and was for three months. we knew things nobody knew. we never told the press public education. public you don't know. you don't say, you know, cannot it? but you prepare. we knew that the first when the tower, the third floor had all the ammunition of the coast guard, grenades, whatever. we knew that there were 2000 cars full of gas in the base. and we also knew that freon had been in all the air conditions. so if you remember, were explosions every single day. and we knew that lower manhattan can blow, but we never put it. but we plan beyond belief. and i figured if we would have told the people more stress for people, it would have not been feasible so at that moment i learned emergency one communicator is that what you think he said that you heard is one communicator and that's what giuliani became the communicator with at 1:00, the governor, the secretary state, the commissioner of health, the chief of emergency, the chief of

firemen and the chief of police. and then only would speak of what was happening. and so at this stage of the game, i learned that probably because when communicator empathy, truth stop, then the communication but the biggest thing in my life was that the governor stopped saying these things in english according to the need of the of the state he would say i know the commissioner was saying in spanish it made me feel so that we were value because we also very neat and for that reason i would always value what we in september 11. and for that reason i want to to brag. but i will i receive the governors of the united states a word for the way that behaved during september 11. and i will always remember that vividly. thank you for your service during that time. we certainly. what you learn from her recitation of these amazing stories. jill what came through for you? one of the very big things is

that everyone that faces obstacles, everyone's obstacles are different, but everyone faces obstacles. and it really is the mindset that you have as to whether or not you're to choose to become a victim or you choose to. the obstacles you are faced with in your. and i had previously written a book on that topic, but this just completely reinforced that particular thought because as she overcame so much in her in her youth, particularly. you think about a teenager when you think about a college student. when you think about a student in medical school with situations that would make most people crumple up and crawl a

corner and stay in a fetal ball. and she didn't that she persisted she went through college she applied to medical school i mean, there were there were times when people didn't want her in their boarding house. and the medical students the medical school students didn't want to do labs with her because of her smell and things like that. and she persisted and kept on. and i think that it contributed overall in her life the ability to just on going regardless of the situation with what she faced with. i have the feeling that people me become the jester. nobody pays attention to the just and i think is a wonderful way to succeed because you make it laugh so she can laugh about her foibles going to feel sorry for you and i made sure that i always have something to laugh about but i always remember

there's and dude was going to put it in book proceeding is this book this this poem about something about laughter like say, um, now the is the now the in the recycle fear working in all my the law the water in i'm a to jordan in l.a. mary yeah it. has to say even when you cry, you're laughing. and so when i was laughing thought that i was suffering was suffering. i'm going to the toilet last so that everybody would be already out and coming out of the toilet. but my best friends were those who never had a smirk in face because i smell. and so that's why the book is dedicated to so many people. the ones who gave me shelter when i had no place to go. and so and then to bear no children, like i say, pediatric son of the nation and the mother of none. i is quite a burden when am a pediatrician, and when i see a

kid i want to hold them, kiss him, hug him by the by the but but that's just the way it is. so i have a custom to that and i am just forever love with my career, especially when i met joe, when he said i to be a surgeon so badly and so joe said, you want to be a merit surgeon. i mean, a married pediatrician or a single serve you. so i am pediatrician, but i never let him forget that i was a surgeon general of the united. well, i found the book to be incredibly transport parent. and to me it really spoke resilience. the things that you went through and got over and i feel like you you just on that but would you like to expound at all what we reviewed many before we got edited and i jill would say there were times when i love and i time when i cried and it's really interesting. we were so in unison that we cried at the same time. and some of the great surprise

was for always only time. i really cried was when i was thinking about coming back after my hysterectomy. but it was like, i cannot have any children. what is the use of this marriage? i it's almost like, who am i? what do, i do. and so trying to reinsert. but one thing happened that i think every woman and would like to feel that what do i do if i find that my husband is being unfaithful and i go to my house, i see a little flare of, a pajama black flying that it was in mine. and so you always feel what i do do i choker, go down, kill her, maim her, ripped apart. all of those things happened when i opened that door and i saw that particular flare under those steps, running and i, i swelled up and in my head, although i suddenly i said, i am the lady of this house. still, i'm not going to let that lady take away my piece. so i just closed the door and

when to the place that i was joined i had had a legal separation. so i went to my place and lay down in that sofa for hours looking the ceiling and then until something under the door. and it was a message from my saying, tony, don't forget you're the only one i love. and so i said who understands me. oh, understands men. but to that point it comes to the point that when he got sick, no, i was there tending him and my friends criticized me severely. why do you do this? i say because marriage says until death do us part. and he asked me. i didn't ask, can i take care of you? he asked me. so in the book i talk about what do you do when people are dying and in their in your hands? and so i always says, you know, i am tired of what i call the litany of i'm sorries. i'm sorry i didn't come. sorry, i should have called you. i'm sorry that i came in late but when you're in hospice you're already in the in the weight of which you are going to be provide for your betterment every time you interrupt my sleep, then that means that you

to feel good that he at least recognized it i was there so late. they give you more and more often so in a way i always would tell them about their god give them the peace of mind to bring a priest, talk about religion, tell them what, but we'd hope do something when they are dying. make it easy. and sometimes we're never taught to take care of that. and i learned the hard way. so i figure ten to the dying with passion, mood, caring and with love and hugs, and then have have cry, cry outside because. i don't want them to feel so bad, but the things i learned during all these things that i never did before. so empathy is crucial in life. truth is crucial. caring is crucial hug is crucial. and even in medicine. we're becoming very cynic when basically we need to be very much caring for the human being. so when i look at the end of my book, i see i have so many careers seeing where it couldn't have been me. i had so many careers where i couldn't have relationships because i was in charge of big budgets and hospital and i was

not about to lose the sight that i was a role model for many women who were looking at me so that they can also come forward. so i separated myself from so that i could do jobs. and now in this age, in where i am almost at the end of my life, because most of my they in the late eighties i figure i wish i would have been hugging more, kissing more open or more with people. but i figure i have time and so i'm going to do the best i can without losing myself ever again. okay, that's good. that's good advice for all of us. well, i have one last question, but before i do that. i want to say that we have cards out in the in the audience there writing questions. if didn't get a card choices available, if you have a question to share. so i'll ask a question. i'll ask the my my final question and then we'll get questions from the they don't to write it. i understand it. so just stand up and as your question. well my my question is what's next. oh well she has already decided

the name of the next. and the name the next book is what i forgot to you. and i actually already have started taking notes of, stories. we've been doing book tour. now, i think this is the third week. might even be the fourth week. i'm not even sure anymore since the 29th of february, whatever works out to and during all of this time that we've been together on the road and through puerto rico for the events we did there, i have started taking notes and as she tells a story that i'm not familiar with, which means she didn't tell it before, or i write it down to tell you. she forgot to tell me what i forgot tell you because that comes from the guy reviewed the book. well, you can them no you tell.

i didn't know that one. okay i know i know what she's talking about. one of the reviews, the reviews that we've that have are in the public purview, the amazon ones. but the actual book kinds of i guess they're not syndicates, but they're official reviews. booklist review, the kirkus review the the kirkus review. the man said i was i really wanted more. that's he said but i mean one of the things that i want to say before we close. yes. is somebody asked me what was of the worst moments of your life and the worst after being in september 11, they make new york cop makes me a felon. and so i want to share with you what i understood that it happened, because it was governor pataki, the one who called me and suggested that it had been the biggest case of entrapment. he has ever seen. i floated for 13 years because

the pandemic closed courts. so i couldn't do anything. and i have to have ten days of total mother teresa behavior, which did ten years. ten years. so a 630 in the morning. my phone that in in this in january january it's my niece telling me to tell me is not true. i said oh my god what happens? and she says you in the front page, the new york times and you're in front page of rico saying that you have 20 things that happened to you and you're going to go to jail. i said, what in the world is this? so i called my chief of staff i adore and i say, karen, did you hear? she says, commissioner, i'm not supposed to talk you. i said, oh my god, you're part of the prosecutor. and i didn't know what to do anyway. the only lawyer i knew was a lawyer that divorced me from joe. so i went to and he says, i'll take care of your case. there was. october in that time i went to the lawyer of department when i was commissioner, and he says, commissioner, i am now the eight of of i cannot help you. but when you see an attorney

general calling you don't without having a lawyer attending with you. so that was the lawyer i got from from october to december. he never told me he never told me what happening. he says so on the first. and the last week before december it was over, says, i cannot go to new york with you because i don't have a license. so cannot do your case. so at this i have the feeling has to do with your car. christmas, this guy doesn't tell me anything. so i immediately call the only lawyer i remember. hopefully to god, he was one of the top 25 of albany. and he says, commissioner i don't want to take this if because it's you is will. and i said, okay. so he went was january 7th. he calls means this commissioner is too late they report about what you have done is already and i never knew what was the reason for which i was being persecuted is written and he now that i know your case your case

is the kind that lawyers go under closed doors solved it and you never never go what you're going through so we decided to go ahead. he says, i've never seen you. i'm not i'm never going send you to a grand jury. first and foremost, the the acting governor is african-american the attorney general is african-american. the one who accuses you is african-american. you will never live in this one. so let's settle. and then, mommy, mommy has a heart attack. and i thought, i'm not going to worry about me. i'm worried about my mother. let's settle. so they said that was 29, $29,000 fine, 250 hours of community service and passport holding and my my picture and my dna. the had the same two years i had when he was doing it because we were friends and so that stage of the game we settled and every single i work then in the clinic in fist with drug addicted so i serve two full months and i did

in the clinic i was humbleness it was i do it no matter. and so i got new furniture, the clinic, all kinds of goodies for that. and so at that moment i serve i did, i paid, but had ten years to behave. but my license was never in risk. and in new york so i never gave a certificate of need. i never give a license that you didn't need it. i never forgave a hospital for doing bad job. i took away 84 medical licenses. i just do my job. i was in charge of new york. so anyway, 13 years later, governor pataki calls me and says, tony, how's your case? i say, seriously, where do we find. but i have learned to live with it. and he says, i your case is the biggest case of entrapment. i'm going to help you? so he called my lawyer and my lawyer when it was time that we went to the to the judge for the sentencing, he said in the first, if you it in in in the article for the first 7 minutes. my god he was actually beyond

belief of my job as commissioner and then as a in my mind, oh, god, this guy's to forgive me. oh my god. and none of this is your pride that's kill you. so i said, my lawyer says, what the hell is something i don't know. i did in there look the other way he might put me in prison so finally it was over. i waited and so. the 20, the 31st of march 20, 22, 22, the case closed. and so i am a felon, but pardon. so at this stage the game it figures why destroy legacies? and this is what this guy said. he wanted more information. he got what. i knew. i never knew more than what i gave. and so at that moment, i just wanted people to remember. i read it in, the newspaper, the report was written before i was told what was happening. and so when i went there, five depositions from my lawyer and i said, he says there are five

depositions of the accusers. i called them the albany five. and he says, i only want you to read one. i said, one, who is your chief staff? why? because you always did. you ever had a daughter? you want her to be just like her. and so when read it, i couldn't understand that this woman says she didn't do anything for me. i took her everywhere and says i never go with her. she does whatever she wants. i thought first thing i learned that came from the book of of attila the hun and and leadership, the one who double crosses you is always one closest to you. and there she was, a brutus in my own field and adore her. so somewhere along the i hope that she reads the book and realizes that in her own. i agree her salary so she could follow her bachelor's. i gave her 45 hours of community service. she can go into her bachelor's faster than one year. and at the end she's the first one. so i figure the one who drove across, she was always the one closest to you. and as the chief grows up in a job, the envy for them is much

more than ever. so they learn to know the brute to your field. there's always someone that does not have the benefit of you in the betterment of your life. so those things, at least i learned in 13 years of agony. but i feel free. my license has been compromised and i still have the license of new york. and i will keep it until the end. just despite. the other one. well, if you question my stories, okay, those are options. does anybody else have any? what were the biggest challenges to being from puerto rico and how did you feel? proud. your heritage in the face of discrimination or prejudice? i never feel i am not to allow you to make me feel bad for what i am that. i cannot control the only who did that to me was the the captain in the navy that interview me for being

nephrologist in bethesda. i went there, and all of a sudden i walk in there and man with the feet on the desk there was reading washington post and doesn't pay any attention to me. i didn't know what to do with myself. so finally he removes the newspaper and says, did you hear? we're looking for a few good men and takes reading again. so i didn't know what to do. his secretary comes and says, don't listen to jerks this. go to the bureau if you want to be in the navy. and i so i cross the street and day i joined the public service by going to the nih. so in my book at the end in acknowledgments, i sent that captain here. i said thank you to the captain that never interviewed me because of his stupidity. i am who i am that's great story to. the next question is you instituted a lot of change in the tobacco industry. there's a need for similar changes in marijuana. do you think we will have a surgeon general enough to take this on? well, i know that there is a surgeon general who belongs to a board that is smokeless tobacco

of, which we called criticize severely. can you imagine how much they pay him be able to sell that message. but at this stage of the game, i think in some cases marijuana is recreational and basically in some other system that is seen that in puerto rico is medicinal and they have block it constantly to be recreational that they will come in where we know if the damage caused by just a little bit of is more dangerous than anything is like long term covid. so i don't know the surgeon general of the moment will do that but you never know. you know. all right. we have this is the last in my hand. so if you have another one tracy's around, if you to grab her, we just raise your hand. what challenges did you find hardest to face by the fact that you were a woman? well, the only is that i had a press conference. and as a woman, you know how you

have to look. so i was doing my nails with nail polish in the my white. it was the summer. all of a sudden something happens and the whole bottle of nail polish falls in my white skirt and i have one hour a press conference and there was no martin i in that could take that out. so i said, what am i going to do? so i went to the assistant secretary of health and i said, dr. mason, can i borrow your pants. if you know dr. mason, he's mormon. one of the 12 important in the church. he looked at me and i was covering my because i didn't know what to do. and all of a sudden when i i said, i need your pants for this. he said, i tango in haiti for some reason. he says, go in the closet, get my pants. so i put his pants and they said, oh, they were like long, two feet that long. and so i did my press conference with those things on my shoe under my this perfectly. but for the longest time i used to tell him, don't bother me

because i wear the pants in institution. so that was one of those that was one of those. well, i'll ask the audience there any other questions. yes, ma'am. that livello you just brought a all of the surgeon general's together to talk about the future of mental health. can you share why mental health is a part of the platform as i'll repeat that for the television, why is health an important part of your platform. i think the country is in need of mental health solutions and when when there are at least 17,000 regions in the united states that not have a primary physician, a surgeon or a psychiatrist we have a problem because the people are getting depressed. and so i always ask the medical group is 29% depressed when one out of every ten is three time

before his or her time, when 54% of them do not want their children go to medical school and 72% are joining big groups that they are tired of doing electronic medical records that takes 2 hours of their life at home. and one doctor suicide at least once day. this country has a problem and there are not enough to be able to attend to you. so when you realize in areas of the united states which are hundred counties, the rate is the second one largest for adolescents. basic sleep because they have arms. you see the accessibility doctors to see them and isolation in the presence of that. it seems to me that we are going to need to do something to take care of the minds but what is the big problem in the united states as of two months ago there were 33 states that will license a doctor because. he or she had seen a mental specialist. so they don't credential me

because i ask for help. doctors are going to the next town to be able to be seen. so nobody knows that i depressed doctors get friends, write me a prescription are afraid that i will blamed and then i cannot be released because i have been depressed. so things have to change if. you want to deal with the problems starting the place that the ones who will care for you need scare him or her self. so when you see that 63% of people that basically are burned out and 23% have the impostor syndrome, this is all over the place. but i think basically you don't need to see a psychiatrist for every single problem that you have. i think might need to be able to have peer peers that we can talk, priests that we can discuss, social workers that can see me, nurse practitioners that can see me when there's incest, domestic violence or suicide attempt, then you need a psychiatrist, this device. so we are able to see somebody in that just get to the top like

antibiotic for a cold. so the country is in need. we more personnel and in a way i am glad that the 200 graduate medical slots that were created recently 200 basically are for psychiatry to be trained and for people who take care of doctors in the new medical that were created. so we're moving in the right direction, but still the insurances, most of them do not cover for that particular issue. and the saddest part is that the culture of the people is then understood by the doctors who see them, and so they will not share their pain. and so it keeps them progressing and progressing. it's really thanks for asking that. yes so i wanted to ask both of you about this empowering girls. you talked about what had to endure. you've had a lot of programs since then and yet it seems like this problem persists. so maybe speaking about today's society, how do we empower girls

given we have examples of success and yet they still to deal with, you know, sort of overcoming that it's okay to be smart. so generally, how do we empower girls today? i don't know. how am i going to empower them all? my state is going to go so that women, minority women can study medicine for free. at the university of michigan. so i think if they have a scholarship so they don't have to worry about what they're going to pay, i think that we can really empower them the same as cornell has no free tuition for students. so my not remember the novello name, but you might remember the nobel alone. what a beautiful gift. one of the things that is really disheartening to me, i mentioned i've been working at for 45 years to get more women engineering in 1972, the percentage of women receiving a b.s. degree in in the united states reached. 1%. i graduated in 1976 from 1972 to

1985. the percentage increased from 1% to 15.5%. 1985. we're in 2024, and the percentage is about. 20%, which means that it hasn't changed in 40 years. that's very for me. and there are many studies that have been done about why that's the case. there are many studies that have been done about the steps that can be taken. the national center for women in information technology was established now, 20 years ago, i was a big because i said, okay, if figure out what the problem is in information and computer science we can take those lessons and we can apply it to the rest of the stem careers. and to my knowledge, the ncaa which are their initials hasn't been able to crack that nut either. we have some pretty large

societal problems we have. but in the same token, remember. 40% of people who enter medical school are first generation. so 62% go to two year school graduate. i mean, undergraduate because parents want to hold them tight keeping close to home and then at least 64% go to hs, a hispanic or or the hbcu we're still living in cocoon of protection and we're so afraid to kind of get out of the boundaries so that we can fly. and as long as i feel more protected, i'm always going to do what is expected of me and never really jump that barrier. so when i see 52% of medical students are being women now and the largest number of women medical school is african-american, that means that they have found a way which they really request, what they demand, what they deserve. and for that reason, i remember

was a poll that showed that 40% of african-american men figure that they are glad to see any doctor as long as they are seen. but between ages of 18 and 45, there's percent of african-american women who says, i want a black ob-gyn weigh in. and are demanding it. why? because of the maternal deaths going up. why? because of the infant deaths going up. and so they are declaring the need is and i'm going to go for it no matter what the african-american says that they are doing better. so what is? this protection has to stop. we have to open the barrier and just go out there. but then we are never consistent with the message. we say it once, but you need to repeat and repeat it until i believe it and then challenge you, me and believe it again. we don't do that at whatsoever. and so until don't repeat the message, stem becomes a wonderful thing to say. science, technology, education, you know, whatever it is show me the money, show me the way and then mentor we don't enough to

care for your career we we put it into your sink. yes. come see me. but i'm always busy or sometimes you really bug of too much. i mean, when i mentor you, you want to be immediately. please have some peace. take your steps. but mentoring is so crucial. and i don't think we find enough for the girls to have someone that they can call without feeling embarrassed. and i remember when i was giving a lecture and my brain is true, there was a little who came to us and we said, you need a mentor. and the big honcho from the university said, leave them alone. they are just. so you concocted. get the girl out of that place. put her in the new university with total scholarship on forever. but she was in our face and in our presence. so we took care of one. we need to take care of many more, many more. and so sometimes it's not easy to get out of your comfort zone, to take care of somebody else's life. but we need to do that. we absolutely need to do that. and also for men, african-american men are now getting to medical as well.

so we need to do a little bit better of saving future. and i feel. well. please join me in thanking our wonderful guests. this was an amazing night and just so, so grateful that you were here with us tonight. so honored by your. thank you so much. did you learn something.