Hospital and dumped him, where he was eventually picked up by the Las Vegas Police

While serving time on an outstanding warrant, Willie McTear sobered up. After so long on booze and drugs, going cold turkey was excruciating, leaving McTear with the cold sweats and panic attacks of withdrawal. But as his sentence was nearing its end, Willie McTear looked at the world clearly for the first time in years. He had lost everything in his life. He wanted to stay sober, but what was he going to do? Perhaps it was fate. Soon after his release from jail, when he was at his most vulnerable, Willie McTear received a visit from Richard Vincent, with whom he had worked in the juvenile detention system. The two had always gotten along well, and Vincent had since moved to Orange County, California, where he oversaw several of the Care Unit hospitals on the west coast. Seeing his old friend in distress, Vincent offered McTear a job and a place to live in California. It didn't take Willie McTear long to decide. He took Vincent up on his offer. It was the best decision that he had made in years. McTear stuck to Vincent like glue, learning everything he could about hospital administration while coming to terms with his own future. What he saw, and who he had been, pushed McTear toward a natural career path. In 1994 he enrolled in Saddleback College to study the treatment of chemical dependency and alcohol abuse. In every page of his studies he saw himself; he saw the desperate faces of the other veterans living on the streets of Las Vegas. Willie McTear had found his calling. In 1998 he graduated at the top of his class, and then went on to work in several hospitals throughout California caring for those with chemical or alcohol dependency.