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American Morning

Senator McCain Undergoes Prostate Surgery

Aired August 29, 2001 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Arizona, where Senator John McCain is undergoing surgery this morning to treat an enlarged prostate. McCain's office stresses the enlargement is benign, and it's not related to his history of skin cancer.

For more on prostate enlargement and the treatment, we turn to our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is in Washington, D.C., this morning. Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn, good morning to you.

KAGAN: What's the latest on John McCain, and what is it that he's supposed to have done?

GUPTA: Well, from what we've heard, Senator McCain is going to undergo surgery today, his birthday, his 65th birthday, in a pretty benign procedure called TURP, which is transurethral resection of the prostate. A very commonly-done procedure.

A lot of men of Senator McCain's age, in the 60s, do have this sort of problem. And we heard from him just earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Doing fine. I'll be out in a day or so. And everything will be just fine. I'm looking forward to having this minor problem resolved, and everything's going to be fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: It is a minor problem. Like I said, over 50 percent of the people in their 60s have this problem. Once you get into your 70s and 80s, the numbers can reach as high as 90 percent. What we learned at medical school was that if you live long enough, just about everybody gets this sort of problem with their prostrate -- prostate. Daryn?

KAGAN: Not the best way to spend your 65th birthday, but we wish the senator well.

Now, let's talk about what you were doing up there yesterday. You had your scrubs on yesterday...

GUPTA: That's right.

KAGAN: ... and you were standing outside an operating room. We were watching this incredible liver transplant take place. Tell us more about that, and how the two patients are doing today?

GUPTA: Right. Right, Daryn. Just a remarkable story. A young man, 27-year-old healthy man, donated 60 percent of his liver to his mother, a woman who needed a liver transplant because of Hepatitis C.

I'm happy to report they're both doing well. Son is already off the breathing machine, and doing quite well. The mother is expected to come off the breathing machine earlier, a little later on today, rather.

Just to give you little more about that. They -- both operations lasted about 14 hours.

KAGAN: Wow.

GUPTA: Yes. The son, he went to the operating room around 7:30 in the morning, and 14 hours later was finally done. The mother's operation started about 10:30, it was a real careful orchestrating of events. They had to make sure that his liver was going to be OK, and actually have it in the room before they removed her liver. Just an amazing, amazing day. Everything turned out well, Daryn.

KAGAN: And you told us -- this real quickly -- how long it will take for each of these livers to regenerate?

GUPTA: Yes, it's really amazing. The liver does regenerate. It takes about 8 to 12 weeks for both livers, both the donor liver -- the remnant of the donor liver, I should say -- as well as the recipient in the mom now. About 8 to 12 weeks before they regenerate.

KAGAN: Very good. We'll have to keep up on their progress. Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Washington. Sanjay, thank you.

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