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American Morning

Survival Story from Peru Plane Crash; California Takes Stands Against Inflating Drug Prices

Aired August 26, 2005 - 08:32   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There's other stories making news this morning, and we get right to the headlines with Kelly Wallace.
Good morning again, Kel.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Soledad. And good morning, everyone.

Here are some of those other stories now in the news. Iraqi negotiators say they may skip the national assembly altogether and submit a draft of the constitution directly to the Iraqi people. Talks were extended through today to work out an agreement after a third deadline passed Thursday without a compromise. CNN has learned that President Bush stepped in, phoning in his support to an Iraqi official, urging that all sides be heard.

A federal panel looking at closing or realigning military bases begins its final day of voting today. On the agenda, the closing of two major Air Force bases, one in South Dakota, the other in New Mexico. The panel is expected to send its final report to President Bush next month.

A judge is stepping in after convicted sniper John Muhammad decides to go on a hunger strike. Muhammad apparently has been refusing to eat since he was transferred from a Virginia prison on Monday. It is believed he is upset with the food and the way his legal material is being handled. A judge has issued an order to force feed Muhammad.

A flood watch in effect for south and central Kansas. Authorities in El Dorado say more than nine inches of rain have fallen over the past 24 hours. Hundreds of people have been evacuated as well.

And Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a new father for the third time. He and his wife Jessica welcomed son Shepherd Killen on Monday. Both mom and baby are home and said to be doing well. The Seinfelds already have a 2-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Congratulations to them. Must be a fun household having Jerry Seinfeld as a dad. I think so.

O'BRIEN: Fun, chaotic. Such a thin line. All right, Kelly, thanks.

Officials are still investigating the cause of Tuesday's plane crash in Peru, which at least killed 37 people. American Monica Glenn and her husband are among at least 58 survivors of the crash. They were just beginning their honeymoon after they were married on Saturday. Both suffered burns while trying to escape the plane's wreckage. Monica joins us now from the International Clinic in Lima, Peru.

Monica, thanks for being with us. You're in your hospital bed this morning. We appreciate you talking to us.

First of all, give me a sense of the injuries that you have.

MONICA GLENN, SURVIVED PERU CRASH: OK, thank you. Well, fortunately, I only have my left hand with a second-degree burn. My husband protected me as we were leaving the plane, so my injuries are very minor. My husband has -- both of his hands are severely burned, as well as his face is also burnt. Yesterday, we received treatment in the operating room and we're on our way to recovery.

O'BRIEN: Well, good, we're glad to hear that you're both on your way to recovery. Tell me a little bit about what happened. At what point did you realize there is something very wrong with this flight?

GLENN: OK, well, I remember at one point, it was announced we would be experiencing some turbulence, which being -- not a frequent flyer, but i've flown around a little bit, I realized that this is protocol. It's normal. Unfortunately, the turbulence became much bigger. It increased and I remember, at one point, I turned to William, and I said, this is not right, something's wrong. And within seconds, the lights in the cabin were flickering, and there were flames coming from the cockpit. At that point, I believe we had already reached the ground, and I don't know at what point the plane broke in two, but it seemed as though it was -- with the initial impact, it broke in two.

O'BRIEN: There was a fire, Monica, right? a fire broke out, and that obviously is what caused you your burns and a lot of your husband's injuries as well.

GLENN: Correct.

O'BRIEN: So you then had to turn away and try to get out the backside of the plane. Was it pandemonium? Was it chaotic? Were the flight attendants helping?

O'BRIEN: Well, it was very chaotic. Honestly, it was quite dark inside the plane, with the exception of the flames coming from the front of the plane. So it was very difficult to see who was doing what. I -- we were about two seats from the emergency exit on the side of the plane, and we wanted to escape initially from that part of the plane. Unfortunately, that meant going towards the front of the plane, and even though it's the nearest exit, it was not the safest exit. So William, being a firefighter, he was able to assess the situation and decided that going through the back would be a much better option. And I remember him telling me, Monica, through the back. And I turned around. At some point, he covered my face and he pushed me, and that basically saved me from other burns. So, obviously, I'm eternally grateful to my husband for that.

After we left the plane, we were trudging through lots of water. It was raining very heavily. There was hail as well, and we were trudging through the water. We tried to get away from the plane as quickly as possible. William, his hands were severely burnt, but he was still assessing the situation, and he noticed that there was a little girl sitting above the rubble of the plane, and the debris from the plane, and he said to a man, go and help that girl. She was just sitting there crying, had burns, had injuries, and that man took her with the rest of the group to a safer area, probably about 50 yards from the plane.

O'BRIEN: Because then the plane exploded at that moment, right?

GLENN: Well, we had been -- there were probably about 20 of us. Maybe a little more than 20 of us gathered around. We were probably about 50 yards from the plane, and at some point I would say within a few minutes there was the second explosion, and that explosion is what really destroyed the rest of the plane, the back end of the plane.

O'BRIEN: You know, Monica, forgive me for interrupting you.

GLENN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I just want to ask you a question. You seem so calm now. You seem very pulled together. How are you feeling? How are you doing?

GLENN: Well, actually, I'm -- I am a little bit in shock. I think that the emotions kind of come and go and change a lot. Obviously, I'm very grateful to be alive. I'm very grateful that my husband is alive. You know, there's a lot to work through. The plane ride back from Pucallpa to Lima was just a little bit difficult, just experiencing turbulence in that airplane just brought back kind of the horrific memories of the flight to Pucallpa. As I said, it comes come goes, but I'm very grateful.

Actually, I want to add something about the pilot. I know that there's a lot of talk about the pilot, and I think that kind of assessing everything, it seems as though he did everything he could to make sure that the plane was straight when it landed. Had a wing or both wings hit the ground first, the plane would have toppled and I would not be here today. I think that that would have been a complete crash and a complete -- everybody on that plane would of died. So I just want to say to the family of the pilot that, first of all, my condolences, but that they should be very proud of their family member as a pilot, that he did everything that he could, I believe.

O'BRIEN: You owe your life to his maneuvers, and also maybe more so to your brand new husband. We mentioned you were on your honeymoon, and we wish you the fastest recovery. And for your husband as well. We hope that his injuries, although they're significantly more severe than yours are, that he's able to recover from them very quickly.

Thanks, Monica, for your time. We appreciate it. GLENN: Thank you very much. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Let's go back to Carol.

COSTELLO: Good for her. And what a guy. Wow!

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, Martha Stewart, she's just about to take off that ankle bracelet and begin her new life as a TV star. David Haffenreffer got to sit down and talk to her. We'll talk to him about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Are you ready? I say, are you ready for an all-new Martha Stewart? As soon as I told you before the break, she'll be shedding that anklet bracelet and unveiling her two, two new TV shows. Dave Haffenreffer joins us now to tell us more about that, because you talked to her face to face.

First off, what did she look like? Did she look great?

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She look very well. She seems healthy, happy.

COSTELLO: Thin? Fabulous?

HAFFENREFFER: Uh-huh. All of the above. And she's busy, too.

COSTELLO: She is.

HAFFENREFFER: It's not just the two new TV shows as you're about to see. Martha Stewart definitely not letting jailtime, home confinement or even bad press hold her back, or her empire back, for that matter, for what she hopes is to be a major rebound. This is a side of Martha Stewart that you've never seen before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAFFENREFFER (voice-over): It's a softer, relaxed, fun Martha.

MARTHA STEWART: It is fun!

HAFFENREFFER: Martha went in front of the press to make it clear, she's got nothing to hide, about her life, her jailtime and her confinement.

STEWART: I have a microphone on one ankle and a bracelet on the other ankle.

HAFFENREFFER (on camera): That bracelet comes off August 31st. And with it starts a whole new chapter for Martha Inc. And the warm fuzzy thing appears to be working -- her brand and her image are on the rebound. And come September, you'll be seeing even more of Martha.

(voice-over): That's because Martha is introducing not one, but two new shows, one daytime, one primetime, both featuring the new Martha, with a new promise.

STEWART: Reality. Accessibility. We're not going to avoid things.

HAFFENREFFER: If anything, it will be more Martha than you bargained for. A far cry from her days on her other show potting plants, you'll get to see all kinds of new sides of Martha, making a weanie.

STEWART: We like mustard.

HAFFENREFFER: Flipping burgers.

STEWART: How am I doing?

HAFFENREFFER: And generally poking fun at herself.

STEWART: My new summer job, my community service.

HAFFENREFFER: Joking about her jailtime is part of Martha's selling point. Even in her newest commercial, Martha highlights what she learned in jail.

STEWART: I learned a lot about patience. I also learned how to microwave cook. You could actually make crem caramel (ph).

HAFFENREFFER: Martha told me that "Apprentice" producer Mark Burnett really helped her turn her image around.

Burnett told me the same.

MARK BURNETT, EXEC. PROD., "THE APPRENTICE": I just so want the world to see the Martha I know. This way, you see the daytime show that stands for excellence in culinary, and homemaking arts, and in the evening, the business Martha.

HAFFENREFFER: That's right, in the evening, the primetime Martha in her own version of the apprentice.

STEWART: We want people to see what real business is really like. They're going to be aware of what it takes to be an apprentice at "Martha Stewart Living."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAFFENREFFER: You know, they haven't revealed, Carol, exactly how she is going to do that, like Donald Trump does, you're fired. They haven't revealed the catchphrase for her "Apprentice" program, but they have revealed a couple of things. For one thing, Donald Trump is going to make a cameo appearance on "The Apprentice" for that show. They're also inviting about 160-plus people to the show, to her daytime show, who also share the name Martha Stewart.

COSTELLO: And one day they're going to have dogs, too, aren't they?

HAFFENREFFER: There are a couple of household pets who are coming, who are named Martha Stewart.

COSTELLO: How much of this Martha is real? Because she came from humble backgrounds. But you know, Is that down home cooking hot dogs and putting mustard on the hot dog thing real?

HAFFENREFFER: I think it may be real now. Maybe we're seeing -- many people who know her say this is the same Martha that they've known all along, it's just that the public hasn't been exposed to this before.

COSTELLO: So what do TV critics think of her new show, especially her daytime show?

HAFFENREFFER: So far, I think they're getting good reviews. There is a fear, maybe, that there might be a little Martha overexposure. We have not one show, but two shows. There are a couple of books in the works as well. A radio show on the Sirius Satellite Radio network. So there is a lot of Martha all at once, and people are somewhat fearful that maybe it might be too much.

COSTELLO: Maybe so. Martha, Martha, Martha -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Cannot wait! Not for me! Dying to see that show. Dying. Thanks, guys.

Still to come this morning, one state takes on dozens of drugmakers over claims of price inflation. What does it mean for your wallet? We're "Minding Your Business," up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: One state is taking a stand against drug companies for inflating prices. Ellen McGirt is in for Andy Serwer, and she is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Good morning to you.

The state is California. Sort of no surprise there?

ELLEN MCGIRT, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: No, no. They've always been very good with consumer stuff. And this is a tough issue for them. They filed suit against 39 pharmaceutical companies, saying that they've artificially inflated prices, which, of course, affects their Medicaid program for the poor and for the disabled, which they allege has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars over years in prices that they shouldn't have had to pay.

At issue, of course, are incentives. They say that drug manufacturers have set what -- something's that known as the average wholesale price. Think of, like, the sticker price for a car. And they've manipulated artificially so that pharmacies, doctors, health systems who would benefit by either selling or prescribing the drug are making more money on it.

And it looks pretty grim when you look at the numbers. Here, we got this from the California Web site, Albuterol, from J. Incorporated (ph). This is an essential drug for managing asthma, which, of course, is an important thing when you're low income. A mark-up of 178 percent. Another example, Soledad...

O'BRIEN: So the price the provider pays is $7.34, but the price they get reimbursed for is $20.62. So they're making -- by simple math, they're making a ton of money when they give -- prescribe this drug.

MCGIRT: That's exactly right. So the incentive to offer this to make sure that the prescriber -- it's on the formulary (ph) -- is very high. Mylan Labs, Haloperidol. This is an antipsychotic. This is a drug that you want people to be able to afford and get if they need it. The mark-up here, very same thing in that spread, 1,029 percent.

O'BRIEN: $2.82 is the price -- the cost to the provider. But it's reimbursed at $30 -- over $30 -- almost $32.

MCGIRT: And the pressure on states, with tax revenues low and prices for everything going high, this is one of their most vulnerable populations.

O'BRIEN: But states are constantly fighting to get better pricing on prescription drugs.

MCGIRT: They are.

O'BRIEN: It seems that a lot of those efforts aren't working?

MCGIRT: No. It's -- but there's something interesting developments here. And I think especially with the Medicare Drug Act coming in. There was -- all of a sudden, there is ways that states are able to break the logjam. And we heard a little bit about this when Howard Dean was running (INAUDIBLE) governor. States are being able -- are figuring out ways that they pool their resources, their big purchasers of drugs. So there -- we've seen several really interesting developments here, but it's political process. Slow and tricky.

O'BRIEN: I.e. slow.

MCGIRT: That's right. To make any changes, you have to get a federal waiver, which is very, very difficult to do.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but you know, I think the voting public is really, really calling for it.

MCGIRT: We're going to be watching this story closely. It affects all of us.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it sure does, doesn't it?

MCGIRT: It really does.

O'BRIEN: Ellen McGirt, thank you. Appreciate it.

MCGIRT: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: We're back in just a moment. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: That's kind of a mess, isn't it?

COSTELLO: Uh-huh.

O'BRIEN: This is not a lake. This is not what they should be doing here. You're looking at some live pictures coming to us. Of course, we're talking about South Florida, and the mess that they are dealing with this morning as they wake up to the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

It hit as a category one storm, which some people sometimes think is really not going to be too bad. But I think some people were unprepared for the brunt of the storm. And as you can see, flooding is a massive problem. Power outages also a massive problem. So it is a mess today. And as Chad showed us earlier, the track of that storm is almost, by some of the pictures that we've seen....

COSTELLO: The models, yes.

O'BRIEN: ... of models that they've been running, doubling back on itself. So it could actually run right back into south Florida, which means even more cleanup and even more a mess this morning.

You know, we're back talking about some of the things that caught our eye this morning. One story that I saw which was pretty interesting was number of births that happened at local hospitals. People come into the hospital, women go into labor. And there's an old -- or, I guess, people believe that it was when the barometric pressure goes up, that, in fact, that people will...

COSTELLO: Really? It induces labor?

O'BRIEN: Well, if I had even known that, can I tell you? I would have been...

WALLACE: You would have headed to Florida...

O'BRIEN: In a hot second, when I was pregnant. But it turns out...

COSTELLO: Especially with the twins.

O'BRIEN: We spoke to the folks at some of the hospitals and they said that it's an old wives' tale.

COSTELLO: So why does this happen, that women...

O'BRIEN: I actually think it's...

COSTELLO: The fear?

O'BRIEN: ... the fear and the stress can trigger contractions. And that's why women go into labor. But I'm not a doctor! (CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: But I wondered if some women went to the hospital as a precaution, that they were worried about the storm, worried that maybe the power would go out, and so then they were there and...

COSTELLO: Yes. You don't want to be in your home really, really pregnant when a hurricane hits.

O'BRIEN: And left with your husband.

COSTELLO: Boiling -- yes, your husband.

O'BRIEN: Please! Don't even get me started.

COSTELLO: A story caught my eye is in "The Wall Street Journal," and I love this. It's like, "From Ironman to Everyman." And it talks about triathlon and how they're becoming kind of wimpy. In fact, some people run triathlons in three stages. You know, because there's a long bike ride, there's a swim and there's a run.

O'BRIEN: Right, the full ones.

WALLACE: Right, like an Ironman.

COSTELLO: So they get the wife to do the bike part, they get the son to do the swim part.

O'BRIEN: The cousin doing the rest of it. Stay home!

COSTELLO: The cousin (INAUDIBLE). And they go home and grill steaks, smoke cigars and have beer.

WALLACE: I love that. I love it.

COSTELLO: And then you can put on your resume...

O'BRIEN: And what's wrong with that?

COSTELLO: No, no, you can put on your resume that you've run a triathlon. That's the in thing to put on high powered resumes these days.

O'BRIEN: My sister and my brother are sort of splitting up their sprint distance triathlon, and they look at it like, what a nice way to have time together and hang out and do something fun together. And she's a lawyer! It's not going on her resume.

COSTELLO: I just have one addition. Because this I found incredible. Danskin sponsors a lot of triathlons for women. The women can use noodles to swim.

WALLACE: And water wings.

O'BRIEN: The little noodles?

COSTELLO: The little noodles that you -- and then they have cute guys in kayaks!

O'BRIEN: I am so excited for my triathlon.

COSTELLO: And they have cute guys in kayaks ready to fish you out if you start to drown!

O'BRIEN: You're running with a cigarette, you got your noodle, you're swimming.

WALLACE: You know, as someone who doesn't exercise nearly enough, I say, even if they're doing just a tiny bit, all power to them.

COSTELLO: I'm just saying, don't say you did a triathlon.

WALLACE: All right, all right, I got your point.

I think -- I don't know if we have a lot of time, but Miss America leaving Atlantic City. Can you believe it? Eighty-five years it's been at Atlantic City, and it's leaving. They say costs are too high, and they're going elsewhere. Not clear where they're going.

O'BRIEN: Safe to say it's an end of an era for them.

WALLACE: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Thanks -- talker. Thanks for talking about this.

Short break. We're back in a moment.

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