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Investigation into Mining Accident Underway; Bush Meets With Bipartisan Leaders to Discuss Iraq, Terrorism; Ariel Sharon's Condition

Aired January 05, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is less than 24 hours after the fate of a dozen trapped miners was learned. Relatives and neighbors have now returned to where they heard the news. Dozens of people gathered for a candlelight vigil last night at the Sago Baptist Church. While the community mourns the dead, the investigation of the accident is underway.
CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us from outside the mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. Kim, hello.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And hello to you, Daryn.

Well, family members tell me that they are really grappling with a reality, a very hard reality, that is, unfortunately, not going to change again. They also tell me -- I met with one family member this morning and he says he truly feels buoyed by the support of this community.

There are signs all around this area bearing messages for the family, prayers for the family, also saying that they are with them, they are thinking about them. And throughout the state, a larger community. Remember, I mean, this is a community that described themselves all as a band of brothers.

Governor Manchin has ordered the flags flown at half staff in a sign of solidarity and support as well. But these family members say, despite that, they still want answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK HELMS, FATHER DIED IN MINE: I want to know exactly what happened, our whole family does. And I don't want to hear it from the news. I don't want to hear it from reporters. I don't want to hear it -- read it in the newspaper. I want to hear it from Mr. Hatfield. I want him to call me personally and I want him to tell me exactly what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OSIAS: They want answers about the cause. And in regards to the cause, federal and state investigations are ongoing. One leading theory right out there now that is certainly gaining steam is of that lightning, that lightning could have triggered this terrible chain reaction. Now, I spoke to one neighbor who says that he lives about a mile and a half from here. He says he saw the light light up like the Fourth of July and his power actually went out. Now, a lot of meteorologists are collaborating that story, saying, in fact, that at that time, the time that the miners first went down about 6:30, there were lightning strikes, lightning in the area. And you can see on the CNN radar that that is, in fact, the case.

Also families say that the only solace they would really have is if there was an instantaneous death, like from carbon monoxide poisoning. And they will know that only after the autopsy results come in. They will be trickling in as soon as today -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Kimberly Osias, live in Tallmansville. Thank you.

Prayers in that West Virginia mining community are also being offered up for Randy McCloy. McCloy was the only survivor of the mine blasts. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. He's now in a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.

That's where we find our Jonathan Freed. He has an update on McCloy's condition.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, Randy McCloy, Jr., was brought here more than 24 hours ago. It was at 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning. And at that time, he had been trapped for 41 hours down in the mine. He had severe dehydration, a collapsed lung, and doctors were saying at the time that there was no evidence of a head injury.

But as time went on, they were able to do some more tests on him, and they determined that there were some apparent, additional injuries, in particular to his heart, his liver and his kidneys.

Now we are standing by here. In about an hour and a half from now, a news conference is scheduled here at the hospital to update us on his condition. But earlier, members of his medical team spoke to CNN and gave us a bit of insight into what they've been thinking.

Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOHN PRESCOTT, DEAN, W.VA SCHOOL OF MED.: We are not certain that he is hearing anything at this point. He is not responding with purposeful movement at this moment. There was responses yesterday to his wife.

We, at this time, again -- we are not seeing those kind of responses. But that doesn't mean things have changed one way or the other. It's again -- we saw something for a moment yesterday. We hope to see, again, some signs of that again today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Randy McCloy has a wife and two young children. His mother and stepfather, also here today. You can just see in their body language -- they've been very good in talking to members of the media, CNN included -- you can just see in their body language how tense and how worried they are. He hasn't been able to respond much beyond a moment yesterday when he squeezed his wife's hand. Doctors, of course, saying that they are hopeful that that will repeat itself and more -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jonathan Freed, thank you. Live from Morgantown, West Virginia.

A couple of things we're waiting for here. Fascinating meeting at the White House today. President Bush inviting a bipartisan group of former secretaries of state and secretaries of defense to meet and talk about the war on terror and the war in Iraq. We'll hear what he has to say and also what some members of that group have to say.

Also, Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, clinging to life in a Jerusalem hospital as we speak. We'll have the latest on his condition, plus what his condition might mean for those who are at risk here in the U.S. We'll talk with a doctor who specializes in strokes, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: President Bush meeting with a number of bipartisan former secretaries of defense and state at the White House. This is tape shot earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been my honor to host former secretaries of state and secretaries of defense from Republican administrations and Democratic administrations here at the White House.

I've asked Secretary Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld and Ambassador Khalilzad and General Casey to bring these men and women up to date on our strategy for victory in Iraq.

I've also had a chance to listen to their concerns, their suggestions about the way forward. Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq, and I fully understand that. But these are good, solid Americans who understand that we've got to succeed now that we're there.

And I'm most grateful for the suggestions that have been given. We take to heart the advice.

We appreciate your experience, and we appreciate you taking time out of your day.

We have a dual-track strategy for victory. On the one hand, we will work to have a political process that says to all Iraqis, "The future belongs to you." And on the other hand, we'll continue to work on the security situation there.

The main thrust of our success will be when the Iraqis are able to take the fight to the enemy that wants to stop their democracy. And we're making darn good progress along those lines.

Again, I want to thank you all for coming. Appreciate your interest. I appreciate you being such a solid citizen of our country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: President Bush after he met with a bipartisan group of secretaries of defense, former secretaries of defense and secretaries of state. As he acknowledged, not everybody around the table there agreed with what he had to say and what his plans are for the war on terror and the war in Iraq, but he said appreciated the input and the suggestions that he received from this very different group of people than he's usually used to hearing from.

And we expect to hear from some of the people that were in that meeting just ahead. One quick note, he said, hook 'em Horns, University of Texas Longhorns beating USC to grab the national football championship at the Rose Bowl, 41-38 the final score there.

We'll take a break. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: And as we have been reporting this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is clinging to life after suffering a massive stroke. Doctors operated on Mr. Sharon for more than nine hours to try to stop the bleeding in his brain, but he now is listed in serious, but stable condition.

Here now to talk about what the prime minister is facing is Dr. Wendy Lynn Wright. she is a professor of neurology at Emory University here in Atlanta. Dr. Wright, thanks for making time in your busy schedule.

DR. WENDY LYNN WRIGHT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: And of course, you can only talk in generalities because Mr. Sharon is not your patient, and you've never examined him. But a cerebral hemorrhage, nine hours of surgery, is that standard for something like that?

WRIGHT: No, that's not at all standard. Cerebral hemorrhages of course a very serious medical problem, and the fact that the prime minister needed surgery lets us know that that was probably a life- threatening hemorrhage, and the length of the surgery lets us know that perhaps the bleeding was not under control at the time of surgery. That's often what will prolong a surgery like that.

KAGAN: And one of the problems doctors face there, of course it was well reported that Mr. Sharon had had a stroke a couple of weeks ago and so he office blood thinners. That is not a good way go into surgery, on blood thinners.

WRIGHT: Not a good way to go into surgery, that's right. It's likely the cause of the hemorrhage was the blood thinners, which is a common problem when blood thinners are used, and also makes the surgery that much more difficult.

KAGAN: And so some would say, well, why was he on blood thinners, but there was a purpose in trying to prevent blood clots, every medication having a good side and a bad side.

WRIGHT: Exactly. Exactly. And those blood clots could have gone on to cause further strokes if he had not been on blood thinners, so it's always a balancing act when we try to use these treatments in patients.

KAGAN: So you just have to kind of pick your path and hope for the best.

WRIGHT: You do.

KAGAN: And hope for the best.

WRIGHT: And hope for the best.

KAGAN: What does he face at this point with a patient like this?

WRIGHT: Well, the most important thing he's facing right now is brain swelling, both from the hemorrhage itself, and also from the very prolonged surgery. What we're hearing is that the prime minister is being kept under general anesthesia, which is often something that we use to try to control brain swelling, a quiet resting brain doesn't require as much energy or as much blood flow as a brain that's active and awake. So that is certainly the most life-threatening thing he's facing, and the next 48 to 72 hours could be very critical.

KAGAN: Let's see what we can learn from his situation. Here is a man very robust, known as kind of like an Energizer bunny, a man who he keeps going, who has beat so many odds, well into his 70s and pretty much overweight. Were those big danger factors?

WRIGHT: Certainly so. His age, which of course is nothing that he could help, is a big risk factor for stroke, and also for hemorrhage, and his weight would certainly play into the original stroke that he had. The blood-thinning medications were certainly a big risk, and probably contributed, but again, those were to try to prevent further strokes. It would have been very debilitating for him to go on to have another stroke of the kind he had a few weeks ago.

KAGAN: And how big, of course for Mr. Sharon this is not the time to talk about this, but for people in general, prevention the best treatment?

WRIGHT: Well, certainly you have to know your risk factors. Being overweight, high-blood pressure, smoking. These are all very significant risk factors that can be modified. Things such as our age, our gender, our racial background cannot be modified. So you need to talk to your doctor to see what risk factors you may have and what you can do to try to lower your risks.

KAGAN: Not modify, but certainly awareness?

WRIGHT: Awareness will help.

KAGAN: Awareness will help.

WRIGHT: And whatever you can do to control blood pressure, and of course stopping smoking is always a good start.

KAGAN: Certainly cannot hurt.

Dr. Wright, thank you. Thank you for your time today.

And we'll be back with more after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

KAGAN: CNN Pipeline also creating a lot of buzz this week. Pipeline, if you're wondering, is a special new service on CNN.com. It's changing the way you get your news on the Internet. It puts you, the user, in control of multiple live video streams from CNN's worldwide news gathering operation.

CNN.com's Veronica De La Cruz is in the CNN Pipeline control room to walk us through some of the features. Veronica, hello.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Daryn. We just saw you on the Pipeline, actually. We're in the Pipeline control room. We're going to show you how to works.

You have four different video option at all time. That's where the pipes come in. This is what we're looking at right now. We're essentially showing our you our Pipeline newscast. Now, if you want to stay on top of a developing story -- let's just say Sharon, for instance -- in pipe number two, we are running live pictures from Jerusalem of the hospital in which Sharon has just been hospitalized. All you have to do is click on pipe three. And those live pictures are something that you can monitor on your very own.

Now, if you want to go even more in-depth with the coverage, Daryn, all you have to do is use this search field, type in "Sharon," just click and there you go. You have a myriad of different video options available to you right there.

Now, something I really enjoy, Daryn, is you can watch in realtime to see what other users are clicking on. All you have to do is click on most watched. And as far as Sharon is concerned, it seems like everybody is interested in this story, "Sharon Faces Revolt Within Likud." Now, they're ranked by popularity. And the video has come up here in this box. It is a report brought to us by our own Guy Raz.

So there you go. Lots of different options here on CNN Pipeline.

KAGAN: It's fun to check out. Thank you, Veronica.

DE LA CRUZ: Thanks, Daryn. KAGAN: And let's take a look ahead at what Pipeline is following later today.

Senator Charles Schumer speaks on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito beginning on Monday. Schumer is the ranking Democrat on the Senate subcommittee on the courts.

At 3:45 p.m. Eastern, President Bush addresses the University President Summit on International Education, and Congressman John Murtha will comment on the president's campaign to shore up support for the war in Iraq. Murtha is a key Democrat who wants to begin pulling out U.S. troops from Iraq.

They're believed to set the tone for the Oscars. The Screen Actors Guild nominations, the SAG Awards, announced this morning. We will run down a list of those going for the hardware, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The Oscar guessing game is underway with last hour's announcement of nominees for the 12th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. SAG nominations often predict favorites for the more heralded Academy Awards.

And as expected, "Brokeback Mountain" is riding high in the speculation. The film tells the tender love story of two rough-hewn cowboys. It earned four nominations to lead this year's group.

The ABC hit "Desperate Housewives" also turned heads among the Guild voters. The show has two nominations, including a best actress nod for Felicity Huffman. She's also up for SAG award for best actress in a movie. It will be big night for her.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: President Bush -- have you heard about this? He invited some old hands to the White House to talk Iraq, and where his administration should go from there. Coming up, we will talk with a former defense secretary, Frank Carlucci, about how that meeting went.

Plus, supposedly hybrid owners save big at the pump. How they can also now save big on taxes if they hurry. We'll explain in the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY, as that begins right now.

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