Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
6-Year-Old Loses Intestines in Pool Mishap
Aired July 06, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, GUEST HOST: Tonight: A 6-year-old girl near death after playing in a pool and getting sucked into the drain. Her parents blame the horrific accident at the Minneapolis Golf Club on a missing drain cover. And it`s not the first time this has happened at public swimming pools around the country, resulting in multi-million-dollar judgments. Tonight, as a 6-year-old girl fights for her life, Americans are wondering if we need mandatory stricter pool safety laws across the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lawyers begin to ask the question, Why? How did this happen? The Taylors` lawyer believes a missing drain cover may be to blame. The club`s manager says to the best of his knowledge, there wasn`t anything wrong with the pool. Scott Taylor was amazed to hear this has happened before at different pools. Scott`s goal and Abby`s goal, to make sure it doesn`t happen again. They want parents and pool owners to be aware of this potential deadly possibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. Tonight: How could a 6-year-old girl get so injured in a kiddie wading pool that she literally had part of her intestines torn out? Information every parent needs to know.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six-year-old Abigail Taylor survived a horrific pool accident. Abigail was stuck on a powerful force, a pool drain at the kiddie pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club. The drain created the suction on Abby`s bottom. Doctors say it pulled her small intestines out of her body through her bottom. Somehow, Abby pulled herself off that drain. She took two steps and collapsed. Doctors spent hours in the operating room before they came out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a problem with the cover. It was loose. It had come loose. It had been replaced. There were screws missing. Whatever happens from this point forward, the fact that she`s still with us is amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it`s all too real for one Minneapolis family. Tonight, the Taylors` 6- year-old daughter, Abigail, remains hospitalized, her life forever altered. Her father says his little girl was just playing in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club when she sat over a drain hole. According to their accounts, the drain`s suction was so powerful, it literally caused an eight-inch tear in the little girl`s rectum and pulled out much of her small intestine.
For more on this truly horrifying case, let`s go straight out to Maura Lerner, a reporter for "The Minneapolis Star-Tribune." Maura, what is the very latest?
MAURA LERNER, "MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE": Well, the latest is that Abigail is still hospitalized. She`s in serious condition at the Children`s Hospital in Minneapolis. She had a second round of surgery today, but apparently she came through it well.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, we have with us tonight Robert Bennett, the lawyer for the Taylor family. Thank you for joining us, sir. And please pass along our thoughts and our prayers to the Taylor family. Everybody here at the NANCY GRACE show is feeling for the family. This story is so difficult for us to cover because it`s an innocent little girl and this horrible, horrible thing has happened to her.
Will you tell us what you believe happened to Abigail inside that wading pool? Where was she in it, and what happened?
ROBERT BENNETT, ATTORNEY FOR INJURED GIRL`S FAMILY: Well, she was playing with her friends and her sister while her mother was present. The -- I think the -- it`ll will be shown that -- at least, she thinks that she fell in the wading pool and then was drawn onto the suction after she fell, and at that point, suffered the eviscerating injury, managed to extricate herself from the suction and got out of the pool and tried to walk a bit, and then passed out, fell, knocked out a tooth, and then fell into the adult pool, where her mother jumped in and rescued her with, I think, one of the lifeguards.
The paramedics who were called -- I think the paramedic report indicates that the symptom was syncope. In other words, she had fainted. She had lost a tooth and had some bleeding in her mouth. But other than that, they were -- it makes no mention of any rectal or bowel injury. And it wasn`t until later on that it was discovered in, actually, the operating room, not even in the ER, how extensive the injury was.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And I want to pick it up with Dr. Marty Makary, who is a physician at Johns Hopkins. Hello, Doctor. You have been tracking this case. She is rushed to surgery. And my understanding from news reports is that she had to have the rest of her intestines removed. Why is that?
DR. MARTY MAKARY, PHYSICIAN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Well, this is an extremely rare and unusual event. And when this type of injury occurs, oftentimes there`s injury along the entire intestinal tract. Any injured intestinal section of the overall GI tract needs to be resected, and at a certain point, you just can`t sustain nutrition on your own.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And apparently, they had to implant some sort of device that will allow her to get a feeding tube for the rest of her life. Tell us about that.
MAKARY: Sure. It`s a good long-term planning to place an intravenous catheter or a small tube into a large vein so that a patient like this can get some nutrition through an IV. It`s proteins. It`s fats. It`s sugars that are placed into an IV solution bag, and that`s infused into a large vein so the patient can be held over.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Nancy Baker, thank you for joining us. You lost your daughter. Your daughter died in a pool accident in 2002. You have since become a leading U.S. pool expert for safety in pools. Thank you for joining us. Tell us about your little daughter and what happened to her.
NANCY BAKER, U.S. POOL SAFETY ADVOCATE, LOST DAUGHTER TO POOL ACCIDENT IN 2002: My daughter`s name was Graham (ph) Baker, and she was 7-and-a- half years old. We were at a large graduation party, and I was on the deck of the pool. She was in the pool with her sisters, and you know, as many as 20 other kids. And she went over into this hot tub that was attached to the pool and went under the surface. And her body was drawn down to the drain, where the cover was not missing, it was intact, but it was flat. And Graham was pinned there.
No one could see her. Her twin sister actually got in the hot tub and found her at the bottom of it. But the bubbles obscured the surface, and no one, least of all me, was aware that she was trapped.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, this is such a horrifying thing to discover, if you`re not aware that this kind of incident occurred. And it would seem so simple, Nancy, if there`s a problem, fix it. But apparently, it`s extraordinarily complex because you have issues of old pools versus new pools. You`ve got state laws. You`ve got building codes. You`ve got the issue of maintenance. So how do you try to get a handle on this nightmare?
BAKER: Well, I think what you have is great inconsistency, like you mentioned. I mean, there are various building codes, but none of them are consistent around the country. And I think there are a lot of -- Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she`s from Florida, Congressman Frank Wolf, my congressman from Virginia -- there are people looking at trying to set out a federal standard whereby states -- and there`s legislation both introduced in the House and I think pending in the Senate and -- you know, that will attempt to put a federal standard out there, saying that this is the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it.
And in terms of, you know, entrapment, which is what took my child`s life, and it has forever altered this little girl`s, it`s -- this is something where there is a fix for it. It`s mechanical and it`s fairly simple to fix it. But there has to be something to compel people to do it, and that`s what I`ve been working towards.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, obviously, parents are terrified. They don`t know whether to let their children play in pools. We don`t know what the criteria is for determining whether a pool is safe or not.
The phone lines are lighting up. Maybe you can help us. Susan from Minnesota, your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I was in Minneapolis, and we had a pool. All we were told was we had to have a six-foot fence around it. And without that, we had to drain it, but no other kind of regulations. I was wondering what are the regulations.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s go to Mike Brooks because not only is he CNN`s law enforcement analyst and a former D.C. police officer who was on the terrorism task force, he is also a former pool operator, believe it or not.
MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: When I was a young kid, I used to work at a pool in Virginia. And as a lifeguard, you had to have -- if you`re going to be there, you had to have a pool operator`s license and at least one -- somebody with that license on duty.
And there are different standards. It sounded like the caller was talking about standards for a home pool, but the standards are different for a home pool and for a pool at a club like the Minneapolis Golf Club. You always have to have a pool operator on the premises while the pool is in operation. And every single day that we would come out to the pool, we would check the skimmer basket. We`d check to make sure the PH level was OK. And we`d also check all the drains and the outlets where the water comes out to make sure that an accident like this would not happen.
It looks like the pool here at the Minneapolis Golf Club is an older pool, and with them, a lot of times those drain covers work themselves loose. Sometimes they get rusty. And that sounds like what`s happened in this particular case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s go back to the attorney for the family, Robert Bennett. What exactly, sir, do you say happened? What went wrong to cause this horrific incident?
BENNETT: Well, we know from witnesses -- and I believe this is admitted by the club manager, as well -- that the pool drain cover came off, that it was floating. Some kids said it looked like a Frisbee. It had one screw in it with a molly bolt or something that you would associate with hanging a picture into your sheetrock at your house on it. And I haven`t actually seen it. That`s how the witnesses have described it to me. The second screw was not -- was not with the cover itself. There were actually some children in -- whose feet were, I believe, were cut or scraped by one of the screws.
But it had free-floated for some period of time. I think some people at the pool attempted to put it back on and have it held with just suction. That didn`t work. But it was not properly affixed at the time of the -- of Abigail`s injury, and that much I think is known for sure.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, we want to say that the NANCY GRACE show has put in a number of calls to the Minneapolis Golf Club, as well as the club`s attorney. We have not heard anything back. We do want to hear their side of the story, and we would very much like to talk to them.
Meanwhile, let`s unleash the lawyers and put them in the debating ring to discuss whether this was an accident, whether it`s negligence, what is it? Let`s start with Susan Moss, family law attorney and child advocate.
SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: This didn`t need to happen. And I would like to call to task all the lawmakers, not only the state lawmakers, the federal lawmakers, who refuse to pass pool safety rules. All you needed was a federal law that would require either that the suction be lessened in these pools or that two drains be required for all pools or that the drain caps be large enough so that a little 6-year-old girl couldn`t cover it and be sucked in under the suction, or just a sensor so that if the grate of one of these drains is covered, then the suction will immediately stop.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But wait a second. You`re talking about major changes. It seems that the attorney was saying that there was simply improper maintenance, allegedly. And again, we`d like to hear from the club and their attorneys. Anne Bremner, what do you say?
ANNE BREMNER, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Well, and that`s what they said, they also had an automatic shutoff valve, Jane, and they had two drains, and they checked it twice a day with engineers. But the thing is, you know, it was -- under tort law...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, if you check it twice a day with engineers, how could it be floating like a Frisbee?
BREMNER: Well, that`s a good question. But the fact is, is also predictability, Jane, in tort law is a tenet of tort law, and that is the odds of being injured in a drain in a pool accident are about 1.8 million to 1. There`s been about 170 of these accidents since about 1990. So odds of being injured by fireworks, that`s about 19,000 to 1.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I have to go back to Nancy Baker, though, because, you know, statistics mean nothing when you have lost a daughter to something like this. Right, Nancy?
BAKER: Statistics are meaningless. And the legislation that`s pending doesn`t just encompass that -- the issue of entrapment. It also covers barrier fencing and pool alarms and pool covers, and that kind of thing, to prevent a larger loss of life, which is, you know, that of kids just accidentally gaining access to water.
But you know, the whole argument of numbers and what percentage of kids are injured -- I don`t buy that. And I don`t buy it because in terms of entrapment, most certainly, it`s 100 percent preventable. It`s a mechanical problem, and it`s not been dealt with because there`s never been legislation. There`s never been any consistent standards...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Are there industries fighting against these kinds of improvements?
BAKER: I think there have been, through -- over the course of -- well, I`ve known about these -- there are records of it happening in the `70s, and in the beginning, they fought very strongly against it. I think there`s been a greater willingness to entertain the notion of some regulations around it.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, we have just scratched the surface of this horrifying case. So many questions. And we`re going to give you information that as parents you need to know before you let your child in a pool again.
Tonight, we need your help in bringing home a 12-year-old girl believed kidnapped in Tacoma, Washington, Zina Linnik, last seen July 4 watching fireworks in near her home. Linnik is 4-10, 80 pounds, with blond hair. If you have any information at all, call Tacoma police, 253-591- 5963.
Also tonight, the search for a 60-year-old Florida woman who vanishes into thin air after returning home from a trip to the Bahamas. Susan Fast last seen June 29 in Manatee, Florida. If you have any information, call Crimestoppers, 866-634-8477.
And a missing 65-year-old man who vanishes on a bus trip from a major New York City bus terminal to Augusta, Georgia. Carl Leroy Tompkins, 6 feet, sandy brown hair, last seen wearing greenish-gray plaid pants and a gray button-down shirt. Please take a look. If you have any information, call Perth Amboy police at 732-324-3820.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The life of a 6-year-old Minneapolis girl will probably never be the same, this after a horrific accident in a wading pool. Abigail Taylor was sitting over an open drain when the drain`s powerful suction tore out part of her small intestine. Somehow, she was able to pull herself off the drain. She took two steps and collapsed. Doctors spent hours in the operating room. The girl`s father says it is a miracle she is alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. It`s a story that seems unbelievable, but it`s all too real for a little girl in Minneapolis. Her parents and their attorney say 6-year-old Abigail Taylor was playing in a wading pool when she had part of her intestinal tract torn out by the pool drain`s powerful suction. We have put in calls to the golf club and its attorneys seeking their side, but we have not gotten any comments so far. We`d like to talk to them.
Meanwhile, I think, Elizabeth, if you could throw up a picture of the anti-entrapment drain, because I think that parents all over the country are very confused. And let`s go to Nancy Baker about this. Is it that new pools are OK and they don`t need these anti-entrapment covers, or do even new pools need these anti-entrapment covers? If you don`t see one of those, should you not let your kid in the pool?
BAKER: I would advise that you not let your kid anywhere near a drain, period, because there`s a discussion about if multiple drains are there, then it`s impossible for this to happen. But in fact, if one is blocked, the other one still has the capacity to do it. These drain covers make it much safer, make it much less likely. But again, they have to are properly installed, and if that doesn`t happen -- and there`s nothing to compel, you know, a service company to do it and to check that every year - - then it`s not a guarantee.
So I would say you tell your child don`t go anywhere near the drain, period. I would say that it is -- if you see at the bottom of the pool or a spa a flat drain cover, like a grate, those are absolutely dangerous. And you could -- if a child were to come in contact with it and block it, then they can lose their life.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And you know what`s so horrifying about this, Mike Brooks, is that it was a wading pool. It`s the very kind of pool that parents feel, or used to feel, safe letting their kids go into because they can`t drown from going in over their heads to five feet, for example.
BROOKS: Well, you can still drown in a wading pool. You can slip and fall and still drown. That`s why they usually have a lifeguard standing there, watching even the wading or kiddie pool, as they`re called.
You know, but going back to these anti-vortex, as they`re called, anti-vortex drains -- it kind of spreads the suction out over a larger area, if you will. But just like we heard from our guest, you have to make sure it`s properly installed. But these are very, very -- these anti -- - what we`re seeing here -- they do work and they`re extremely -- they`re much more safe than the other ones. But again, we`re talking old pool here, and that`s -- I think that`s what goes back to the -- maybe the root of this whole problem.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. Nancy Baker, when there are new pools, aren`t there new mechanisms that are built into that pool from the get-go that make it a lot safer?
BAKER: You would hope so, but not necessarily. It depends upon what the local codes are that dictate how a pool should be built, and that varies across the country. I know of a man here in Virginia who complained to his country club and said -- because they were going to put a main drain in a pool, just one drain. And he complained and said this could happen, and they insisted it couldn`t. But so I think again, there`s just very little consistency.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said, Mommy, am I going to be on the news? I should be on the news. And she said, Why, honey? She said, Because we need to tell people what happened to me so that none of this happens -- so this doesn`t happen to anybody else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. How many tragedies have to happen before laws are changed to make America`s pools safer? That is the question echoing across America tonight in the wake of the horrific injuries to little Abigail Taylor, and all of this controversy happening at the height of pool season.
The phone lines are lit up. Maureen in Illinois, your question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. My daughter had an intestinal transplant, and I was wondering if that`s an option for this little girl.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s go to Dr. Marty Makary from Johns Hopkins. What`s your opinion on that, sir?
MAKARY: Certainly, she can be considered for an intestinal transplant, but not at this age. She needs to be a teenager at minimum. And they have their own problems. The small bowel is very closely associated with immune tissue, so it`s an organ which has a high rejection rate. And overall, the success of small bowel transplants is about 50 percent at five years.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Psychotherapist Leslie Austin, thinking about this poor little girl who now has to eat through a feeding tube for the rest of her life because of this accident, how should doctors and family members approach her, given the events of the last few days?
LESLIE AUSTIN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Well, I`m sure they`re doing the right thing, but clearly, they need to have a very positive attitude and keep emphasizing how lucky she is that she has such great medical care and that she can be a great role model and how terrific she is. And everything`s going to work itself out, and she`s got to be brave and strong, not to let their anger out, not to talk about the legal issues, not to speak about -- be angry in front of her. Keep her happy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 14-year-old Aljuwan Pipkin, the hot tub at the Radisson Resort in Kissimmee sucked Aljuwan to the bottom. Apparently a grate had broken on the bottom of the hot tub creating a suction that held Aljuwan under for at least seven minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The death of 10-year-old Harmony Tobin has family members questioning. The Tobin family wants to know whether the filtration pipe that trapped Harmony under water with its powerful suction had a screen or a protective barrier and if not, why not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 6-year-old Abigail Taylor was stuck on a powerful force, a pool drain at the kiddie pool at the Minneapolis golf club. The drain created the suction on Abby`s bottom. Doctors say it pulled her small intestines out of her body through her bottom.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, CNN ANCHOR: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell in for Nancy Grace. It`s an unimaginable nightmare for a 6-year-old girl and her parents. They went to a golf club in Minneapolis for some fun and left with their lives shattered. The little girl was in a wading pool when, according to her family`s attorney, suction from the pool`s drain caused a tear in the little girl`s rectum, and pulled out much of her small intestine. We have called the club and its attorneys, and have gotten no comment. But we stress, we would like to hear and present their side of the story. Meantime, we learn there have been several similar cases across the country. In fact, Maura Lerner, a reporter for "Minneapolis Star Tribune," didn`t presidential contender John Edwards cement his reputation as a top attorney winning one of these cases? Tell us about it.
MAURA LERNER, REPORTER, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE: But actually I don`t know a lot of details. I think Nancy Baker knows more about that case, but it certainly was one of the seminal cases and it was almost identical from the way it sounds to what happened to Abigail. I just want to mention one thing that I did have a chance to talk with the general manager of the Minneapolis Golf Club today. While they`re not giving a lot of details he did say that they are just sick with grief about it, but he also said "to the best of my knowledge, there wasn`t anything wrong with the pool."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, now, let me ask our attorneys how that could possibly be. Is this a maintenance issue? Is this a negligence issue? Can we even call it an accident or is that pool a crime scene and let`s start with former federal prosecutor Pamela Davis.
PAMELA DAVIS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I don`t think you can call this a crime scene, and first of all, everyone would agree this was a horrible accident in terms of who is responsible for it? That`s a much more difficult question. First of all, did the club in fact know there was a problem with their drain and if they did know there was a problem with their drain, did they even know what the ramifications of the drain problem were? They may very well not have known that, having the drain cover off, if indeed they even knew that, was going to have such dire consequences. The next question is, is this --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, lack of knowledge is no excuse. This is something that`s relatively well-known if you`re running a country club, you`ve got to know these things.
DAVIS: I don`t know that you can say that definitively. I don`t know that you can say that it is the club`s responsibility to know every possible consequence that could ever possibly happen on their grounds. I mean are they responsible if somebody trips over a golf ball and hits their heads and dies? I guess they could have anticipated that somebody might trip over a golf ball. Does that make them responsible, could they have possibly have known?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sue Moss.
SUE MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY & CHILD ADVOCATE: Absolutely. This club had constructive notice. Because how many little girls have to die or be maimed until we invest the money to make sure that our kiddie pools are safe? This was a kiddie pool. There was an expectation that these kids would be safe, and if there had been proper maintenance or proper pool design, this never would have happened. So many lawsuits, so little time. These people can go after not only the club, not only the company that sold them the pool, not only the installer of the pool, but possibly the people who designed the pool and the company who maintained the pool. There is a lot of liability to go around, and if just one of these players had stepped up, this little girl would not be in the hospital.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s go to Robert Bennett, the lawyer for the Taylor family. Are you planning a suit, and if so, who are you going to sue?
ROBERT BENNETT, ATTORNEY FOR INJURED GIRL`S FAMILY: Well, that`s undetermined at this time. Certainly, we`re looking at the potential for both premises liability and products liability, but we don`t want to go off half-cocked. I mean, we need to inspect the pool. The attorney for the pool is not available until next week. Hopefully we`ll get an inspection, have the experts look at it, identify the component parts. Certainly the pool of the golf club who operates the pool knew, because we`ve talked to the city inspectors, that the, that that drain cover had to be affixed, had to be checked every day, and they knew the results of not having it affixed. So I think --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Mr. Bennett, did they say anything to you? Because apparently they have said that they feel heartsick but they don`t think there was anything wrong with the pool. So what did they say to you?
BENNETT: Well, they didn`t say anything to me. The general manager left a message for Scott Taylor in which he admitted that the pool drain cover was off, that one screw had broken away and was attached to the cover, which was given to them, and that the other screw had become loose, then was lost, and they understood that that was the cause of Abigail`s horrible injuries. That sounds a lot like an admission of liability to me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, defense attorney Anne Bremner, you just heard it. What do you say?
ANNE BREMNER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He doesn`t want to go off, as he says, half-cocked. There`s a lot to look at in this case. And we just heard from Susan, a closing argument in the case that we don`t even know anything about. What if one of the children had moved that at some point? We don`t know right now what happened. With predictability Jane, what I talked about before on just statistics and numbers, I didn`t bring those up to talk about statistics and numbers, I`m talking about notice, which is a tenant in civil litigation and negligence. If you don`t know, like Pam said, this is such a bizarre and freakish accident, that this could happen, then you have an issue under negligence and tort liability. So all these things we need to look at, it is tragic. It is horrific and it`s captured the nation`s attention because of that and also because it is so bizarre.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s give Robert or Nancy Baker, rather, a chance to respond to this, because you lost a daughter.
NANCY BAKER: I don`t even really have a response to it. It can go on and on and on. You can argue who was responsible, and -- the bottom line is that, when something like this can take a child`s life, when it can eviscerate, disembowel a child, I`d like to get sort of above all of this fray and say, what`s really missing here is a standard that is consistent around the country, so that you don`t have this argument about who knew what when, and who -- which area doesn`t know, and which pool is safe and isn`t safe. You set one standard, and pools and spas, whether they`re private or public, adhere to them.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The phone lines are lighting up again on this subject. Jane from Massachusetts, your question? All right, Janet, Wisconsin, your question?
JANET: Yes, Jane. You know, with her little body, there`s probably so little fatty tissue around all of her organs, and the suction was so great, did it bother her other organs, I`m thinking particularly of her female organs that would affect her future.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is such an excellent question. Dr. Marty Makary, give us an answer on that.
DR. MARTY MAKARY, PHYSICIAN, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: It`s certainly a possibility. The intestine is an organ which is at particularly high-risk because it`s delicate and it has only one or two points of fixation so it`s at high risk.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, there are so many issues surrounding all of this, and monetary compensation in this society is how we right wrongs, so I want to go back to our attorneys and talk a little bit about if there is a suit, depending on who is sued, what kind of monetary compensation can this family, which has been so devastated, expect, in some of these case, there have been awards of up to $100 million, $100 million. Anne Bremner, take it away.
BREMNER: Well John Edwards had an award of $25 million, and it was $100 million in a death case. These are huge awards. It depends if there`s punitive damages in the state and that`s what we`ve seen in these huge awards and they want to punish manufacturers or the owners, operator, et cetera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said "mommy, am I going to be on the news? I should be on the news." she said, "why, honey?" She said, "because we need to tell people what happened to me so this doesn`t happen to anybody else." It`s a medical miracle that she even survived, and I immediately fell to my knees, because my initial reaction was that she hadn`t survived, basically beyond an IV, that`s how she`ll receive all of her nutrients, due to the fact that her small intestines are gone, she can`t process food.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINA PARK: Hello everyone, I`m Christina Park with your "HEADLINE PRIME" newsbreak. He is one of the doctors arrested in connection with the failed UK car bombing attacks. Now Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah is facing conspiracy charges. He is the only suspect of the eight to be charged so far. The suspects all worked for Britain`s National Health Service and the FBI says two made inquiries about working here in the U.S.
Al Gore`s bringing Saturday`s live earth concert to Washington, D.C.`s National Mall and that is ticking off those who call global warming a hoax. Some senate Republicans refused his request to use capital grounds. That didn`t stop Gore from getting it approved two blocks away.
Back at it, federal agents digging up Atlanta Falcons` QB Michael Vick`s Virginia property again. They`re investigating what might be buried on the property and whether it was used for dog fighting. Last month investigators uncovered the graves of seven pit bulls. That`s your look at some of the top stories we`re following for you. Thanks for watching. I`m Christina Park.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lawyers begin to ask the question why, how did this happen? The Taylors` lawyer believes a missing drain cover may be to blame.
The club`s manager says, to the best of his knowledge, there wasn`t anything wrong with the pool. Scott Taylor was amazed to hear this has happened before at different pools. Scott`s goal and Abby`s goal, to make sure it doesn`t happen again. They want parents and pool owners to be aware of this potential deadly possibility.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in for Nancy Grace. A beautiful smiling little girl whose life has been shattered by this horrific and apparently avoidable accident. Now we have some photos to show you of other similar accidents or incidents in the past, and when you look at it, you will actually see the mark of the suction. Mike Brooks, the suction that we`re talking about that literally eviscerated to a certain degree, this little girl is tremendous. Can you quantify it for us?
MIKE BROOKS, FMR. D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You know what, it`s a lot of pounds per square inch of pressure that`s being sucked through that drain. Because they`re moving a lot of water through that hose filtration system because it`s for the kiddie pool and it`s also for the other pool, that`s mostly on the same system. And I tell you, you know even other things, we see all of these pictures. You also have to worry about girls with long hair getting their hair sucked into the drain. Even if there`s a cover on it, it can still get sucked into the drain. The bottom line is parents also need to be there with the children. You can`t rely on the life guards. They`re there to watch hundreds of kids, whether it be at a club like this, a public pool, or a water park. You need to be there with your children.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, that I think is the best advice, until this whole thing is settled, go into the pool with your child and stay there and observe. But you know, can adults also suffer from this? I mean, there are adults who are very petite. Let me ask that of Nancy Baker, have you heard of any of those cases?
BAKER: I`ve heard of adults but because adults are less likely to play, you know, they don`t go drown towards the drains like kids do, I think that`s why it doesn`t happen. But we`re talking about 3 to 400 pounds of pressure, so whether you weigh 100 pounds or you weigh 50, I mean, it`s equally a possibility.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know in fact in the $100 million award, it was for someone whose arm was sucked into a drain and the victim was left in a permanent vegetative state. The phone lines lighting up. Sherry from Georgia, your question?
SHERRY: Yes, I would like to know how long the child was unattended, and how long it would take for something like this to happen?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Excellent question, Robert Bennett, lawyer for the Taylor family, was there a life guard watching over her? How long did it take for her to get help?
BENNETT: I don`t know about a life guard but I know she was not unattended. Her mother and other friends were around and near the wading pool the whole time. In fact when she got out her mother got right to her. The doctor said you could literally be holding the child`s hand and have this happen to them, so it has really nothing to do with attendance. It has to do with how quickly this very dangerous suction injury can occur. Let me also say I didn`t think it was possible to find somebody who would actually assert, as Anne did, that somehow you would blame the children in the wading pool for their own disembowelment. I find that unbelievable.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Anne, let`s give you a chance to respond to that. Anne Bremner, defense attorney.
BREMNER: That`s not what I said. What I said, a child could have. I want to be very clear that I would never blame this child and Mr. Bennett, my heart goes out to your client`s family.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, and let`s go to Leslie Austin, psychotherapist, because this little girl has to deal with a lot of physical injuries but also as she grows up, it`s going to have a psychological impact on her. How could it not? She`s going to have to be fed through a feeding tube. Her entire life is completely, completely shattered by this.
LESLIE AUSTIN, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: Yes, it is, but the best thing her family can possibly do is to support her, as she gets older, to have a sense of meaning and purpose in her life, to help her be a crusader and be a role model. Her relationships will be different, dating will be different. Growing up will be different but it doesn`t mean that her life is necessarily permanently ruined. If they support her enough to really value herself and be a good role model, she can do a lot of good in the world and feel good about herself, despite this terrible tragedy that`s happened to her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I so hope that you are right and that comes to pass. Shannon in Virginia, your question?
SHANNON: Hi, Jane. First my thoughts and prayers go out to the little girl, but I was just wondering, what if any are the parents accountable for? I mean, they should have been watching a 6-year-old little girl.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Susan Moss, you are a family law attorney and a child advocate. I`m sure that Mr. Bennett, the lawyer for the family, would certainly not agree with that assessment. What do you say about it?
MOSS: This accident that happened to Abigail and has happened to so many other children happens in a blink of the eye, and that`s because there is so much suction pressure in connection with these pools. I want to know who are the lobbyists who are stopping our lawmakers from coming forth and putting forth standardized pool regulations. I hope that the public is outraged, and this now is known as pool gate so that we can get some justice.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yeah, I kind of like that, pool gate. Maura Lerner of the "Minneapolis Star-Tribune." Apparently the Minneapolis parks board according to your reporting was confident enough about the safety of their 61 wading pools to send out a system-wide e-mail. What are they confident about and if they can be so confident, why can`t country clubs get their wading pools up to speed?
LERNER: Well the Minneapolis city parks board does not run the country club that was involved in this case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right, no I know that. They`re saying that their 61 wading pools are just fine, thank you, and nobody has to worry about them.
LERNER: Right, well one of the things they said is that they have more than one drain, and that they have -- in other words, there are more modern facilities, they`re designed specifically or at least in part to prevent this kind of accident because the risk of this has been known.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So Nancy Baker, to get back to you it seems that with a country club you could rip out an old wading pool and put in top of the line new wading pools that have the very best equipment in them, something called a safety vacuum release system that would force an automatic shutdown of the pool if something went awry?
BAKER: Yeah, Jane but it doesn`t involve ripping out the old wading pool. What`s being suggested is that in older pools and spas and wading pools that a device be installed which does detect a change in the pressure, you know when a drain gets sealed there is an immediate change in the pressure in the line and there is a mechanism that shuts the pump off and releases the victim. And the proper drain cover, properly adhered.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a week in America`s courtrooms. Take a look at the stories and more important, the people who touched all our lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was just a good day with my sister, you know, and nothing unusual. She was happy, cheery, just laughing like usual, just the normal Kelly I`ve always been around. So when we parted it was nothing unusual at all.
NANCY GRACE: So, if her knee braces were there and her vehicle was there, her pocketbook was there, her broken cell phone was there, her driver`s license, credit cards, all that was there, where did she walk to? To the mailbox and back. I mean she doesn`t even have her knee braces, that doesn`t make sense.
Won`t you help us tonight? Here is the mother, out beating the streets, handing out fliers, trying to find her girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First let me preface the conversation by stating that I hope that my appearance here raises awareness of what`s happening in our industry and brings about change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was bad, we did steroids, we did pain killers, we did all kinds of drugs. We did whatever it took to make it through a show, to keep our spot on national television. Let`s be honest for just once, please.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Steve, do you admit that you`ve done steroids?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never took any steroids when I was in WWF and he says who gives a damn, I give a damn. I don`t want to be stereotyped like a druggy. Stop interrupting me for a second.
I never took steroids, ever.
In 1987 and 88 I did for a little while, until I had an allergic reaction in `89 I never took anything sense.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight, let`s stop to remember army first lieutenant Frank Walkup IV, just 23 of Woodbury, Tennessee, killed in Iraq. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Walkup was awarded the purple heart and the bronze star. A man who knew no strangers, Walkup dreamed of a military career. He leaves behind a large family, nine siblings, his parents, Frank and Missy, and grieving widow, Sibita. Frank Walkup IV, an American hero.
We want to thank all of her guests tonight for their insights and thanks to you at home for tracking these very important cases with us. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Hope to see you right here tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp eastern. Until then, have a terrific and a safe evening.
PARK: Hello, everyone. I`m Christina Park with your "HEADLINE PRIME" newsbreak. It looks like America`s beefed up border security may be working. The feds say the number of illegal immigrants nabbed along the U.S./Mexico border has dropped 24 percent in the past nine months. Adding there are lots of reasons for the change, including 6,000 more National Guard troops stationed along that border. And the head of the National Hurricane Center says he is staying put, even though more than half of his staff wants him gone. He`s accused of exaggerating a potential problem with an aging satellite. And in a story that got extensive live coverage right here, police needed 90 minutes to bust a woman suspected of drunken driving. She led police on a slow speed chase north of L.A. today. They finally stopped her with some spike strips. Eventually she stopped on the side of the freeway and police arrested her. That`s a look at the latest headlines. Thanks for watching "HEADLINE NEWS," I`m Christina Park.
END
