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American Morning

Hurricane Felix Makes Landfall; Explosions Kill 21, Hurt Dozens in Pakistan Blasts; Bipolar Kids: Disorder Often Overdiagnosed

Aired September 04, 2007 - 07:59   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Storm surge. The monster Category 5 Hurricane Felix makes landfall in Central America. And Henriette grows into a hurricane in the Pacific this morning.

I-Reports, live reports and the latest forecast right now.

Plus, hidden dangers. An unmarked mine traps two sisters. How many other mines are out there, reachable more than ever by those ATVs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see horrendous injuries.

CHETRY: What you need to know to keep your kid safe on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: And welcome. Glad you're with us.

It is Tuesday, September 4th.

I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you.

I'm John Roberts.

CHETRY: Within the last couple of minutes, we got the news that Hurricane Felix made landfall in the extreme northeastern part of Nicaragua just within the last couple of minutes. Now, it was about an hour ago that it once again became a Category 5 storm with 160- mile-per-hour winds. Of course, we know capable of severe destruction, especially in some of these areas, especially where we're talking about, in Nicaragua -- fishing villages, native fishermen in that area, and concerns about their safety, whether or not they're able to get out of the path of this storm in time and get to safety.

CNN's Harris Whitbeck is live in La Ceiba, Honduras, with more for us.

Hi, Harris.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kiran. Authorities here have used La Ceiba, have taken La Ceiba as the initial staging area to go into the Miskito area, which is right on the border with Nicaragua. The concern there is about some 14,000 people who apparently were not able to evacuate the area.

Yesterday, government officials were scrambling trying to find fuel for boats that would help evacuate some of these people from that area. The area very hard to get to in the best of times. Roads are very, very bad. Most of the communications there is either by air or by sea.

At this point, the government and several relief organizations who have based people and supplies in the region will just have to wait for the storm to pass before they can get there. As you said, Hurricane Felix made landfall just a few minutes ago right there on the Nicaraguan side of the border, but it is very near the whole Miskito coast here on the Atlantic part of Central America, Honduras and Nicaragua -- Kiran.

CHETRY: So are you feeling it right now, Harris?

WHITBECK: Not where we are. We're in La Ceiba, north of that. It's a bit cloudy, but as you can see behind me, really nothing to report in terms of disturbed weather.

The storm's path has changed a bit and changed in the last several hours. At one point, it looked like it was headed straight for La Ceiba, for the island of Roatan, which is off to my left here, a big tourist destination. Many tourists were evacuated from Roatan yesterday. In fact, one U.S. military helicopter was used to evacuate a group of American tourists from there.

But at this point, at least where we are now, no signs of a hurricane yet. Just a few clouds in the sky.

CHETRY: Your area dodging a bullet, but, of course, the northeastern part of Nicaragua taking a hit right now.

Harris Whitbeck in Honduras for us.

Thank you.

ROBERTS: Certainly they are really feeling it in places like Puerto Cabezas, which is right along the Nicaraguan coast there. It happens to be the sister city to Burlington, Vermont.

Our Rob Marciano is in the CNN center tracking Felix.

How high were the winds when this thing came ashore?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, they're clocked by a hurricane hunter aircraft at 160 miles an hour. That is likely to the north of the center of circulation, likely north of that Puerto Cabezas you're talking about, making landfall in Punta Gorda, which is about 10 miles to the north of that larger city. The satellite picture shows you the circulation. It is pretty tight circulation, although it has expanded over the last couple of hours to 45 miles an hour from the center of this system, is where hurricane-force winds extend.

You can see the eye now there scraping against the coastline, making landfall. Soon those folks in Punta Gorda will be experiencing the center of this eye, which will be calm winds, maybe a little sunshine. And the back side of this thing will hit them likely even harder.

The forecast track is pretty straightforward, west, maybe a little bit north of west. And that will bring it over the next several hours, not only along the coastline with strong winds, heavy rain and that storm surge, but also will bring it into the mountains. So this will be a two-punch story, Kiran, with the storm surge, the wind now, with catastrophic winds, like a tornado whipping through this area. And then quickly weakening, but what will not weaken is the amount of rainfall that will be squeezed out of these mountains.

And what we have seen with hurricanes that make landfall in this area of the world, those mountains can create landslides, mudslides, life-threatening situations. And I think as -- this is more than just a landfall story right now. It will be ongoing for the next day, two days, in fact.

Kiran, back over to you.

CHETRY: Rob Marciano, thank you.

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: Two bomb blasts near Pakistan's capital have killed at least 21 people and injured dozens.

Monita Rajpal is following this story from London this morning.

Monita, just a terrible tragedy there. And amazing that people with that bus bomb got so close to that army barracks.

MONITA RAJPAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Let me tell you exactly what happened.

The first bomb exploded in Rawalpindi, near the capital of Islamabad. A bomb planted in a bus carrying military employees exploded first. We understand that at least seven people were killed there.

Shortly after that, a second bomb planted on a motorcycle near a commercial district exploded. At least four people were killed in that. Of course, there were many more injured. No one has claimed responsibility for that.

And, of course, there has been an upsurge of violence in Pakistan since July, when a pact with militants in the Waziristan region in the Afghan border broke down. Of course, all of this comes just a month before elections are scheduled to take place in Pakistan where security and politics will come to a head.

Now, travelers who will be going from Paris to London and vice versa will be finding that it's going to take them a lot less time to travel between the two countries. Eurostar, the train service that takes travelers to Paris and London and vice versa, set a new record today. In just two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds, passengers on this test train arrived at London's St. Pancras International Station from Paris.

The train reached speeds of up to 202 miles per hour in France and 175 miles per hour on the new British track. Now, all of this thanks to a new rail line that has been stalled. It used to take about two and a half hours from Paris to London's Waterloo Station. That was because Eurostar trains had to share tracks with commuter trains in London on century-old tracks.

So it's going to be a lot quicker travel for those wanting to go from London to Paris and Paris to London -- John.

ROBERTS: That is true high-speed rail. Something we could use here.

Monita Rajpal for us in London.

RAJPAL: Absolutely.

ROBERTS: Monita, thanks -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, if your child has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, you may want to get a second opinion. It turns out it's often overdiagnosed for young kids and teenagers. In fact, since the mid-1990s, these diagnoses have increased forty-fold.

Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from Atlanta with details.

First of all, what is bipolar disorder and what are the dangers of misdiagnosing it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, bipolar disorder is a psychiatric disorder that's sort of hallmarked by people who have episodes of significant depression. They can go from that to significant grandiosity, and there are all sorts of different symptoms sort of in the middle of that as well.

The numbers you mentioned are staggering. Just to give you a little bit of scale of reference there, there were about 20,000 diagnoses, again, in children ages 19 and younger in 1994. And you fast forward about 10 years and the number has gone from 20,000 to 800,000.

Lots of different possibilities as to why this might be. The criteria to diagnose bipolar disorder had been broadened to some extent. Some people say, well, it was underdiagnosed then but it's being overdiagnosed now. It could be the significant marketing of drugs. You see these advertisements everywhere. What sort of impact is that having not only on patients, but doctors alike?

I'll give you an example.

The lead author of this study, in fact, received speaking fees from one of the companies that makes one of the bipolar drugs as well. An interesting other sort of thing as well, Kiran, is that two-thirds of the diagnoses actually came in boys, not girls, which is exact opposite of what you'd expect when you see it in adults.

So, not exactly sure what is going on there, but there are dangers, as you mentioned. There may be overmedication going on as a result of the increased diagnoses, and there is a significant stigma attached to this. Diagnosing a child with bipolar disorder, is that something that they're going to carry for the rest of their lives? So a lot of people thinking about this -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, it's interesting you talk about the diagnosis in boys. (INAUDIBLE) it seems about how boys may learn differently in a classroom environment and it may be more difficult for them to concentrate just because of their biological makeup at that age. But if they don't have bipolar disorder but they're clearly displaying some symptoms, what else could it be?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, I think you're absolutely right on that in terms of the differences between boys and girls. And it sort of leads to what this might be confused with.

For example, again, I mentioned some of the -- some of the hallmarks. You know, you have episodes of depression, sort of followed by episodes of mania, for example. But there's also things like irritability, distractibility, pressured speech, which can also be signals of bipolar disorder. But they might also be confused with ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and sometimes those diagnoses get a little confused, especially in boys, more so than girls.

So that might account at least for some of the gender difference there.

CHETRY: Very interesting. And so you are recommending if a child is diagnosed with bipolar they should get a second opinion?

GUPTA: I think in this situation it is best to be skeptical a little bit, certainly for patients and for their parents, and especially when it comes to the possible prescription for medications. A healthy doze of skepticism I think here is a good prescription for that -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as always, thanks for the info.

GUPTA: Thank you. ROBERTS: There are about 100,000 abandoned mines in Arizona. One just caused the death of a teenager and injured her sister. What is being done to protect people from these hidden dangers? We'll ask a state mine inspector.

That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

And we continue to follow the breaking weather news. Hurricane Felix now a monster Category 5 storm that has made landfall in Central America.

Live reports ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING as we continue to cover and follow Hurricane Felix, which came ashore just a few minutes ago along the Atlantic coast -- the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.

There is one fairly large population center in there by Nicaraguan standards. It's called Puerto Cabezas. They might be equipped to handle a smaller hurricane than this, but a Category 5 coming ashore is going to make for some real problems there.

But there are a lot of other much more primitive areas along there, populated mostly by Miskito Indians. And they will be suffering terribly this morning, because many of them, they only way that they can get around is in canoes. So I think the damage and the death toll from this hurricane certainly could be told in the next 24 to 48 hours -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, a 10-year-old girl in Arizona is in serious condition this morning after her all-terrain vehicle plunged 125 feet down an abandoned mine shaft. Her sister was killed in that tragic accident. And people living in the area estimate there are dozens of these abandoned mines in these hills surrounding their rural Arizona community where a lot of kids do take ATVs and dirt bikes around. They say there's possibly a hundred thousand of these abandoned mines across the state.

Joe Hart runs the Arizona State Mine Inspectors Office, and he joins us from Kingman, Arizona, this morning.

Thanks so much for being with us today.

JOE HART, DIRECTOR, ARIZONA STATE MINE INSPECTORS OFFICE: Thank you, Kiran. Thank you for being here.

CHETRY: Now, you know, for this family, they're really living out this nightmare. What consolation is there? Will this spark change to try to get more people to pay attention to these abandoned mines, getting them either filled or at least clearly marked?

HART: Kiran, my -- I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the family, first. Yes, under my watch, we definitely will secure more of these abandoned mines. Senator McCain endorsed me immediately when I started running basically for my stand about doing something about these abandoned mines. It's an atrocious problem and we just need to find them and fill them up.

CHETRY: You know, it's interesting that you say that, because you are, as I understand it, the only elected mine inspector in the U.S. Others are appointed. You ran on this issue.

You said you have support from Senator McCain, yet there is, as I understand it, no federal funding given for your state to try to get some of these hundred thousand mines filled?

HART: Not at this time. I've negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Forest Service to do something on the forest service land, but in the state of Arizona, we have a checkerboard system. Every other section is either owned by the state, the federal government, or is private. So it's pretty tough to find out exactly where we're at and what we're dealing with here.

CHETRY: But as I understand it, you get very little state funding as well. Two donations -- you actually got one from the state legislature and one private to fill a mine. How much does it cost to fill a mine like the one that ended up taking the life of that little girl?

HART: The cost is going to be probably -- the way that I've been doing it, I've been getting a lot of in-kind contributions. And we closed one just by Buckeye (ph) the other day, and it was about 400 feet. We closed that for about $16,000.

The bid on it before with my predecessor was $98,000. And I just could not allow the bar to be set that high on the first one that we actually had to spend money on.

CHETRY: So it's a costly endeavor, for sure, if you're talking about possibly a hundred thousand of these abandoned mines.

You're standing in front of a mine tunnel right now. Will you explain for the folks out there what exactly that is and how that's different from that shaft, the 125 feet open shaft that injured one girl and killed another?

HART: Well, this is just a vertical shaft and it's really not too deep. This is basically a storage unit for dynamite for years back in the 1800s and early 1900s. This isn't basically a mine, but it's just a shaft.

The one that the young lady fell into, it was a horizontal shaft and went straight down. I mean, a vertical shaft, excuse me. It went straight down 125 feet. And those are the ones that I want to find first and make sure that we do something about those because those are the most dangerous and they're so well concealed, and we just need to find them and fill them up.

That's basically what we have to do. CHETRY: Do you think that this tragedy is going to be bring more attention to it, both at the state and federal level?

HART: I do. I really think, you know, that it's brought it to the forefront. It was one of the biggest issues on the campaign trail. People did not realize the impact that mining had had on the state of Arizona and the amount of abandoned mines that we have in our state.

CHETRY: Hopefully, they will realize it now and at least try to get some of those marked.

Joe Hart, director of the Arizona State Mine Inspectors Office.

Thanks for being with us this morning.

HART: Thank you so much. Appreciate your help.

ROBERTS: Twenty-three minutes now after the hour.

Preparing for a taxi strike. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg says the city has contingency plans in case cab drivers strike. A group that represents about a fifth of drivers is threatening to strike for two days beginning tomorrow. They're protesting requirements to outfit cabs with GPS tracking devices.

And hang on to your old car. Just ahead, we'll tell you how much money you'll save if you keep driving it for, what, 60,000? No. Eighty thousand? No. Two hundred thousand miles.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: It was a long flight and they have now landed. Air Force One landing in Sydney, Australia. The president, as well as his entourage, making their way to the land down under for the big APEC conference that takes place every year.

ROBERTS: It does. I went to a couple of those. I went to one in New Zealand, one in Thailand, Shanghai.

It's interesting to travel around the world. Typically, there's not a lot of news that are made at these things, and that is what they are expecting this time around as well. Of course, all the news was made yesterday when, on the way there, he dropped off in Baghdad.

CHETRY: Yes, an eight-hour trip, unexpected, and quite a surprise for troops over there.

ROBERTS: Yes.

It's 26 minutes after the hour now.

It's well known that Ali Velshi drives a fairly conservative vehicle, a minivan. And he has got some tips now on how to make your minivan pay for itself for the long haul.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have a little truck which I park next to my motorcycle in a very tight parking spot in Manhattan. And this weekend, for the first time in the two years that I've owned the truck, I scraped it against the side, got a scratch, got a dent. And, you know, that's really upsetting because it's been feeling like a new vehicle which is what we all like.

CHETRY: But now I know what to get for you Christmas.

VELSHI: A new truck?

CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE).

VELSHI: Yes, right.

Well, "Consumer Reports" has done a study to indicate that if you -- I mean, this is not that counterintuitive. But if you were to repair your car and maintain it properly, you can push it to beyond 225,000 miles or 15 years.

Now, the average American replaces their car, trades it in for a new one every five years. So "Consumer Reports" did the math on it and said, you calculate the money that you wouldn't be spending laying out on the new car, versus the maintenance of the old car, and you can save tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a car, if you're prepared to have a car for 15 years, which is part of the problem, because people like their new cars.

The world of leasing introduced people to new cars every two to three years.

Now, "Consumer Reports" also said some cars are going to carry you for 15 years better than other cars. Here's a list of their best bets.

Guess what? The top five best bets are all Hondas or Toyotas. The Honda Civic, the CR-V, the Lexus ES or LS, the Toyota Highlander, Prius or RAV4.

Look at their worst bets for making it to 200,000 miles. BMW 7- Series, Infinitis, Jaguar X-Type, Mercedes-Benz SL and M Classes, and the Volvo XC990.

So, buy a reliable car and nurse it.

CHETRY: I'm surprised my Datsun 210 didn't make it on there. We saw those...

VELSHI: No, because that was...

CHETRY: That got us through high school.

VELSHI: That's right. But it is -- the engines work well on these things if, "Consumer Reports" says, you follow the directions, you replace all the fluids with the recommended type of fluid. Not necessarily the...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: What kind of motorcycle do you drive?

VELSHI: I've got a Suzuki Intruder 1400 CC.

CHETRY: Oh.

ROBERTS: How long will that last?

CHETRY: It's Suzuki versus...

VELSHI: The way I drive? With the four miles a week a drive it? It should last for about 55 years.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Until he has to retire it, so to speak.

VELSHI: That's right. I will retire before my bike does.

CHETRY: Hey, don't knock on the minivan, by the way. It gets a lot of families going where they need to go.

VELSHI: Says the new mom.

CHETRY: All right.

Well, the next hour -- actually, we're still in this hour, but we'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Still dark in Phoenix this morning, but when the sun comes up, it's going to hit 109 degrees today. Not quite 110. They've had a record 32 days of 110-degree plus temperatures so far this summer. That is hot in anybody's books.

CHETRY: I can't imagine what the AC bill must be like in some of those households.

ROBERTS: At least they have AC. Can you imagine when they didn't?

Tuesday, September 4th. Welcome back. I'm John Roberts.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. We're glad you're with us. We're continuing to follow Hurricane Felix.

ROBERTS: Oh, yes, breaking news this morning. Hurricane Felix made landfall 45 minutes ago in northeastern Nicaragua; fairly sparsely populated area. A lot of villages populated by Indians, but there is one moderate population center there as well that just got smacked this morning. Felix, a Category 5 storm came ashore with 160-mile-an-hour winds. Great concern about not just the wind damage but the amount of storm surge that it moved across the coast there as it came in. As the storm moves inland and across the mountains of Honduras, more concern about the rain which can cause mudslides that happened nine years ago with Hurricane Mitch and 10,000 people were killed.

Rob Marciano is tracking Felix this morning,

Rob, I just can't imagine, 160 miles an hour from open water into those very low-lying areas there in Nicaragua. It just has to be devastation.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Unbelievable scene. I've been in the eye wall of Cat 3s and 4s, with winds maybe measured 110 and 120. I can't imagine any more than that. That is what the folks are experiencing now. This is an ongoing process and making landfall now and they are getting hammered with winds easily over 100 miles an hour, in the peak areas 160 miles an hour.

You see the eye, there, wobbling toward the coast line. Punta Gorda is pretty much the place where it is making landfall at the moment. And likely some areas of that seeing the eye itself. Calm wind, maybe a little sunshine, but that will be short-lived as the back side of this system will continue to hammer the coastline.

The forecast track is relatively simple westerly/northwesterly. And here it is out of the National Hurricane Center. Quickly dissipating as far as the strength goes over the next couple of hours it will be brought down out of major hurricane status, in due time. But the next couple of hours certainly will be hairy.

Then we transform it, from the wind maker to the storm surge maker to the rainmaker. As John mentioned, Kiran, we're going to be talking about the potential for landslides over the next day or two. This will be an ongoing storm and will not pose any sort of threat to the United States.

We'll talk more about Hurricane Henriette, which is hitting -- will be hitting the Cabo San Lucas area. We may get a little bit of that moisture, but right now, there are not tropical storms or hurricane to directly threaten the U.S.

So good news for us but bad news for Central America; the second Cat 5 to make landfall in the last two weeks. Back up to you.

CHETRY: Yes, a one-two punch. They say that it certainly made history since they've been keeping records to have both hurricanes in succession to be Cat 5s, the highest there is.

Rob, thank you.

MARCIANO: Sure.

CHETRY: Well, President Bush has just landed within the last couple of minutes in Australia. He arrived in Sydney. There is a shot of the president getting off Air Force One. They're there for the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, also known as APEC. He left from Iraq where he met with U.S. troops in an eight-hour visit where he says things are looking up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with a "Fact Check" for us. Answering a question today: Are things looking up?

Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kiran.

Well, you know the president was very careful in that statement. You saw he did not say how many troops or when there might be a draw down, but it was one of his strongest statements to date. That he is going to try to draw down American troops in the future.

What kind of success is he looking for? Let's look at some of those statistics. First, the number of U.S. troops dying in Iraq. In July it was 79 troops. In August, 81 troops. But you'll recall 14 of those tragically in August were killed when their helicopter went down due to some sort of mechanical function. Still, an indicator of progress.

Total civilians killed, Iraqi civilians, that is a very strong indicator to look at. Again, in July, about 1,980 Iraqis killed and in August, 2,300. Set that aside for one minute and look at the issue of how many Iraqi civilians killed in Baghdad. Because that, of course, has been the focus of the surge trying to get the violence down in Baghdad. In July just about 900, and in August, just over 650.

What does all of this telling us, Kiran? It tells us that violence certainly is down in Baghdad. The surge is doing what the U.S. commanders want it to do in that area. A major concern though is whether violence will stay down, especially in the north and south of Iraq -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Also the president made a specific point about landing at Al Assad Air Base, outside of Ramadi, not in Baghdad. Pointing to the success of being able to crack down on the security situation there. Is it realistic for that model to be followed in other areas of Iraq?

STARR: Well, you know, you're right. That is a very good question. Because in Al Assad, in the Sunni Triangle that we have heard so much and so long about the violence there, that is an area where some of it's working because it is majorly a Sunni area. They could work with the Sunni sheikhs even if they are buying them off, at least they have violence down, they say.

But will that work in the rest of Iraq which is, to a large extent, mixed Sunni and Shia areas except for the Shia areas way down south in Basra. A lot of worry whether you can replicate that role model out where the president was into other parts of the country.

CHETRY: Quickly, we have a rocky parliament back in session. How about any political gains? That has been the weakest spot for Iraq right now.

STARR: Yes, they're back after a month of their summer vacation, so far no progress. Everyone will be looking for them to pass laws on oil, distribution of revenues, on de-Baathification, and provincial elections. But none of that will happen before the Petraeus report next week, and the so-called benchmark report which will be very critical of Iraqi political progress -- Kiran.

CHETRY: "Fact Check" for us from the Pentagon from Barbara Starr. Thanks for being with us.

STARR: Sure.

ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes after the hour. Some breaking news to tell you about this morning. This coming in to us from Danish police. Danish intelligence services say they have arrested eight people accused of plotting a potential terror attack. These eight people, six of them who were Danish citizens, two foreigners who were living in Denmark, apparently were caught in a heavily populated area of Copenhagen charged with carrying and storing, quote, "unstable explosives".

There was a lengthy surveillance operation that was conducted so it's obvious the Danish authorities had a line on these guys long before anything happened. The main suspect said to be Islamic militants with international connections. And the Danish intelligence services are saying they believe they have thwarted a terrorist attack this morning.

Again, eight people arrested, charged with storing unstable explosives, six Danish citizens, and two foreign nationals from another country with -- who had been living in Denmark. We're going to be hear more about this as the news develops today. We will keep you arrest of all the latest developments.

Having side effects from a medication that you're taking? Have you told your doctor about it? And is your doctor listening? A new study says that well, often they dismiss patient concerns. We'll ask our Doctor Sanjay Gupta to ring in on this.

Dangers for drivers of all ages when you go off-road. Why you, or your children, could you be risking your lives on an ATV, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Side effects from medications can be serious and even deadly sometimes. What did you do when your doctor dismisses the warning signs? Our Doctor Sanjay Gupta joins us now from Atlanta.

Sanjay, are doctors paying enough attention to their patients and what they say to them?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think a lot of doctors do, but obviously according to a new study there are lots of doctors who don't as well. The study actually looks at several different medications, including statin medication, which, you know, John, are medications to lower cholesterol.

Now, there are lot of different possible side effects you might get from these sorts of medications including muscle problems, for example. You get kidney problems. You can get liver problems, you can get a sort of tinge to your eyes, a sort of a yellowness of your eyes.

The question was if you have these side effects and you go to your doctor, these are established side effects, you go to your doctor, and you say, OK, this is what I'm experiencing, what typically happens when you tell this to the doctor? This is what they found. In fact, about 32 percent, about a third of the doctors, in this study, at least said there was no link between the medications and these side effects. And 39 said, there is a possible connection. And 29 percent were noncommittal as to whether or not these medications caused side effects.

We know that the makers of the drugs actually put these package inserts, which I'm sure a lot of people read, or maybe not read, that actually says that there are some side effects from these medications. It's available but a lot of times patients and doctors aren't putting it together in a way that might be beneficial to the patient in the long run.

ROBERTS: Why aren't doctors listening to their patients? Obviously, many doctors look at their patients as sort of the first indicator of the things that are going wrong, but why don't some of these doctors listen to what they're saying?

GUPTA: Some of it is that it's confusing. There are a lot of different medications are out there and doctors, like patients, have to keep up with these things in terms of the number of side effects that are out there.

Some of is there's a lot of pressure from the makers of the drugs talking about the virtues of these drugs without belaboring the points about the side effects enough, I think. So patients and doctors again, alike, simply don't know or don't remember or aren't told about the side effects in the way they can actually put it together.

Also, how do you link something? You know, patients who take medications, oftentimes are sick. So how do you know, is it caused by the illness itself, or is it caused by the fact that you're taking this new medication? It can get a bit confusing.

ROBERTS: Short of grabbing your doctor by the scruff of the neck saying listen to me, how do you get them to listen to you? GUPTA: I think that one thing is to try to make it easy as possible. Try and keep a diary for example. So, when you start the medication, what are the side effects exactly? How long after you start taking the medication do you get these side effects? Trying to put it together so it's less confusing for you as a patient, and might be less confusing to the doctor as well.

I think if the symptoms are persisting for a couple of months and you're not getting any response from your doctor, it may be time to seek a second opinion, or to get a different doctor altogether.

ROBERTS: I'm sure no one has ever grabbed you by the scruff of a neck because you look like you listen.

GUPTA: I try and listen, especially to you, John.

ROBERTS: Sanjay, thanks very. Good thing you're not my internist.

GUPTA: Thank you.

If you have a medical question for Sanjay go to CNN.com/americanmorning. E-mail, Doctor Gupta's Mailbag. Sanjay will answer your questions on Thursday morning, as he does every week here on AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: He did have a diagnosis for you, but I'm not allowed to tell.

ROBERTS: That is why the diagnosis of bipolar disease has increased 40 times.

CHETRY: You need a referral to that one.

CNN "Newsroom" is just minutes away. Heidi Collins at CNN with a look at what's ahead.

Good morning, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Good morning, Kiran.

Hurricane Felix topping the "Newsroom" rundown this morning. Of course we are watching it very closely. The Cat 5 storm slammed Central America with 160-mile-an-hour winds.

And should teens go to prison for decades because of a school yard fight? The racially charged case of Louisiana's Jena 6, in court today. We'll be talking live with the mother of one of the accused teens.

And crank it up. Southern California baking under a heat wave. That's wilting the power supply for thousands of homes.

Breaking news when it happens, you're in the "Newsroom" top of the hour here on CNN -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Heidi, thanks.

ROBERTS: They cause hundreds of deaths every year. Many of the victims are children and some states have no age limit to drive ATVs. Is it time for changes? We'll look into the issue coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: And update now on the little girl who was badly injured when her ATV plunged into an abandoned mineshaft; 10-year-old Casie Hicks was updated to serious condition overnight. Her sister, 13-year- old Ricky Howard, was killed in the accident.

They plunged into one of the 100,000 mines abandoned in Arizona. A mine that had no warning signs, no barriers, nothing, just a hole in the ground.

Thirty people have died in accidents involving those all-terrain vehicles, in 20 states, all of them in the past month, and not from falling in a mine, either. CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Grover Beach, California with more.

So, I mean, how dangerous are these really, Chris?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have to put it in a context of the amount of people who actually drive ATVs. You're talking estimated, what, 14, 15, 16 million people driving these ATVs. A lot of people enjoy this activity with their children.

But when you think of it in the big picture that, you know, about a 100 children a year are dying from ATV accidents, that accident in Arizona is really drawing attention to the larger issue, which is when is it OK for children to take the wheel?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice over): A little boy cuts through the sand. No other hand on the wheel but his own; a toddler driving his own ATV until his sister rear-ends him. No one seriously hurt, this time.

DR. LARRY FOREMAN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: We see horrendous injuries.

LAWRENCE: Doctor Larry Foreman's hospital treat more than 1,000 ATV injures a year. For example, a four-year-old with both wrists broken and there are others.

FOREMAN: Just this year we actually had two little kids, in fact, that had amputations of their feet.

LAWRENCE: According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2005 alone ATV accidents killed more than 120 children under the age of 16. That's motivated some parents to demand the government ban ATVs for anyone under 16.

(On camera): Do you think riding ATV s is safe? EMILY ZEMAN, BJ'S RENTALS: Yes, I do. I think that if people pay attention to what they're doing, it's as safe as any other sport.

LAWRENCE (voice over): Emily Zeman runs BJ's Rentals. And says companies like hers police themselves. For example, Zeman won't rent to kids under the age of nine. She says the real problem is people who buy their own ATVs and allow their kids to ride vehicles built for adults.

ZEMAN: They haul them down to the beach and they go out and ride. They're the ones that have the worst accidents.

MIKE, INSTRUCTOR, BJ'S RENTALS: Every time through an area, check it once first, and make sure it's safe.

LAWRENCE: An instructor set me up on an ATV built for my size and experience and explained how to avoid those dangerous rollovers.

MIKE: If you were riding sideways and the bike started tipping, you turn the direction you're tipping and you can say that kind of like a car skidding, the back end fishes out, you steer that direction to save it.

LAWRENCE: Within minutes, I was safely riding the ATV. But all around me, kids too young on ATVs too big, and riders breaking the speed limit.

Dr. Foreman wants the federal government to step in, force riders to attend a safety course and mandate safety age limits for six-year olds, 12 year olds and then older teens and adults.

FOREMAN: You protect kids and if it needs a law, then that's what it takes. You got to protect our kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Yeah, and depending on where you live, the laws are all over the place. Some states have a laundry list of requirements and minimum ages up to 14, 16 years old. Other states, virtually no guidelines at all -- John.

ROBERTS: But, really, it's up to parents, though, Chris, to ensure their children ride an adequate vehicle and ride it in a safe way?

LAWRENCE: I think that is what the owner of BJ's here was saying. You know, no matter what law you put in place, if parents don't take the responsibility of keeping a close eye on their children, making sure they are riding an ATV that is physically suited to them, you know, none of these laws are going to make a difference at all.

ROBERTS: Chris Lawrence for us this morning.

Chris, thanks very much.

CHETRY: Here's a quick look at what CNN "Newsroom" is working on for the top of the hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: See these stories in the CNN "Newsroom." Hurricane Felix slams Central America this morning. Live coverage.

President Bush in Australia now for a major economic summit.

Bomb attacks kill more than 20 people in Pakistan today.

Southern California sweats out a heat wave. Power outages leave thousands of people with no air conditioning.

And the fastest Chihuahua. "Newsroom" at the top of the hour on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Time now to meet a "CNN Hero". These are people who make a difference in their own communities. Today, Oral Lee Brown and the promise she kept for a group of first-graders.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ORAL LEE BROWN, CHAMPIONING CHILDREN: These are our kids. We should at least take them to a position in their life that they can lead their way, and they can't do it without an education.

An education can get you everything you want. You can go wherever you want to go. It's the way out of the ghettos, bottom line.

CHILDREN IN UNISON: Good morning, Mrs. Oral Brown!

YOLANDA PEEK, FORMER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: She says give me your first graders who are really struggling and who are most needy. I want to adopt the class and I want to follow the class until they graduate from high school. And she says that she was going to pay their college tuitions.

BROWN: How many are going to college?

At the time, I think I was making $45,000, $46,000 a year. So I committed $10,000 to the kids. I grew up in Mississippi. I lived off $2 a day. That's what we got, $2 a day for picking cotton. So I really feel I was blessed from God. And so I cannot pay him back, but these kids are his kids. These kids, some of them are poor like I was!

LAQUITA WHITE, FORMER STUDENT: When have you that mentor like Miss Brown, a very strong person, you can't go wrong, because she's on you constantly every day, what are you doing? How are you doing?

BROWN: The world doubted us. I was told that, lady, you cannot do it. And I would say, you know what? These kids are just like any other kid. The only thing that they at the know how to love and they don't have the support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They called me yesterday and told me I was accepted!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah! Good for you!

BROWN: You're looking at doctors and lawyers and one president of the United States.

When you give a kid an education and they get it up here, nobody or nothing can take it away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: That going to do it for us on this AMERICAN MORNING. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again tomorrow.

CHETRY: In the meantime, CNN NEWSROOM, with Heidi Collins, starts right now.

COLLINS: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today.

Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on September 4. Here's what's on the rundown. Felix taking a bite out of Central America's Mosquito Coast.

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