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Queen Elizabeth Leaves Hospital; Obama About To Tap New Budget Head; Woman Dies After Being Denied CPR; Baby Cured Of HIV For First Time; Obama About To Name New Budget Chief; Congress Returns To Big Tasks; IAEA: Iran Not Cooperating; Crews Demolishing Sinkhole Home

Aired March 04, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So glad to see you this Monday morning. I'm Christi Paul, in today for Carol Costello.

And we begin with this breaking news. Just minutes ago Queen Elizabeth left the hospital after a short stay. And take a look at her, she looks fit. She looks healthy. She looks happy.. She was in the hospital, remember, for some sort of stomach bug. Buckingham Palace said it was a precautionary measure to take her to the hospital. All her official events for this week are still canceled or postponed. We haven't heard any word that that has been modified, but we'll have a live report for you from outside the hospital shortly with Max Foster who is there and saw the whole thing.

We're also expecting a major announcement from President Obama this morning. Here are live pictures for you from the White House, the East Room in about 15 minutes, President Obama will nominate his choice for budget director and that person we know is Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

She takes the helm at obviously a very critical time, smack in the middle of all these ongoing budget battles between Democrats and Republicans. Here's what we know about her. She is the charity director for the Wal-Mart Foundation and prior to that she was a deputy chief of staff under President Clinton.

We're going to tell you more about her past and what her role as budget director will entail. We bring you President Obama's announcement live when he steps up to the podium that's expected to be in about 10 minutes.

But first I want to get you to the shocking story in California. Wait until you hear this call. A nurse refuses to give a woman living in an independent assisted-living facility CPR and the woman dies.

According to CNN affiliate, KGET, it's because the place where the victim lived had no CPR policy in place and the facility is standing by the nurse's inaction. Kelsey Thomas from KGET walks us through what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Fire Department, what's the address of your emergency please?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: Yes, we need someone out at Glenwood Gardens as soon as possible --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, what is the address?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: We have a lady that looks like she's fainted or had a heart problem or something.

KELSEY THOMAS, KGET REPORTER (voice-over): It's 11:07, Tuesday morning, 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless has collapsed in the dining room at Glenwood Gardens. She is unconscious and barely breathing. Fire and ambulance crews are on the way. It takes about 4 minutes of question and answer for Tracy Halverson, the dispatcher to assess the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We need to get CPR started. That's not enough, OK?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: Yes, we can't do CPR --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, then hand the phone, just hand the phone to the passerby. If you can't do it, I need -- hand it to the passerby. I'll have her do it. If you've got any citizens there, I'll have them do it.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: No, no it's not --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Anybody there can do CPR, give them the phone please. I understand if your facility not willing to do that. Give the phone to a passerby, this woman is not breathing enough. She's going to die if we don't get this started. Do you understand?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: I understand, I am a nurse but I cannot have our other senior citizens who don't know CPR.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: I will instruct them.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: We're in the dining room.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: I will instruct them. Is there anyone there -- I don't understand why you're not willing to help this patient.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: I am --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, great, I'll walk you through it. EMS takes the liability for this -- I'm happy to help you. OK, this is even EMS protocol.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: Can you get -- right away? She's yelling at me and saying we have to have one of the other residents perform CPR. I'm feeling threats and I'm not going to do that and make that call.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: Is there anybody that works there that's willing to do it. GLENWOOD GARDENS: We can't do that.

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We're going to let this lady die?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: That's why we're calling 911 --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: We can't wait. She can't right now. She is stopping breathing. She can't wait for them to get there.

THOMAS: A little more than 5 minutes into the call, Bayless remains untouched, barely breathing on the dining room floor.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: He's saying we don't. So you can talk to my boss and I'm --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: OK, they're refusing CPR. They are going to let her die, by the facility, yes.

GLENWOOD GARDENS: When will the fire department be here? When will the --

UNIDENTIFIED 911 DISPATCHER: They've been on the way all this time but we can't wait. This lady is going to die.

OK, well, then if -- if you get anybody, any stranger that happens to walk by that's willing to help. I understand if your boss is telling you, you can't do it. But if there's any -- as a human being, I don't -- you know is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?

GLENWOOD GARDENS: Not at this time.

THOMAS: A little more than 7 minutes after Glenwood Gardens dialed 911. Bayless was taken in an ambulance to Mercy Hospital Southwest where she later died. We went to Glenwood Gardens and asked why the staff refused to even try to resuscitate Bayless.

Jeffrey Toomer, the executive director, told me it is the policy of Glenwood Gardens that staff does not attempt CPR. He said the policy is in place because it's not a nursing facility. It's an independent living facility. And there are no nurses on staff to provide assistance and residents are made aware of this when they move into the building.

Yet there was a nurse on scene after Bayless collapsed. Toomer wouldn't explain that. He issued a statement that said in part, "In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community, our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives. That is the protocol we followed.

As with any incident involving a resident, we will conduct a thorough internal review of this matter but we have no further comments at this time." Toomer wouldn't give me a copy of the facility's policy. He said the staff is supposed to call for assistance during an emergency and that's exactly what they did. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: It's just unbelievable when you hear that, isn't it? That was Kelsey Thomas, by the way, from our affiliate, KGET, reporting. Thank you, Kelsey.

Lorraine Bayless is the woman who died. She was 87 years old and our affiliate in Bakersfield did talk with her daughter and she said she's satisfied with the care her mother received, which may be surprising I think to hear for some of you.

But Paul Callan is a CNN legal contributor, and we need to remind people, this took place at an independent living facility. I know there are different qualifications for a place like this. Do you know what they are?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there are -- I'd say there are sort of three descriptions you hear where elderly people live. One is sort of an independent living facility. People have their own apartments. They probably have their own cars in the parking lot. But there's probably a common dining room and it's not really considered to be a medical facility.

And then you have things called assisted-living facilities which are kind of a step up. There is some medical care available. Then of course you have nursing homes where you have a more sophisticated medical staff. This is at a lower level of the kind of place that people go to when they are elderly and when they retire.

So that's basically what's involved. But of course, the owners of this facility are saying, we have them sign a contract when they come in saying that we don't provide any medical care and that all we do is call 911. So we have every right then not to administer CPR.

Now from a legal standpoint, maybe they have a leg to stand on, but from a moral standpoint, boy, to sit there and watch a woman die on the floor, a trained nurse, you know, I think it's just -- it's unspeakable that this would have happened.

PAUL: Yes, I would think if you pictured this happening on the street, I mean, you would think any Joe Smo would come up and step in to try to help her. Is there any indication as you listen to that, as well, any indication that they even -- that they stopped anybody who might have wanted to step in and help?

CALLAN: Well, it certainly does not feel or sound like they did. I'm not so clear by the way, Christi, that even if they had a clause in their contract that we don't supply medical care under any circumstances, that they are going to escape a lawsuit in this case.

Because that 911 operator was saying to this trained nurse or who was supposed to be a trained nurse, will you please ask somebody else to assist and I'll walk the person through. That may have created liability when they refused to cooperate with the 911 operator.

The law basically says if you're in a facility and you have a reasonable expectation that that facility will provide medical care for you or assist in an emergency, then the facility may have a duty to you and if they don't fulfill that duty they can be sued.

So I'm just wondering if that 911 call and that disgraceful conduct may have grounds for a lawsuit, regardless of what the contract says.

PAUL: I'm wondering if a lot of people who have family members in facilities like this are taking a look at their contracts too. Thank you so much, Paul. We appreciate your insight today. Thank you.

I want to get you some more on our breaking story here. As we just told you minutes ago, Queen Elizabeth is out of the hospital. Here is another picture of her as she was leaving. She was only there about 24 hours for a stomach bug.

But CNN's Max Foster is joining us from outside the hospital there in London right now. And Max, your assessment, she looked pretty darn fit when she left.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Ys, she did. She was walking well and had a big smile. She was carrying a bag. Looked like she was -- we were told she was due to come in for two days and out within one so positive views from her point of view.

I do know that she is asked for no visitors to come to the hospital. She didn't want the fuss. She would have been desperate to get out of the hospital. She has been in the hospital for first time in 10 years. She's in her mid-80s, there's going to be a big debate whether she's taking on too much.

She should be handing moreover to the younger royals and stepping back because she has a real commitment to her work, but it's clearly it's getting to the point where she's suffering for most people what would be a minor illness.

PAUL: Well, you had mentioned earlier she had canceled all of her -- or postponed all of her appearances this week. Do we have any indication as to where she went and if she's receiving any sort of care outside the hospital?

FOSTER: She's got her own doctor so I'm sure he'll check up on her. She has a big trip organized to meet the president of Rome. It was high profile the palace was pushing it with the media. That was something she had taken seriously. She had to cancel and she never cancels anything unless she absolutely has to.

It has been a big week for her. There will be a lot of concern in the royal family that she is getting on now, but she is healthy for her age. She does every day read a big sack of government documents and that is said to keep her very young. But she is heading towards 90, that's the reality of the situation.

PAUL: Yes, 86 years old right now. Max Foster, thank you so much for keeping us apprised of what's happening there.

This morning, there is a major milestone to report in the fight against AIDS. Have you heard about this? Doctors in Mississippi say a baby girl born with HIV now is showing no signs of the virus, none.

They say she's functionally cured with no trace of HIV in her blood. Researchers say this remarkable story could certainly rewrite treatment of youngest HIV victims around the world. We'll tell you more about that.

And a bus driver faints while behind the wheel. Hear about the women who saved the day and what they got for their brave efforts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Welcome back to NEWSROOM. We want to take you to the White House right now and show you some live pictures from the east room where seconds from now President Obama will announce his pick for the budget director.

He's expected to nominate this woman, Sylvia Matthews Burwell, we're looking at the role she played and experience she brings to the table. So let's bring in Dan Lothian at the White House and Christine Romans in New York.

Good morning, folks. Dan, let me start with you. What exactly do we know about what her duties will be?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, there's a lot in the OMB portfolio from coordinating information, regulation policies to supervising federal agencies, but the biggest role of the OMB is really putting together the federal budget, preparing that budget and carrying out the various administration spending policies.

We know that's critical in this current climate as we look to what will happen in terms of funding the federal government. There's also the issue of trying to reverse stop all of those deep spending cuts that went into effect late last week.

You look back over the last four years, the critical role that the office of the OMB played in a lot of these big fiscal issues such as the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling. So this is a very important role and this is someone who has been in that office before as deputy director in the Clinton administration.

She also had other roles in the Clinton administration. The White House this morning really touting her budget and economic knowledge saying in part in a statement, quote, "Her record proves that she knows how to cut wasteful spending in a smart way while also making the investments needed to grow the economy."

Now one other point is, this administration, the White House in particular, has been under fire as the president started to rolling out his picks for top roles, cabinet secretaries and others for his second administration, that he did not have a lot of women on that list.

And that is really been more about males as part of this list to head key roles in this administration. This really addresses that issue of gender for the president. He's been criticized so much for -- Christi.

PAUL: All right, good point. Let me bring in Christine Romans now, and look kind of add Burwell's past. I know you mentioned (inaudible) but Christine, we know she brings a strong mix of business and government experience and philanthropic experience as well, right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. She was running the Wal-Mart Foundation so basically helping give Wal-Mart's many billions of dollars away and before that she worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So she has this foundation experience and the leadership experience at that level.

But when you talk to Washington insiders, it's that Clinton era experience that is the most interesting of the she worked in the Clinton White House and the Treasury Department under Robert Ruben at that time right alongside Jacob Lew, who is now the Treasury secretary today.

So you sort of have these Cinton alums who know each other and coming back in the second administration of President Obama and are coming back at a time when this is a really critical job. This is the woman who's going to present the president's budget.

Don't forget the president still has a budget to prepare when we've been fighting about budgets quite (inaudible). It doesn't rank as highly as the secretary treasury but this is a very important position here.

When we talk about who are the president's money people, you talk about the Council of Economic Advisors, a Gene Sperling type. You talk about Jacob Lew who is running treasury secretary.

She'll be right up there with them trying to be an architect of the president's financial policies. You heard Dan talk about women in the cabinet. She will be only the second, if confirmed by the Senate, only the second OMB director who is a woman. Alice Rifland was the first.

Dan, I want to get back to you real quickly because certainly whenever the president makes any sort of nomination, somebody has something to say about it. Are there any red flags we know of here, anybody that may come out and say we don't agree with this nomination?

LOTHIAN: Well, you know, what we've seen so far is folks want to get a sense of exactly what it is, look through her record before they've come out and said anything. No early indication yet that they'll be strong pushback on this nomination. All indications at this point is that she would be confirmed.

But it's still early in the process. As you know, pointed out correctly, every time the president has rolled out his cabinet picks, it's been at times controversial and strong pushback from Capitol Hill. We'll wait to see if that happens in this case as well.

PAUL: All right, Dan Lothian and Christine Romans, appreciate your insight from both of you. Thank you so much. Now I want to let you know, along with Burwell, the president is also making nominations, President Obama will tap Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency. She currently heads the EPA's Air and Radiation Office and played a key role in pushing some of the agency's most contentious rules in Obama's first term.

And to lead the Energy Department, we have Ernest Moniz. He is an MIT physicist, no stranger to Washington. He served in the Clinton administration as well.

All right, let me give you your top stories this hour, Congress returns to work in about two hours facing two huge assignments. You know about the first, working with the president to deal with forced spending cuts.

CNN was there as members left last Thursday, the day before President Obama signed off an $85 billion in cuts. Now the government also faces a shutdown later this month unless Congress and the president can agree on a continuing resolution here.

The U.N.'s nuclear watch dog agency says Iran is not allowing inspections of its nuclear program. The agency's director is calling on the Iranians to open up a military complex where Iran is believed to have tested rockets.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth is out of the hospital, a day after being admitted. The queen, who turns 87 next month, was being treated for a stomach bug. Buckingham Palace said the hospitalization was a precautionary measure and she looks like she is doing just fine.

All right, again, we've got live pictures for you here of the president -- we'll show you that story too, some scary moments for several passengers on a bus. But right now live pictures of the east room of the White House. We're waiting for the president to step up to the podium. As soon as he does, we'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, it could be one of the toughest jobs in Washington. Live pictures coming to you here of the east room in the White House where President Obama is expected to nominate Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the new budget director. There she is.

She actually served on that same -- on the management -- Office of Management and Budget as a deputy director during the Clinton administration from 1998 to 2001, currently the president of the Wal- Mart Foundation and the Wal-Mart Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative.

So we're just waiting for the president step up to the mic and as soon as he does, we'll take you there. You can some see folks in the front row with their kids. What a day this is for them, but, again, it looks like Sylvia Matthews Burwell who is going to have the tough task of putting together a federal budget and spending policies and reverse the spending cuts that went into play. OK, we've got a couple of minutes here before they'll get to that. But so the meantime we'll take you back when it happens. I want to get you to a Florida family who gathered to remember a man they loved killed when a sinkhole damaged their home. Crews have been working two days to safely tear down this thing, at least what's left of it.

There are some pictures of what's been happening this morning. The sinkhole just opened up on Thursday, presumably killing 37-year-old Jeff Bush as he slept in his bed. As a crane started to tear down the house, there was a small and important development, some of the family treasures were saved such as a bible and photo album.

Crews are trying to determine whether the house is safe enough to get anything else out. Maybe they are doing that moment by moment as they tear down pieces of it George Howell is there now. George, what's been happening this morning?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, when you see the house now, the front end of that house has been torn down. The crews have just stopped their work temporarily. Again, they've been working to move the debris closer to the street so the family can get a lot of belongings and valuables that have been recovered from that home.

Now, we just heard a few minutes ago from Jeremy Bush. He said he appreciates the fact they've been working to get valuables, but they want the crews to keep looking for his brother. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY BUSH, VICTIM'S BROTHER: The house is still standing. The only reason the house fell is because they put the machines on it. I feel that they could have tried harder to get my brother out of there. My mom and dad are going through hell right now. My mom is waking up every hour on the hour crying in bed. She's going through hell. No one wants to bury their kid before they go. I love you mom and dad and tried to save your son. I tried my hardest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The search for Jeremy's brother ended this weekend. Crews say that ground there that you see is just too unstable to go -- to look for his brother in that area. The other thing about that land, you see the foundation, the foundation is still standing, but these crews are concerned that the foundation itself could collapse.

They are not sure exactly how big this hole is. Again as they clear the debris and clear the house from the foundation, they'll have a better sense of what they are dealing with.

PAUL: All right, George, thank you so much for bringing us the latest from Florida. We appreciate it.

We want to get you back to Washington, D.C. right now as we're waiting for the president to nominate Sylvia Matthews Burwell as the budget director. And I want to bring Dan Lothian and Christine Romans back into the conversation here. Dan, this is a position she knows well to some degree, yes?

LOTHIAN: That's right. I mean, she worked in the Clinton administration in the role of deputy and now of course, the president nominating her or will be nominating her --

PAUL: Dan, the president just stepped up. Let's take a listen here.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Everybody have a seat. Have a seat. Good morning, everybody. This afternoon I'll hold my first cabinet meeting of my second term. And there will be some new faces and familiar facts in new jobs, but also seats waiting to be filled on a permanent basis.

Today, I'm announcing my plan to nominate three outstanding individuals to help us tackle some of our most important challenges. One of those challenges is building on work we've done to control our own energy future while reducing pollution that contributes to climate change.

And few people have played more of a role in addressing these issues than current Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. He has helped us to speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy and given more of our brightest young scientists the opportunity to pursue ideas that will shape our future.

I cannot be more grateful to Steve for the incredible contribution that he's made to this country. And now that he's decided to leave Washington for sunny California, I'm proud to nominate another brilliant scientist to take his place, Mr. Ernie Moniz. There's Ernie right there. The good news is that --

PAUL: All right, we're not just nominating obviously Sylvia Matthews Burwell who you see on the right side of your screen, but that is Ernie Moniz with Tina McCarthy who is going to be the -- nomination for the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Dan, what kind of task does Sylvia Matthew Burwell have ahead of her?

LOTHIAN: Well, you know, it's a major task we've been talking about the fact there have been so many fiscal crises happening over the last four years and certainly now as well that the most pressing one is trying to halt those spending cuts that took place at the end of last week.

Then there's what's going to happen in terms of funding the federal government and the White House has said that it supports this CR or this continuing resolution that would help sort of bridge the gap and allow the federal government to continue running to prevent that shutdown. So these are some important issues that she would have to deal with if nominated. You look back --