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Amtrak Train Derailed in Philadelphia, Killing Seven Passengers. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 13, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] MAX HELFMAN, SURVIVED DEADLY AMTRAK CRASH: Then before I knew it, we were all just flung to the side of the car. And as soon as the car stopped, I got up and I was shocked that I was able to walk and I was looking around and I see how everyone else looked and the car started to smoke and we were nervous that it was going to explode. So our first thought was to get everyone off the train. So my first priority was to get my mom off the train.

There was a door that was slightly open that we could squeeze people through. So we tried to just get people through there. Again, I looked around and saw this condition that everyone else was in. I saw that I was OK compared to them. I just tried to help get everyone off.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Max, let me back you up a second. Back to when you were saying you were -- you knew you were going around the curve. You were flung to the side of the train. When you said flung, were you lifted up out of your seat and flung against the wall? Because I understand that your mom came flying toward you, and you caught her.

HELFMAN: Yes, I mean, was on the window seat, so I was already on the window. But my mom came flying towards me and I caught her to save her from going out the window. But suitcases were flying. A suitcase actually hit my mom. And she got pretty banged up from that. Chairs were dislodged, and they were falling on top of people. It was just a disaster.

BALDWIN: Were people screaming? At what point did you realize that -- I mean, did your train car -- how did your train car end up? Was it on its side?

HELFMAN: Yes, our train car was on its side. But we were lucky compared to those front cars and those middle cars that really got the bulk of the hit. But yes, people were definitely screaming and just everyone was in shock. It just all happened within ten seconds. We went from fine to on that wall. Just -- it was a disaster.

BALDWIN: In those first few moments as you're making sure you're OK and your mom is OK, who you've caught, what are you immediately observing around you as far as people, as far as injuries?

HELFMAN: I mean, there were people that got hit by the chairs that were dislodged and suitcases had fallen on their heads. People were bleeding from their faces, broken bones, arms, and legs. Just anything you can imagine, that's the type of injuries that happened.

BALDWIN: And the two -- so you and your mother -- let me fast forward for a second. You did end up at the hospital, and both of you suffered concussions?

HELFMAN: Not allowed to discuss our injuries, but mild injuries compared to a lot of what happened.

BALDWIN: Let's go back on the train. And so, when you're saying you were looking for some sort of crevice or, you know, sliver of an opening to get out, how did you get out and how were you able to help your mom?

HELFMAN: So when the train crashed, one of the doors just opened slightly. And it was enough to just squeeze people right through. So we just tried getting everyone off the train as soon as possible. And the police were there almost immediately. They opened up the back door, which helped a lot. And I just tried helping people get off.

BALDWIN: That's the thing I think that's also really struck me, Max, so many people. In the midst of just a mess of confusion and chaos, those who were able to help did help. Can you tell me some stories of people, including yourself, who, you know, sort of surveyed the scene and helped others who were less fortunate to get out to safety?

HELFMAN: Yes, I mean, anyone that could walk was really helping out. You know, once you looked around and you saw the condition that most of these people were in, there's nothing you could do other than to help. You're not even thinking at that point. You're just in shock. You're just doing everything to just try to get everyone safe.

BALDWIN: And let me just jump back. So correct me, but I understand you were in Washington helping with, was it the American heart association, helping your mother?

[15:35:03] HELFMAN: Yes.

BALDWIN: How is your mother doing today?

HELFMAN: She's a little banged up, but you know, no serious injuries. So we're so fortunate that we were able to walk out of that alive and without serious injury.

BALDWIN: Max Helfman, thank you so much for taking the time. Incredible that you caught your mother before who knows what. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Be well.

HELFMAN: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Let's take you back to the scene in Philadelphia now. We've been talking about this hospital news conference. It has begun. Let's listen.

DR. HERBERT CUSHING, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I have a very brief update this afternoon that's a little different from this morning. We still have 23 patients in the hospital, 22 on surgical trauma service and one medical patient. We identified the patient who passed away last night here. His name was James Marshall Gaines.

After the press briefing this morning, his family was able to find him at the hospital. And I was able to explain to them what happened. He was the fellow that had the massive chest trauma and passed away here last night a little after midnight.

There are still a number of folks in the hospital that are going to stay overnight. Probably we're going to have three more surgeries tomorrow amongst the group that will stay. But there are some people that will get to go home tonight. Probably another half a dozen will get to go home tonight because their situation has improved.

So in general, we're doing much better. Most patients' conditions are either stable or better, so that's very, very good news. Again, I want to thank all the emergency responders that helped at the site last night and helped get patients to the hospital and all the wonderful folks at temple that really made the great patient care happen last night. The doctors, the nurses, but every person in the hospital really made it happen. I'll take some questions if you have just a few.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: Yes. So this morning there were 25 folks in the hospital here. There are now 23. So we were able to let a couple folks go home. And there were no more deaths here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: Yes. The most serious and challenging injuries have been a lot of rib fractures. I was startled to hear as we ran down the list of the patients this afternoon almost everybody had rib fractures. Now fortunately, very few of them are very dangerous and not life threatening, except for the one fellow that passed away. So there are a lot of folks that got banged up when they rattled around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How many are still in critical condition? Are others still?

CUSHING: Yes, we still have eight in critical condition. That really hasn't changed. I expect it might not for another day or so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Can you describe in general what sort of wounds and what tells you about what potential impact it had?

CUSHING: Yes. They sort of questions what types of wounds, what does that mean about the impact. The rib fractures tell me they rattled around in the train cars a lot to get a lot of rib fractures real. So we also saw scapular fractures and long bone fractures of the leg and fractures of the arm.

I was surprised -- I think I told you this morning, I'm surprised to see that we did not have much head injury. I thought a lot of folks were going to have head injuries. There was just one person with a head injury. So that was very good news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: No, we have not found any conductors or engineers here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How are your staff? How have they held up?

CUSHING: The staff have done very well. There are a lot of folks here last night, as you remember. We were able to swap a lot of people out when things calmed down. You get the daytime folks into help. That really helped rest them. I sent a lot of people home purposely because I knew this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And they need to be able to take care of folks for the next two to three days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How are you?

CUSHING: I'm doing good. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Doc, can you tell us the name of the patient that died it and where he was from?

CUSHING: Yes, James Marshall Gaines III from Princeton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Last name if you don't mind.

CUSHING: Gaines. G-A-I-N-E-S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How old?

CUSHING: 49-years-old.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: You said you had 23 patients currently, 22 which were in medical surgery.

CUSHING: Yes, 22 surgical, one on the medical services.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What's the difference?

CUSHING: Yes. The surgical patients all have fractures. But not all will need surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: And the medical patient?

CUSHING: The medical, I can't tell you the condition of the medical patient.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How long do you expect to have patients here and be treating them?

CUSHING: Yes. I expect over the next few days many more folks will go home and probably at five to seven days it will just be a handful of folks left recuperating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) [15:40:00] CUSHING: Yes, we have no intention to transfer these patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How are they going?

CUSHING: That's a very good question. The question is how are they going home? There are a lot of folks here from out of town, in fact, a lot of folks from other countries. There have been four Amtrak representatives on site for most of the day, which is extremely helpful. They're able to help the families with incidentals, and hotel, and transportation and that sort of things. So Amtrak has been very helpful in making sure they're cared for.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Are there any children?

CUSHING: No, we didn't see any children.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: And in your experience, how does this compare to things you've seen in the past, the magnitude of something like this?

CUSHING: Yes, the -- I was surprised at the number of rib injuries. That surprised me, and the relative few head injuries. And I think we were fortunate there weren't more deaths. I haven't seen the site yet. I know you've all seen the site in picture. I've seen just little glimpses. I don't pass the TV screens. But my -- what little I've seen suggested things could have been a lot worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Have you had many lung punctures resulting from rib fractures?

CUSHING: Yes, there were a number of folks whose lungs were collapsed or partially collapsed, although not as many as I feared. There are many folks who just have rib fractures but not collapsed lungs and there were some bruised lungs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: Yes, we will come back to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: Yes. I think the eight critical folks are going to do just fine over the next few days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How would you characterize this as a chance for Philadelphia's medical infrastructure as a big incident? Did it work out OK?

CUSHING: Yes, it did. I was very pleased. Things came together here last night very well. And in just a few hours, the trauma team, the doctors and nurses that train to do this responded wonderfully. So I think it was a test, and I think we passed it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: It was reported that the train was going 100 miles an hour just before it crashed. Can you talk about how the speed affected the severity of the injuries?

CUSHING: Yes, the more speed, the more force you've got. So it did not help certainly. Now, I can't tell you whether there was any difference between 100 miles an hour and 50 in terms of the injuries I saw. I just don't know enough to know that made the difference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Do you know if there's any more patients expected to pass away?

CUSHING: I expect that won't happen. I think we be good results in the next few days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What countries -- you mentioned foreigners. What countries are they coming from?

CUSHING: Yes. Spain, Belgium come to mind, Germany, India last night, Albania. Yes, I think we've rounded up all the families. That's a very good question. I think that's been accomplished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: How often does the hospital train for these types of situations?

CUSHING: We train for these things pretty regularly because Temple is a level one trauma center. So it's expected to be able to respond to this sort of thing. So there are regular drills in this and other types of emergencies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: When is the last time you had a drill?

CUSHING: I don't know. Oh, a drill. We have drills every month. But last time we had something this size, I don't know. Someone asked that this morning. And I bet you guys know it better than I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: Yes. The trauma center was open all through this and we were taking other patients last night and are today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What was the nature of most of the injuries, the ones you were able to treat?

CUSHING: Fractures, yes. So impact from the high speed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: How old is Mr. Gaines?

CUSHING: Mr. Gaines was 49. I know one patient was 80. And I think there were some in their young 20s.

BALDWIN: All right. Looks like we lost the signal there, but we really had heard the bulk of it. That was the chief operating officer from Temple University hospital really briefing media -- let's listen again.

CUSHING: -- the number of docs that would normally have been there. And lots and lots of other staff in laboratory, blood banking, radiology, all the other departments that make things happen, the cafeteria workers. I couldn't tell you how many extra folks came in, but there are many, many.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: What's the emotional state of the patient when is they came in?

CUSHING: A lot of the patients were stunned. They'd been regular folks on a train, expecting to get off at the next stop. This fellow from New Jersey had been expecting to do, and it just didn't happen. And you know, I know you folks know that it happened very fast. So yes, they were stunned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: For people out of the country, how many are from this Philly, New York area, if you know?

CUSHING: Yes. They're spread out from New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia area. Many had family and were visiting folks here. A number had been here for a while and were visiting people.

(INAUDIBLE)

[15:45:00] CUSHING: Don't know. I don't know about the other six. So I know our guy is local, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Out of the critical, do we know if there's any local?

CUSHING: Yes, I don't know. I don't know the split of the locals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: The person who died, has his family been here?

CUSHING: Yes, they were here after the press conference this morning. We were able to figure it out.

(INAUDIBLE)

CUSHING: I don't know the number from the other hospitals. That's a good question because I've been head down in here for yesterday and last night and today. So I know about the one dead here. And I assume that you guys know a lot more about what's happening outside. Sorry.

All right, thank you, folks.

BALDWIN: So I was saying, that is the chief operating officer there at Temple University hospital. And he was briefing the media as far as injuries are concerned from what they saw last night. A number of people obviously sent to the hospital, 200-plus were injured. He mentioned specifically eight people still in critical condition. So those folks obviously overnighting (ph) tonight and potentially in the next couple days. Some of them have surgeries, but for the most part he said he was really pleased by the lack of, you know, head trauma, head injuries. Did talk about some rib injuries. But he said really for the most part, most people there are stable, which is wonderful news. Wonderful news from the good people at Temple hospital.

He did mention, though, one man, 49 years of age, from Princeton, New Jersey, who passed away just after midnight. His name, Jim Gaines. And if I may, I want to read a statement we now have from Jim Gaines' family.

They write, the family of Jim Gaines thanks you for your prayers and support at this difficult time. Jim was more precious to us than we can adequately express. We kindly request that you respect our wishes for privacy as we absorb this incredible loss. In due time, we will make a statement that will fully reflect the incredible person that Jim was. Thank you.

Let's go back out now there to Temple University hospital to my colleague, Sunlen Serfaty.

And Sunlen, I believe you have the doctor.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. I'm here with director Cushing, who's been treating patients all night. You just gave us an update.

Director, please give us an update on still eight in critical condition.

CUSHING: Yes, we still have 23 patients here at temple from the train crash. There are 22 on surgical services, eight of those folks in critical condition. So a couple folks went home today and there might be other folks going home later tonight. There are a few folks that will need surgery tomorrow. But in general, things are much better. The patients are either stable or improving, so that's very good news. And we've had no more deaths since the one patient that died last night.

SERFATY: One interesting thing that you were telling us off camera just now was that what you heard from the people inside the train that came into your hospital last night. Those were people from the back of the train. Tell me about that pattern, how you did not talk to people, because mostly the people in the front of the train were the ones severely injured.

CUSHING: The patients that were awake and able to talk to me were the ones in the back of the train, which implied to me that the folks in the front of the train were the ones that had been injured so badly they couldn't talk.

SERFATY: And you had one death here overnight shortly after midnight. Tell me about the moment when the family came in.

CUSHING: Yes. Mr. Gaines' family came in after our press conference this morning. They didn't know where he was, and we didn't know who they were and we didn't know who he was. So when they knew that he was missing and we had an unidentified dead person here, they came, and we were able to identify him based on my description of his clothes.

SERFATY: And one of the other things that you said was that you were surprised at the nature of the injuries. Tell us what you were seeing from the people that came in and out of this hospital. CUSHING: I was surprised that there were as few head injuries as we

saw, and there were many, many patients that had rib fractures.

SERFATY: What does that tell you?

CUSHING: Lots and lots of rib fractures -- that there was a high- energy crash.

SERFATY: Would you have expected more with the reporting that the train may have been going 100 miles per hour?

CUSHING: Yes. My little glimpse I've had of how crumpled the train cars were suggest to me that I think we should be happy there were as few deaths as there were.

SERFATY: You have a busy day ahead of you. What sort of surgeries are on tap for the people still remaining?

CUSHING: The remaining surgeries are not that bad. They're sort of cleaning out fractures tomorrow and making sure people are getting better. So it's routine stuff and that's good news. So in general, things are improving, and I think the outlook in the next few days is very good. I really, really want to thank all the first responders that stepped in and got the patients, you know, packaged up and sent to hospitals and all the wonderful folks here at Temple that took care of them very well last night, fast. I think that saved a lot of lives.

SERFATY: And of the eight still in critical condition, what's the nature of those wounds and what's ahead for the recovery here?

CUSHING: Yes. A lot of the folks had collapsed lungs and needed breathing tubes to help them breathe. So I expect their lungs to heal over the next few days.

[15:50:03] SERFATY: Reporter: And you have been a doctor of the city. This is something that's happened here before. Speak to me about the emotional element. You have seen the families come and go today.

CUSHING: Yes, it's difficult. There are a lot of families from out of town. And they had trouble finding their loved ones last night because they didn't know what hospital they were at. We didn't know where the families were so it took hours and hours to find them and get them need with their loved ones. But eventually it all sorted out. And that was difficult for everyone. But I think the health care workers spend a lot of time just focusing on the patients right in front of them that help them forget about all the other worries that they had.

SERFATY: What sort of things did you hear from the patients that were conscious last night?

CUSHING: Yes. The patients were stunned that something had happened. It happened so fast, they didn't expect anything. And really they just needed reassurance that they were going to be OK, that we were going to take good care of them and get them better.

SERFATY: Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: Sunlen, thank you very much. Doctor Cushing, our thanks to you as well and incredible staff. Just talking a little while ago with two EMTs there at Temple and all of the work that they did on helping on these people who were injured last night.

You know, all these stories are just coming out. We just talked to a survivor, Max Helfman, 19 years of age who talked about catching his mother when they were on the train so she wouldn't go out the window. All right, these stories now, more survivor stories of this train en route from Washington to New York when it derailed there in the Philadelphia area.

More on our special breaking coverage after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:56] BALDWIN: Just wanted you to hear some more of these stories in the wake of this train derailment in Philadelphia, the stories of those who survived that train crash. I want you to listen as some of them describe what happened and what they were thinking right after these cars were flung off these tracks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELFMAN: Kind of still feels like a dream, like how could this happen? You read about things or see it on the news, a plane crashes, a plane derails. But you never think it's going to happen to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think in that moment when I was like kind of tumbling, I mean, I really thought this might be the end. And there's no way to know like in the darkness. I mean, just being able to (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We felt a jolt. Immediately I could tell the train derailed. We were to the right of the rails. And I was thrown against the girl next to me against the window. And people from the other side of the aisle started falling on top of us. So somebody's leg hit the side of my head. The rest of her body must have been in the luggage rack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it happened as a jolt. It happened pretty quickly?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It happened pretty quickly. And I just held onto this leg and the girl next to me and ducked my head and was just praying, please stop, please stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The train just started to shake. And then, I mean, it happened so fast yet slow enough where, you know, things started flying, phones --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't even brace yourself, really, could you? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At one point, I did brace myself like this,

holding onto the seat and keeping my head ducked low because the train started to roll this way. And things were -- cell phones were flying, laptops were flying. I didn't even see these two women were catapulted up into the luggage rack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw so many head injuries and bloody faces and people were really injured. They were thrown out of their seats. One girl slammed into, you know, one of the seats. There are a lot of fractures, you know, arm, shoulders, all kinds of fractures. And there was nothing I could do to help. I had nothing except to just talk to e people and tried to help them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Those are some of the stories of people who survived. We also heard just about an hour ago from the mayor of Philadelphia, mayor Michael Nutter, speaking about just walking through some of the wreckage firsthand, confirming that seven people thus far have died saying NTSB is on the scene and the search operations still continue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA: You know, last night when we first arrived on the scene, we knew it was bad. Lighting was not particularly good the first time we went there. But you could see just the devastation of a train. I ride the train on a regular basis. I've been on the 7:10 out of Washington, D.C. coming back to Philadelphia. I use Amtrak a lot. But to see these cars, these huge metal vehicles turned upside down, one basically almost split in half, most of the cars either upside down, on their side or tilting, the engine completely separated, you know that this is a devastating situation. But that was last night.

And then the second visit when we had more light, we brought in the light cannons. But to see it in the daytime is almost indescribable, it is painful. And it is amazing. It is incredible that so many people walked away from that scene last night. I saw people on the street behind us walking off that train. And I don't know how that happened, but for the grace of God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the mayor. He said he'd be briefing everyone in just a couple of hours from now as well.

Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New York. Make sure you stay with us here at CNN. Much more coverage today of what happened there in Philadelphia. My colleague, Jake Tapper, takes it now. "The LEAD" starts now.