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Challenges For Aid Workers To Help Victims of Nepal Earthquake; Rescuers Struggle To Reach Earthquake Victims; Thousands Expected At Freddie Gray Funeral Today; Bruce Jenner: "I'm A Woman". Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 27, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] BRIAN DICKINSON, AUTHOR, "BLIND DESCENT": -- for, you know, a week or few weeks and the ration what they have, and that altitude are not overly hungry anyways.

But at the same time, you just have to, you know, keep your morale up and just, you know, have faith that you're going to be rescued, you'd be about -- you know, brought back down and then you kind of evaluate when you're back at base camp.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Well, I'll tell you, you know, you are in dire situation when being stranded on Everest isn't the worst set of possibilities for something going on.

Gary Shaye is in Nepal right now. What are you seeing on the ground, Gary? And what are the immediate needs? We're trying to get people to really start giving right away and targeting it to what is emergency status right now. So what do you see? Gary?

BRAD (ph): Hi, this is Brad (ph)...

CUOMO: Oh, Brad (ph), I'm sorry.

(Off-mike)

CUOMO: Yeah, Brad (ph). So tell us, what are you seeing on the ground there and what do you need right now?

BRAD (ph): We're seeing a, (inaudible) children and seeing a tremendous number of children and infants and newborn with their families sleeping on the streets and then any open park they can find.

You know, the earthquake is over and the frequency of the aftershocks are declining. So we're seeing tension rise. People are worried about food and clean water and shelter. They're sleeping tonight. It rained last night. It is cold. They didn't (inaudible) within now, I think is the biggest concern.

Save the Children is already out there distributing (inaudible) and clean water and (inaudible) that were asking for more support and continue this with effort.

CUOMO: Brad (ph), life is very fragile in a situation like this. Time matters. What are the things that you need first and that you need most?

BRAD (ph): Right now, the best thing people can do is go to savethechildren.org and they can read about our response and the donation. We have -- there's (inaudible) as Sanjay talked about dealing with the injured. And what we need most right now is a shelter for people to sleep underneath, including clean water, and then thinking about the well being of children. Both right now, they're very traumatized, (inaudible) the foreseeable and the foreseeable future for the coming months and even years.

CUOMO: Months and years. Brad (ph), please stay safe on the ground and play stay in contact with us about what you need so we can get the word out.

Gary, people see it right now, they want to help right now. But this really is just the beginning, the aftershocks that we have to worry about, or what happens to life there and the fragility of life from weeks and months to come, right?

GARY SHAYE, SENIOR DIRECTOR, HUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Correct. You know, right now, we've seen the images of what's taking place, what Brad (ph) in your report have described.

We're also in a real critical race against time. The monsoon rains start six weeks. All of these great numbers of people in the Kathmandu Valley who are displaced, temporary shelter, the plastic sheeting may be strong enough now, but in six weeks when those rains start, it'll be extremely challenging.

The water and sanitation needs for Kathmandu are a huge issue, setting up properly (inaudible) washing stations. And what we don't know yet is the situation of people in the rural areas where the epicenters took place.

Save the Children has been on the ground in Nepal since 1976. We have a strong network. There's tremendous cooperation among the international community. But we have to set up the supply chain to make sure the current people have what they need and then start to rebuild Nepal as we await news from those communities that we haven't heard from yet.

CUOMO: We're dealing with something they haven't seen in centuries there. It is part of our responsibility to address the need, stay in contact with us, let us know what's needed there in a days, weeks, months ahead and we'll make sure to get the word out.

Thank you for being here.

SHAYE: Thank you.

CUOMO: Brian, thank you very much also. If you hear anything about what's going up there that we need to address, let us know. And we already said goodbye to Brad (ph). He has much important work to do.

Michaela. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: Yeah. They certainly of their work a cut out for them while the ground keep shaking. The death toll continues to rise and the earthquake ravaged Nepal. We'll take you live to the ground in Kathmandu where there's a desperate race against time to save lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:49] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Back to the crisis unfolding in Nepal, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 3,700 people, thousands more could be buried beneath the rubble.

Nearly, 100 aftershocks creating even more terror and hampering rescue efforts at this hour. At least 17 people also killed by a massive avalanche at Mount Everest and many are still on that mountain.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He is live for us from a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Sanjay, tell us the scene there.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a sort of makeshift situation Alisyn, and I think it's the best way to describe it. I don't know how much you can really tell here behind me, but this building really isn't -- it wasn't an open hospital a couple of days ago. They drop patients in. You can hear a helicopter over it. By the way, Alisyn, they're doing aerial lifts, bringing patients to the hospital here.

Pretty constantly, patients and many others are lined up out here, waiting oftentimes to be seen. Sometimes these are family members waiting for their family members who are inside being treated, undergoing surgery.

It just sort of hard to describe what is happening as they continuously bring in supplies in various other places. Patients come in in all sorts of different ways -- by helicopter, by ambulance, by taxi, sometimes just carried in by friends and family. That is part of what's happening here behind me.

I don't know how much you can see over here Alisyn, but you get the stretchers and everything sort of in the distance people waiting outside. Just a couple floors up, there's a balcony which is not covered, not protected, and there may be anywhere up to 100 patients out there as well.

Inside those doors is where a lot of medical is just happening. OK, this is what's going on over here. At the lobby of a building literally and it's one of the safer buildings which is why it's being used. This building has been told that they can withstand an earthquake up to 9.0 in magnitude, that's why they're here. But it's just -- it's a -- if you're looking at some of the (inaudible) Alisyn, that's been sort of ongoing now for 48 hours.

CAMEROTA: And Sanjay, we know that you were called into action there because there are not enough doctors to go around. Can you characterize the injuries of the little girl that you worked on? I know there was emergency brain surgery. And what other injuries you're seeing?

GUPTA: You know, the types of injuries that we're seeing here really are a result of significant crush injuries from the earthquake -- hums, tumbling to the ground, so many of the hums, especially in remote areas made of concrete and they just tumble. They just literally fell to the ground during all this.

A little girl we saw earlier named Selena (ph), she's eight years old. She lives in a remote area. It's tough to see that the buildings with the rocks is sort of fell on her head. She (inaudible) a skull fracture with a blood collection underneath that skull fracture. Her parents -- there whereabouts are not known. Her brother was also injured. She requires an operation.

I just talked to one of the other doctors here just walked by right before this, who said another eight-year-old girl, same age girl is also coming in for a similar type of brain operation. They've been operating sort of nonstop. And the conditions are not at all ideal. They don't have operating room lights. They're bringing in sort of side lamps and do the operations. They don't have power for the drills. They don't have machines to cauterize for bleeding.

It's -- you had to -- it as bad as I think I've seen really anywhere else in terms of resources. They're doing the best they can. And I'll tell you, there's a generous spirit (ph) here, Alisyn. I mean, everyone is hitching in. I mean, so many of the people behind me over here are just volunteers and they have not left. I mean, they've been here for two days.

We saw earlier a water distribution. And people who hadn't had water in the long time , very thirsty themselves, but still handing it out to others who they thought needed it more. There is that spirit. You know, it's hard to describe but it's real and you see it in so many ways and so many a lot of it's happening in this building right here behind me.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, to hear you say that this is as bad as you have ever seen really put a blind point on it because you are no stranger obviously to (inaudible) these zones. You know, we're thinking of the work you did in Haiti. How does this compare?

[06:41:02] GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting. I think one thing to keep in mind in Haiti, you know, you had hundreds of thousands of people who died so quickly. And tragically, sadly, there weren't that many survivors, the one that many people who could be saved.

There were some -- here, you haven't slightly different situation. You have people who didn't die, but they didn't live either. You know, they're trapped in between and they're brought here. So, the demand for resource, the demand for care, the demand for all sorts of different help is tremendous, in some ways, higher, despite the fact that the death toll is lower than what we saw in Haiti. There are many people who were still savable, that, you know, their lives can be saved and that's what happening here. So, you know, you used to situations where people have either lived or they died. And the people who lived, they are the walking wounded. They're OK. They don't need operations. Here, it's a different situations. They're alive but it's tenuous. And it's -- you know, they're on the edge and that's part of the reason these hospitals are becoming so busy.

I will tell you there was a little bit of a low (ph) in the number of patients that came in, which is over the past few hours. The ambulance has started to come in again. The chopper started to land again. And again, people are just bringing in their loved ones by any means that they can, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Now, Sanjay, we know you have an intense day ahead of you. We'll let you get back to the hospital. We'll check you with you later in the program. Thanks so much.

Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. We're going to have more Alisyn on the devastation in a public. First, the city of Baltimore, boiling over after weekend of violence. (Inaudible) Freddie Gray today prepares to bury Freddie.

But are we -- it ain't closer to finding out how that young man died while in police custody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:19] PEREIRA: In Baltimore, Freddie Gray will be laid to rest today. His family calling for calm, following -- or after peaceful protest erupted into violence over the weekend. Many were outraged because there's still no information about how his spine was severed after he was taken in to police custody.

Joining us now is Mary Koch. She is the attorney for the Gray family. Ms. Koch, thank you so much for joining us on this very important day, probably and arguably the hardest day for Freddie's family. How are they bearing up?

MARY KOCH, FREDDIE GRAY FAMILY ATTORNEY: They're still devastated and they're still graving. I think, you know, to the extent that you can get consolation from the fact that so many people are -- have come to embrace them, and to express their sorrow for what happened, I think that that helps. But I don't know what you do when you lose a 25- year-old under the circumstances.

PEREIRA: I don't either...

KOCH: It's absolutely devastating.

PEREIRA: I don't either...

KOCH: So... PEREIRA: I'm watching the pictures that are coming out over the weekend. Those peaceful protest turning violent. Does the family of a concerned that the message of the protest is going to be lost? And that is going to be more about the protest rather than a life and the legacy of Freddie Gray?

KOCH: Absolutely. You know, first and foremost for the family is that they lost Freddie. And they want today to be a day to remember Freddie because, you know, sometimes we forget in all of the other issues that surround a situation like this. We forget that the center of all of this was a human being. And a human being who was loved by his family and who lived and loved fully, and you forget that. And they want today to be a day when everyone remembers that this is a day to honor Freddie Gray. And they want people to be respectful of that and to be mindful of that, and to understand how important that is to them, and to everyone else who's every faced this kind of situation.

PEREIRA: Yeah, sadly they're not alone. And we know thousands are going to be there to pay their respects which we think will be wonderful sign of support for the family.

Let's to turn to the investigation, Mary if you will. Are you getting anything? Are you getting updates from the police? Have you garnered any more information? I know you've been after the medical records from the day that he was admitted to the hospital. Have you had any success in that?

KOCH: No. We have not received any of them. We have not received any of the medical records. The issue is in -- you know, in fairness to the hospital, there is a 30-day policy in place for release of the medical records...

PEREIRA: OK.

KOCH: And that's because there are very many doctors who are involved in the treatment and all these doctors have to sign off on the charts.

PEREIRA: Right.

KOCH: So, it's a process and it's not a quick process. And so now, we have not received. There's obviously we need to reconcile that with anything that's found on autopsy.

PEREIRA: And we appreciate you saying that because it does, these things do take time as does the investigation, as does in autopsy. And I understand too, the family is having an independent autopsy done. What is the status of that at this point?

KOCH: Well, we have completed what I would refer to. And I don't mean to say this to be abrupt or rude, but it face one of that process because we received the body after the medical examiner obviously had completed their autopsy. We don't have the notes or the photographs that the medical examiner took at that time of their autopsy. So we have -- we had the opportunity to examine Freddie's remains and to do our part. There are still issues because the brain and the spinal cord unfortunately take a while before they can be examined. They have to be processed in a certain way. And so until that happens, we won't be able to give any final reports. And then again, we have to -- that has to be reconciled, the medical records as well.

PEREIRA: Well, on this day, we put all of that to aside and we hope that the family is feeling the support from the community. I'm glad you're there and the glad they have the clergy there to support them on difficulty when they lay their son and brother to rest.

Mary Koch, we appreciate you staying with us. We'll talk to you again this week, I'm sure.

KOCH: Thanks so much and thank you from the family as well for covering this so completely and being mindful of how they feel about their loss of their son. Thank you so much.

PEREIRA: Absolutely, Mary. All right.

Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Mic (ph). Bruce Jenner, his transgender story is setting records on TV and online. But what difference will it make? We have two people living his reality. Hear what they say is coming for Jenner and what they say, the passionate critics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:53:12] BRUCE JENNER, REVEALED HE IS TRANSGENDER: For all intents and purposes, I am a woman. People look at me differently they see you as this macho male. But my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life it is part of me, that female side is part of me that's who I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Bruce Jenner was known as one of the most dominant athletes in our country's history. And now he wants to be known as something else confirming, the ABC's Diane Sawyer with many of long suspected and becoming the overnight most famous transgender person in the world. He started the conversation there's no question about it.

Where will it go, is our consideration this morning.

CAMEROTA: We have two guests to tell us about that. Joining us now two transgender advocates model and founder of Gender Proud Geena Rocero and Actress Joslyn DeFreece who stars in the independent film Carla. Great to have both you.

Jocelyn what do you think when you watch the Bruce Jenner to you?

JOSLYN DEFREECE, TRANSGENDER ACTRESS: I found this to be so touching and beautiful. I thought it was really well done, I really like the care that Diane Sawyer put it in to it. I love the emotion that was expressed, I mean it touched me big time.

CAMEROTA: Geena what were your thoughts?

GEENA ROCE, FOUNDER, GENDER PROUD: I think it was very powerful, there were so much compassion and loving specially the family dynamics.

CAMEROTA: His kids -- hearing from his kids and how they support him.

ROCE: It's so important because most of the case, you know, we hear a lot of these cases and it's not like that, you know, so to show the empathy and the compassion and love that this is a transition not just for Bruce Jenner but for the whole family and to community that he's surrounded with.

PEREIRA: What do you think it has done because I wonder you both felt it personally in terms of the transgender community what kind of flag barrier is he going to be?

ROCE: I think it is so important, you know, for visibility, you know, to finally humanize this experience and to touch with so many nuance about what it means to be trans and to go through them many nuance of the journey.

[06:55:03] But most importantly to point out like visibility does not -- it's not the same as equality.

You know, there's so many other things this is -- we also need to point out that Bruce Jenner is a person of well.

PEREIRA: It's not going to be same forever.

ROCE: It's not going to be the same for every story.

PEREIRA: It's very important to point out.

CUOMO: Now one of the obvious outcomes of this has been rejection, right? This is also emboldening critiques that are coming out. You both lived your journey very different ways.

Geena for you, you decided to come out nobody exposed you. You exposed yourself you had reassigned in 19.

ROCE: Sure.

CUOMO: And then you, had your own journey and now you tell that in a movie. But Geena starting with you, why did you decide to come out, what was your fear, what was the reality?

ROCE: I was, it was a time that I was ready, you know, there's this notion of determination. And that's important to point out. Like when you degrade the culture where culture and policies and people are allowed to have a safe space to be their most authentic self. And culture and policy needs to reflect that I am from the Philippines, I grow up in the Philippines. I benefited from the culture that is culturally visible to be trans. So people know about what it means to be trans. But we need to go deeper in understanding. The many layers of like what does a trans person is going through the access to health, discrimination, violence and, you know, and discrimination that happens within the transgender community.

CUOMO: The movie Carla is notable because, one we've never seen anything like this before whereas a transgender person telling a story of a journey even though it's not her own but the quite moments, the pain that that person has to deal within side and from around them. How real is that?

DEFREECE: Oh it's absolutely real, I mean I think that one of the most important things is that, you know, although Carla story is not my story and I have a very different story. It is -- it's important to know that the internal struggle and that's what I really, you know, was so grateful to the Director Eli Hershko and the people, you know, working with the amazing Laverne Cox and Mark Margolis these people really they wanted to share something powerful and they were committed to it and it was a very passionate project for all of us.

CAMEROTA: Not everyone is comfortable with what Bruce Jenner had to say. Some people have come out there has been some push back against it. Wendy Williams she's a Daytime talk show host as you guys know. She was not comfortable with it. I'm not sure if we have the same (ph) but I'll just read it, let me play for you what she's had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WENDY WILLIAMS, HOST, "THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW": You know, I'm all for and very happy for anyone that lives their own truth, including Bruce transitioning, but he should have thought about that after, before having all the kids like you've kids to explain to, when you can't tell me that Kylie is the only one not going along with this.

Belinda, shame on you

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: She's saying shame on you because he had kids and now have to endure this, what do you think, Joslyn?

DEFREECE: I think that's absolutely wrong. I think that, you know, everyone has families, everyone has their own story and how long that it take someone to accept themselves and go through that internal struggle. No one can judge that.

PEREIRA: There's no textbook for this.

ROCE: I mean, you know, this is an identity that's happening within the very globally interconnected world. So people are coming into this perception about this is something new for them. You know, but transgender identity, have always fix this for the longest time, you know, that maybe it's coming in such a new thing. But we need to have this deeper conversation, systems that would allow people to be themselves, you know, into fully understand that gender is not a binary, it's a spectrum.

And we should have this understanding the earliest the better, you know, for kids to understand this.

CUOMO: And a real debate about what is right to judge and what isn't, legally, culturally, it's all coming out now.

PEREIRA: ... Let's go with, let's not judge.

CUOMO: That would be nice but I don't think we're there yet. But it's great to have you both. Good luck going forward, good luck with the movie.

DEFREECE: ... thank you so much.

CUOMO: All right Bruce Jenner is a big story no question about it but a lot of news this morning we're going to take you to Nepal, let's get it to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: A third day of search and rescue operations underway up through Saturday 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE : I saw the earth shaking that I saw where start falling, the building is falling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Road infrastructures have been totally wiped out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like the ground is shaking even if its not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Either all, people who are simply put too afraid to go back home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible), used to be a great story tenfold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worst this country has seen in generations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, you've jumped in to action.

SANJAY GUPTA: You've created a (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... hospitals don't have any shelter for their patient.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Good morning everyone welcome back to your NEW DAY. And we do begin with the devastation in Nepal a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killing more that 3,700 people. The death toll climbing higher by the hour.

CUOMO: The aftershocks are still coming they're (inaudible) massive land slides, rescue are teams are unable to reach thousands of stranded villagers. We still don't really know what's going on in the surrounding rural areas around Katmandu.

[07:00:00] Many are feared buried alive. We're going to tap in to the global resources of CNN and bring you the most complete coverage of this disaster.

Let's start with CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's live at a hospital in Katmandu in Nepal and as happened many...