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Miracle Mom; Girls Rising Up for Education; Toby Keith Talks Growing Up in Oklahoma; Remembering the Victims of the Tornadoes

Aired May 23, 2013 - 12:30   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I understand at one point people were putting mattresses, blankets over people's heads just to protect them.

NICK STREMBLE, EMBERGENCY DEPARTMENT MANAGER/REGISTERED NURSE: Absolutely. Lots of blankets, I mean, lots of padding, the best that we could do.

We went upstairs to game plan how we were going to get the in-patients out, the medical surgical patients and the plan for those folks, so, you know, my partner in all this, Shannon (ph), the nurse-manager from that portion of the building, you know, really talked through how we were going to do it, set the plan in motion and got it moving.

Luckily, most of the patients were somewhat mobile.

COOPER: Eighteen minutes, that's not a lot of time, but when you're dealing with patients in all different kinds of distress, what was the most difficult time?

STREMBLE: The most difficult time, personally, was going upstairs for kind of my final check just to make sure there was nobody left in the upstairs portion of the building.

I went down all the hallways banging on doors, yelling, making sure there was no stragglers or visitors.

We came back downstairs, found out there was, in fact, one more patient upstairs with the nurse manager and two other nurses that was in the process of giving birth.

COOPER: Oh, my gosh.

STREMBLE: Ran back upstairs and talked to them. And, you know, found out where they were. They were in the surgery suite and that's why I didn't see them the first time I went around.

Went to the surgery suite, met with them, discussed what we were going to do. And, you know, she was in the process of giving birth.

COOPER: So what do you do?

STREMBLE: We felt that it wasn't -- the best thing was to leave her where she was and get her in a safe location and stay right there.

So basically we -- that's what they did.

COOPER: So she continued to labor all during the tornadoes.

STREMBLE: Absolutely. The nurse manager and two of the nurses stayed with that patient the entire time.

You know, we game planned what we were going to do. I helped coordinate and basically said get every blanket you can, pad her up and I'm going back downstairs to deal with this and we're going to roll the dice and see what happens.

COOPER: Was she OK?

STREMBLE: She was absolutely fine.

COOPER: The baby?

STREMBLE: The baby got delivered about 45 minutes later, once we moved her downstairs, out of the building, onto an ambulance and out of the building.

COOPER: That mom has a story to tell for the rest of her life. No other mother can complain about delivery. That's the worst delivery story ever.

STREMBLE: She stayed the entire time. There was a point when I left them and went downstairs and there was a waiting room with a big bank of windows that faces the southwest and that's when I knew we had seconds.

I walked out of that hall, saw into the waiting room and the huge bank of windows I saw the tornado in the neighborhood across the street. There was debris in the air. I knew we had a couple seconds.

COOPER: Were you worried that the safe zones might not hold? When you look at the exterior structure of the building, I mean, it's just ripped to shreds.

STREMBLE: I was worried, but there was a moment when I was downstairs with my charge nurse sally and other nurse manager, Shannon (ph), and, you know, Shannon (ph) asked me, where do we go now?

And I just thought, OK, well, we're going to hold on and we'll sort that out after this passes. That is what happened.

COOPER: Could you feel the storm when it hit?

STREMBLE: There were different areas where patients were. We have a lot of community members looking for shelter. There was a patient care area where the actual patients were that were also in the central portion of the building.

Like I said, I came down the stairs after seeing the tornado through the windows. I came down the stairs, rushed into the hallway which is the in central hallway in the building, which is also one of the safe zones, got behind the fire doors. And, you know, as all that was happening you could feel, I mean you could already feel the wind coming in through the front doors.

Glass had broken out as I was stepping out of the stairwell and got behind the door and held on. It was a double door, double fire doors. One of them got ripped open and that's when the hallway turned into a bit of a scary scene.

I could guess there was probably about 30 people in the hallway. I was behind one of the fire doors and kind of got stuck between, you know, when one of the doors ripped open, the pressure -- I mean, at that point all bets were off.

The door that I was behind opened and kind of pinned me against a wall. So I kind of had a unique perspective.

I felt safe because I'm between a huge door and wall and I'm looking down the hallway and able to see all the folks there just kind of rolling and tumbling. The wind was incredible.

COOPER: The wind is whipping through the hall.

STREMBLE: Straight through that hallway.

COOPER: And people are tumbling through the hallway.

STREMBLE: Absolutely. Once it passed I stood up and everybody that was at the end of the hall ended up in a bit of a pile, started to stand up, brush off and everybody got up so quick.

At that point, sorting through, I need to know if you're injured. I need to know what we're going to do. Start filtering this way. I need to know who's injured and who's not.

I was absolutely surprised that there was really no injuries, a lot of bumps, bruises, obviously scrapes and cuts, but it's just a testament to the staff that was there, to everybody that helped out and getting the people where they need to be.

And that's why that many people walked out alive.

COOPER: I'm so glad. Thank you so much for all you did.

STREMBLE: Thank you very much.

COOPER: Amazing. Amazing.

During these times, lending a helping hand can mean everything. To help those affected by the tornado, visit "Impact Your World" at CNN.com. There's a lot of resources there is to help people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN OLIVO, IREPORTER: Is there anybody here? You can smell the gas. Watch out.

Is there anybody here? Yes, take them over there. Is there anybody there?

Oh, my God. Is there anybody here? Can you say something?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That's Juan Olivo, recording what it was like moments after the tornado hit. He and his neighbors were searching digging through the rubble, looking for someone.

Right after this, he actually did help find one man and rescue him.

Look around at the destruction here in Moore. It's almost hard to believe that so many people did survive.

We're going to get back to our tornado coverage in just a few minutes, but first Suzanne Malveaux has some other news from our CNN NEWSROOM. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Anderson. We actually have a pretty amazing story to tell you about. This is a baby girl who's alive and well today, and that alone unbelievable when you actually hear about the terrifying ordeal that her mom went through to deliver.

I want to bring in Elizabeth Cohen to talk a little bit about what they're calling this Texas mom a "miracle mom."

When we first heard about this story, it was almost unbelievable to even imagine what had happened, but tell us about this because you talked to her extensively and her heart was not beating when she was delivering.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So if we back this up for a minute, this woman's name is Erica Nigrelli. She's a mom who lives in Texas. I talked to her at length this morning. She uses the word "miracle," both in terms of her own survival and her baby.

So what happened is she's a high school English teacher. She's 36 weeks pregnant, so about eight months pregnant. She goes in to visit a friend's classroom and says, I feel faint, puts her head down and collapses.

Her friend has the students in the classroom run and get the nurse. The nurse and the athletic trainer come in and start doing CPR on her and using the defibrillator that's in the school.

MALVEAUX: Yeah, we're seeing pictures of her little baby.

COHEN: We're looking at the pictures. That's Elayna. That's baby Elayna and that's her daddy. And you can see she's still getting oxygen, but she's doing well.

But to back up to the story, she -- the nurse said, this woman's heart is not beating on its own. I'm beating it for her. I'm doing CPR, but she said her heart has stopped on its own.

So an ambulance came and they did a C-section. And, Suzanne, she was so unconscious at this point that they did not use any anesthetic in the C-section. They cut into her stomach with no anesthetic at all. That's how unconscious she was.

MALVEAUX: Wow. And there were some people who thought maybe she was dead, but that was unclear whether or not she had been brought back to life. But we know that her heart was not working on its own.

COHEN: Her heart was not working on its own. And I asked Erica, I said, were you actually dead? And she said, I was never declared dead. I was never declared dead, but she, again, was so unconscious that they were able to actually do the C-section and she didn't feel a thing as they were cutting into her stomach.

Her baby was born. They got her out in less than a minute because you can do a C-section really, really fast when you need to.

MALVEAUX: Yeah.

COHEN: They rushed the baby to the intensive care unit, and they noticed that she started doing a little bit better, that once the demands of the baby were off of her, she started doing a little bit better.

They brought her into intensive care. They put mom into a medically- induced coma. You can see her there.

She was in that coma for five days, she was in the ICU for two weeks, and then she was discharged from the hospital to a rehab hospital.

MALVEAUX: Do the doctors have any idea what was wrong with her? How did that happen?

COHEN: Yes, this is what they figured out. Do you remember the stories -- you and I, I think, have done some of these together -- where high school athletes collapse in the gym?

MALVEAUX: Sure.

COHEN: That's what happened to her.

She had a heart condition that she didn't know about. It's called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It's a thickening of the heart muscle so it doesn't work well. The heart doesn't beat properly. And you don't know you have this until something like this happens. It is silent until something like this happens.

But Elayna's doing well. Erica's doing well. I talked to her. I mean, this woman was in a coma. She was so unconscious she didn't feel knives going in, or scalpels going into her, and she sounds like a totally normal person.

MALVEAUX: Oh, my God. Well, this is a great story. I'm so glad she's doing well, and Elayna as well, the baby. She looks beautiful. COHEN: She's beautiful.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely gorgeous.

COHEN: You can see she needs a little oxygen, but that's it. And mom Erica says we're doing great because the nurse was amazing, the high school kids who got that nurse quickly were amazing, the EMS people.

She said everything just fell into place and she's actually getting care now where Gabby Giffords got her care when she was rehabbing, so (inaudible) Memorial in Houston, a great place. So she had great care from beginning to end.

MALVEAUX: And you've got more on this story on dot-com as well, I understand.

COHEN: That's right. CNNHealth.com, you can read more about it.

MALVEAUX: All right, Elizabeth, amazing. Love it.

COHEN: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: Love those good stories.

Want to also take a look. This is a weekly look around the World regarding education.

Now, for girls, gaining access, as you know, to basic education is pretty tough, especially in Haiti.

So today we want to introduce you to someone special. She is Rose Matrie and she is just one girl who's "Rising Up."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE MATRIE, HAITIAN GIRL WANTS EDUCATION: Open your mind. Open your mind.

MATRIE (via translator): My name is Rose Matrie. I am 12-years-old.

I only have one brother. I have four sisters.

I am small.

I like wearing my uniform. I wear navy ribbons, a navy dress, black shoes, and I'm beautiful.

I live in a house that is slightly cracked.

My mom works as a dressmaker. When I leave the school, since this is my last year, my mother will not be able to pay for me to go to school. I want to go to a big school in order to develop my talents.

On this board, I do my homework, and every afternoon, my mother buys me chalk.

When I let my imagination go, I think of extraordinary things. I will be a teacher because I love to teach children, to give them courage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Good for her. Rose Matrie, she is now 13-years-old in secondary school and CNN Films' "Girl Rising" premieres Sunday. That is June 16th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Good for her.

And home looks different for country singer Toby Keith. He is from Moore, and he takes us for a walk through the city as special coverage with Anderson Cooper continues after our break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, country music star Toby Keith had just flown out of his hometown of Moore when Monday's tornado touched down. When he returned, the city or parts of it were almost unrecognizable. I walked with him through what once was a busy neighborhood. I talked to him about the resilience of the community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: What's it like for you to see this place like this?

TOBY KEITH, COUNTRY MUSIC STAR: Well, it ain't nothing I've ever seen before growing up here my whole life, 35, 40 years. We've seen this a lot. So it's pretty much -- it gets you right here every time.

COOPER: It seems like -- I mean, I've seen a lot of it too, but every time it seems like different. Every time it's -- you never get used to it.

KEITH: Well, no. It's a different path every time. We're about two miles south of where the last one -- or mile and a half south of where the big one of '99 hit. But there was one the day before this one that knocked Shawnee out that no one talked about, but those people up there, if you ask them, theirs was just as devastating. It looks like this up there too in places. So it's part of living in the Plains.

COOPER: Seems like everywhere we go we see people trying to salvage whatever they can, the possessions of their house, whatever they can get out of the rubble.

KEITH: Well, my sister, my sister-in-law and my niece all got hit. And if your house looks like something like that where you still got a structure left, if you can get a shot of that, then you can get most of your possessions back. Insurance company fix your house. If you had a storm shelter, which you should have, then you're rocking, you know? It all comes back.

COOPER: This is where -- and based on the foundation -- this is the slab of someone's foundation. Obviously they didn't have a basement. It seems -- I think a lot of people that don't live here are surprised here that people don't have -- not everybody has storm shelters here. They're expensive.

KEITH: Well, if you go into the neighborhoods, a lot of people that can't afford them will have them and then three or four people won't and they'll share. Everybody knows where the closest shelter is.

So if you ask somebody that survived it and got hit and they had a shelter, their neighbors were in there with them.

COOPER: I talked to a woman today in the hospital, who was holding onto her 65-year-old husband; he got sucked out of her arms and died. And she said, "I'm going to rebuild in the same place, because I've got my neighbors; I'll never find neighbors anywhere else like this in the world."

KEITH: I know. Last night I got here and went straight to my sister's house, and we got her boarded in and got her roof covered and everything.

And I was standing doing an interview and this lady goes, "He's standing in front of my car."

And you're like, what? She's like, "It's neat you're standing in front of my car."

I said, "Is this your house?"

She was like, "Yes, I lived through it." And she was happy, uplifting, and you're like, I can't believe you're this happy.

She goes, "What else are you going to do, rebuild it?" It didn't hit me for 31 years; I'm going to rebuild and live right here. This is my home. So it's like that's the part that makes you go, you know, that's my neighbor.

COOPER: All right. Toby, thank you.

KEITH: Yes, my pleasure. Thanks for covering it.

COOPER: Pleasure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, to help those affected by the tornado, visit "Impact Your World" on CNN.com.

The funeral for Antonia Candelaria was held today. She was just 9 years old. Coming up, we'll tell you a little bit about the other people who lost their lives in this natural disaster.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, the oldest person killed in this storm was 70 years old; the youngest victims were just infants. In all, as you know, 24 people lost their lives. And before we leave you this hour, I just want to tell you something about them, what we've learned about them, because we're just starting to know more and more about those who lost their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice-over): I want to show you Tewauna Robinson; she lived just a block away from Plaza Towers Elementary. The storm was bearing down; she was inside a closet. She called her daughter Angeletta (ph), she described her situation and she said, "I love you," and then the phone went dead. Tewauna Robinson was 45 years old.

Terri Long loved aviation. She worked for the FAA and was an air safety specialist. She was just 49 years old.

Megan Futrell was 29 years old. She was riding out the storm in the cooler of a 7-Eleven. She hoped she'd be safe there. A cousin described her as the sister she never had. And that's her 4-month-old son, Case, who was also with her. He was in his mom's arms when he died. They died together.

Kyle Davis was a rock of a little boy; his friends nicknamed him The Wall. He got good grades, he loved monster trucks. He was just 8 years old, one of the seven kids who died at Plaza Towers.

Antonia Candelaria, who we'd mentioned was buried today, she was 9. She leaves behind two sisters who loved her so very much. As we mentioned, her funeral was held today; it's the first of all the funerals.

Nicolas McCabe was a third grader at Plaza Towers. He is described as a vibrant 9-year-old full of life, full of smiles, as he is in that photo. He loved to play with Legos.

We met JaNae Hornsby's dad just on Tuesday. He called her a ball of energy and love. JaNae was 9.

The first thing people noticed about Sydney Marie Angle was her smile and her eyes. She loved her classmates at Plaza Towers and they loved her. She died surrounded by that love. Sydney Marie Angle was also 9 years old.

Also want to give you an update on one of our previous guests.

If you saw our interview with JaNae Hornsby's dad and aunt yesterday and hearing them talk about what JaNae was like, about how sweet and wonderful she was, it moved them a lot, so much so that they got in touch with us and they wanted to pay for JaNae's funeral.

So we connected them with the Hornsby family and we thank them for their big heart.

This weekend I'm going to take a look at the storm chasers who risked their lives to get that footage of the tornado. My special, "Storm Hunters in the Path of Disaster," that airs this Saturday at 7:00 pm right here on CNN. I'll be back, of course, tonight at 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock with "AC 360."

Our special coverage from Moore, Oklahoma, continues with Wolf Blitzer right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)