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Typhoon Devastates Parts of Philippines; Doctor Convicted of Murdering Wife; Testosterone Replacement as Anti-Aging Treatment Assessed
Aired November 09, 2013 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome to the CNN Newsroom.
Officials in the Philippines say the destruction from super-typhoon Haiyan is so extensive that it will take days to find out just how deadly the storm was. Right now the government has confirmed 138 deaths, but the Red Cross estimates that as many as 1,200 people have been killed. And 1,000 of those deaths are in one coastal town, the city of Tacloban. Homes and buildings there are leveled from the storms ferocious 194 mile-an-hour winds. Trees are blocking roads and communication lines are down.
Torrential rains plus the storm surge have put entire towns under water. Many evacuated ahead of the storm, but officials say the storm was too powerful for some evacuation centers, and some people there died.
Many people helped flood victims escape the rising waters, including two of our journalists, producer Tim Schwarz and CNN international anchor Andrew Stevens, helping in a rescue effort of an injured man there, pushing him through waist-high water to safety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anymore in there, Josh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: They are in Tacloban reporting on the typhoon aftermath.
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ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The devastation in this city is staggering. No building escaping damage. The destruction caused by typhoon Haiyan is everywhere. It left the city cut off from the rest of the country, its people increasingly desperate. Roads are still impassable, all communications are down. Medical supplies are running out. Food and water are becoming scarce, and reports of looting are widespread. It's impossible at this stage to estimate the cost in human life. We've seen bodies on the streets and we've seen bodies washing up on the beaches. The Philippines interior minister can only say the number of deaths will be high.
It's estimated perhaps 1 million people live along the low lying coastline, the majority of them in rough-built shacks. Even if they could have withstood the winds, they would not have survived the storm surge, a huge perhaps five-meter wall of water that spread across the city at the height of the storm at devastating speed.
The water receded as quickly as it came, leaving a trail of destruction. People had been warned to evacuate, but not everybody took the advice. The priority here now is to clear the road to the airport so relief supplies can start moving in. And 24 hours after the storm the first military helicopters began arriving, but it will be a massive task ferrying in food and supplies to so many.
In the meantime, the people of Tacloban city search for food and water and for missing loved ones.
Andrew Stevens, Tacloban city, central Philippines.
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WHITFIELD: Aid agencies are also mobilizing to help the victims of the typhoon. To find out how you can help go to CNN.com/impact.
A grand jury in New York has indicted 11 people in connection with the violent confrontation between an SUV driver and a swarm of bikers. Among those indicted is a police detective who was off duty and riding with the bikers back in September, September 29. The bikers are accused of dragging the SUV driver out of his vehicle and beating him in front of his wife and two-year-old daughter.
A Utah doctor is facing 15 years to life for killing his wife. The jury came back with a guilty verdict in the middle of the night. Jean Casarez was in the courtroom and has this reaction from the doctor's children who pushed for years for his conviction.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We, the jury, having reviewed the evidence and the testimony in the case find the defendant, as to count one, murder, guilty.
(SHOUTS)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As to count two, obstruction of justice, guilty.
CASAREZ: Screams of emotion echoed through the tense courtroom as martin MacNeill heard his fate sealed seven long years after the drowning death of his wife, Michele, in their family bathtub. Her daughters and sisters shaking and sobbing uncontrollably as they shed bittersweet tears. JILL HARPER-SMITH, VICTIM'S NIECE: When it happened, we were kind of, like, did we hear that right, because it's so surreal. We've been waiting for this for so long.
CASAREZ: After 14 days of testimony, it took the eight-person jury nearly 11 hours to come to a verdict. Despite relying on circumstantial evidence, prosecutor Chad Grunander had told the jury to do the right thing.
CHAD GRUNANDER, PROSECUTOR: We're absolutely thrilled. It's an amazing moment to meet with the family. This has been so long coming for them. Emotionally, they found Alexis Summers to be totally credible. I think they believed her. Such a wonderful, strong woman who did not give up on her mother.
CASAREZ: MacNeill's daughter, Alexis was the impetus behind the case and pursued her father's prosecution with a vengeance. The verdict was her victory.
ALEXIS SOMERS, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: We're just so happy he can't hurt anyone else. We miss our mom. We'll never get her back. That courtroom was full of so many people who loved her. I looked around, and it was full of everyone who loved my mom. I can't believe this has finally happened. We're so -- we're so grateful.
CASAREZ: Friday's closing argument by prosecutor Chad Grunander convinced the jury that as a doctor and lawyer MacNeill had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill his wife. It was planned all along, he said, and MacNeill left plenty of clues along the way.
Prosecutors proved MacNeill plied his wife with a deadly dose of drugs after insisting she have a face-lift then held her head under water in the bathtub until she drowned. All so he could marry his mistress, Gypsy Willis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's in the bathtub?
MARTIN MACNEILL: My wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an hour-and-a-half period of time where no one really knows where Martin is. Rush home, take care of your business, give Michele the drugs, fix her up a bath, get her in the tub, hold her head down for a little while, and help her out.
CASAREZ: Defense attorney Randy Spenser spent a year preparing for the trial, devastated by the outcome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, I'm disappointed, but I don't have any comments right now.
CASAREZ: MacNeill faces 15 years to life for the murder of his wife of 30 years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you want to say to Michele right now?
LINDA CUFF, MICHELE'S SISTER: I love you, Michele. I'm glad we could do this for you, and I felt her with us in there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Just a short time ago, and now other news on a case we're watching, the U.S. Navy Christening its newest aircraft carrier.
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SUSAN FORD BALES, PRESIDENT FORD'S DAUGHTER: I Christen the United States ship Gerald R. Ford. May god bless the ship and all who sail her.
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WHITFIELD: The USS Gerald Ford was unveiled today in Newport News, Virginia. The former president's daughter, Susan Ford Bales, smashed that bottle of sparkling wine against the hull of the ship. Former vice president Dick Cheney and Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who both worked for Ford were at the ceremony. The ship is projected to remain in service until 2057.
Senator Ted Cruz in the hot seat.
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JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": I've been reading a lot about you lately, and they describe you as aggressive, arrogant, and abrasive. Accurate?
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WHITFIELD: All right, that was just the first question from "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno. The senator's answer straight ahead.
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WHITFIELD: All right, now checking some political stories making news. Sarah Palin is in Iowa today. She's the keynote speaker at a Faith and Freedom Coalition dinner. Palin also has a pretty busy week ahead. She will be hitting the road with her new book "Good Tidings and Great Joy, Protecting the Heart of Christmas".
And Ted Cruz made his late night debut last night. The Texas Republican talked to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" and answered questions about his confrontational political style and his opposition to the president's health care plan.
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LENO: I've been reading a lot about you lately. And they describe you as aggressive, arrogant and abrasive. Accurate?
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) TEXAS: Well, I don't know that you can believe everything you read. LENO: Any one of those? Can you believe any one of those?
CRUZ: What I'm trying to do is do my job. And occasionally people don't like that.
LENO: I know you're a man of principle. Does that prevent compromise when you're so set on what you do?
CRUZ: Of course not. Of course not. My view on compromise is actually the same as what Ronald Reagan's was. Reagan said what do you do if they offer half a loaf? Answer, you take it. And then you come back for more.
LENO: Congressional approval is at, what, 12 percent.
CRUZ: I'm amazed it's that high.
LENO: Are you amazed it's that high? Americans are sick of this brinksmanship, don't you think?
CRUZ: Look, I think Americans are deeply frustrated that Washington is broken. And I think it's a bipartisan problem. I think the biggest divide we have is not between Republicans and Democrats. It is between entrenched politicians in both parties in Washington and the American people.
(APPLAUSE)
LENO: Sure.
CRUZ: My focus has been jobs, economic growth and in particular Obamacare. Obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country. It's interesting --
(APPLAUSE)
LENO: The state of Texas, they don't want Obamacare there.
CRUZ: We don't want Obamacare because it's taking away their health care.
LENO: But 25 percent of the state doesn't have any health care anyway. So Obamacare would help them, wouldn't it?
(APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Well, it wouldn't, number one, because it's taking away a lot of people's health insurance, and number two, because it's killing jobs. And look, I'm a big believer in health care reform. I think we ought to reform health care so that it's personal, it's portable, it's affordable. We ought to empower patients rather than government bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor.
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WHITFIELD: All right, taking to the late night route on the political trail. We'll talk health straight ahead. Low testosterone, a big problem with older men. Why drugs to treat the condition could be causing new problems. But one doctor doesn't think taking testosterone is hurting his health. The 70-year-old's controversial strategy that he says is helping him defy the aging process.
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WHITFIELD: A recent study shows testosterone treatments could cause heart problems in men in their 60s. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a closer look at that report.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, it's this hot new treatment for older men. You've seen these ads, I'm sure, for testosterone replacement therapy. It's been touted as a way to turn back a man's body clock.
But there was an important study published this week in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," and it found that men taking testosterone therapy had about a 29 percent greater risk of death, heart attack, and stroke than those not on the hormone replacement.
The way they did the study, researchers looked at more than 8,700 men who were treated through the VA hospital who had low testosterone levels and were undergoing a coronary angiogram, a heart vessel angiogram. That's a procedure that can look for possible blockage or narrowing in the coronary arteries.
What they found was that men using prescription testosterone replacement were more likely to suffer from a heart attack or a stroke about three years after they received those angiograms. That was compared to men not on the hormone testosterone therapy.
Now, when you look at a study like this, the doctors need to point out this study of particular men probably had some flaws because most of these men were probably at high risk for a heart problem anyway. And researchers said even the men in the study whose angiograms were normal, they did still suffer from heart problems if they were on the testosterone replacement.
Doctors don't know exactly why testosterone would affect the heart, but they sake the take-home message here is to be cautious. Keep in mind, look, this isn't for everybody. It doesn't always work for everybody. So you really want to talk about the risks with your doctor, even if you're taking this in a supplement form. We know, we talk about this all the time on this program, that the fountain of youth doesn't come in a bottle, a gel, or a cream, even though many of us, Fred, wish that it did.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Sanjay. Be sure to tune in to "SANJAY GUPTA MD" at 4:30 eastern. He'll have more details on the FDA's move to ban trans-fats from food.
Despite the warnings about testosterone, you've probably heard of a 74-year-old doctor who uses it and a human growth hormone to fight aging. He sure looks like he may have hit on a secret. But medical experts say he could be putting his health at risk for the sake of looking young. Here is Kyung Lah.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the body of a man who uses performance-enhancing drugs, virtually the same ones connected to Lance Armstrong, Olympian Marion Jones, and baseball player Alex Rodriguez. But this man is not a professional athlete. Jeffrey Life is 74 with the rock hard body and, he claims, the mental sharpness of a man half his age.
DR. JEFFRY S. LIFE, AUTHOR, "MASTERING THE LIFE PLAN": Everyone is going to age. I'm not against aging. I'm against getting old.
LAH: And he claims no one has to with daily rigorous workouts, a strict low carb diet, and injections of testosterone and human growth hormone, or HGH.
LIFE: What we use it for is to improve health, slow and prevent disease and to improve quality of life. I like to think I'm kind of blazing a trail for the baby boomer generation.
LAH: A journey that Dr. Life, a family physician, began years ago. This was him before exercise and supplements. This is him today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does this 74-year-old doctor keep looking younger and younger as he ages? The answer the Cenegenics Elite Health Program.
LAH: Cenegenics is a company that runs a chain of clinics, calling itself the nation's largest age management group, part of the exploding anti-aging industry that relies in part on testosterone and HGH. Last year Cenegenics reports they made $100 million in revenue. The anti-aging industry targets America's about 80 million aging baby boomers looking for any way to turn back the hands of time.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates the use of HGH, stressing the hormone is not an approved treatment for anti-aging.
So how does Cenegenics not break any laws? By focusing on a natural loophole of sorts, the natural depletion of hormones as we age.
LIFE: We are all about correcting deficiencies, getting levels up to a healthy level.
LAH: Dr. Life says his patients who are given HGH suffer from growth hormone deficiency, one of the few FDA approved reasons for taking HGH. He says patients here go through a pituitary gland test to meet the regulations. Cenegenics told 62-year-old Gerald Schlesinger that was his problem. Like all patients who take hormones, Schlesinger says he is monitored and tested four times a year for his testosterone and HGH intake. He now feels like he's 40. That comes with a hefty price tag. All this can cost up to $15,000 a year, cash only.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My health is first, and whatever it costs me, it's worth it. LAH: If you think this is too good to be true, you're not alone. Many doctors agree, saying, sure, there may be short-term gain, but there will be long-term cost.
DR. TOM PEARL, BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It's a fallacy to say that even in low doses that these drugs are not harmful.
LAH: Dr. Tom Pearl is a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, would not talk specifically about Cenegenics, but he is a vocal critic of the anti-aging movement.
PEARL: I do believe that giving growth hormone in particular for anti-aging is quackery.
LAH: He says there are no reputable studies that show that hormones stop aging, and warns HGH in particular can enlarge organs, cause high blood pressure, and even trigger cancer.
What do you say to the medical community who says you're just selling a bunch of voodoo and this is potentially dangerous because it's so untested?
LIFE: We do not know what the long-term consequences are going to be of testosterone replacement therapy and growth hormone replacement therapy.
LAH: What's wrong with just getting old?
LIFE: That's an argument a lot of doctors use. Who wants to get old when you don't have to?
LAH: If next year for some reason you get cancer, will you blame these supplements?
LIFE: No, I will not.
LAH: What he will do is continue to be the poster grandpa of a company and a movement that believes the riskier move is to turn away from this fountain of youth they found in diet, dumbbells, and in drugs.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Las Vegas.
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WHITFIELD: And a massive storm strikes, one of the biggest to ever make landfall. We'll have details on the damage being caused by a massive typhoon in a few minutes right here in the newsroom.
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WHITFIELD: It's time now for the good stuff, stories that will make you feel good and leave a smile on your face. How about this, a one- year-old in South Carolina is doing something doctors have never seen before right there. He is rolling his own wheelchair. Wyatt Banks has a neurological disorder. He's so precious. Six months ago the condition paralyzed him from the waist down. He regained some movement, so his parents decided to try something new.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just put him in a wheelchair to see what he would do. We didn't expect him to push or propel himself at this point. But we put him in there and held a toy out and he knew exactly what to do.
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WHITFIELD: That is so sweet. Wyatt is doing physical therapy. His doctors are hopeful that he could indeed walk soon. Wow.
And here is a story that might restore your faith in humanity. A Tennessee mother and daughter on vacation in Daytona Beach, Florida, were walking on the beach when they found a purse with $13,000 in cash and thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry inside. So what did they do? They turned it over to authorities who then tracked down the rightful owner in Maryland.
And here is a reminder to never lose hope. A Nebraska man is getting back a motorcycle stolen from him in Omaha 46 years ago. Donald Devo reporting the 1953 triumph Tiger stolen in 1957. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it was headed to japan when he was recovered last week at the port of Los Angeles.
And some good news for Norse gods everywhere. "Variety" reports people are packing theaters for "Thor, The Dark World." The second installment of the superhero franchise is expected to make $84 million in its opening weekend. That would be about $20 million more than the first movie.
Top of the hour now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories that we're following for you this hour.
A super typhoon leaves a trail of death and destruction in the Philippines. We have astonishing new images from the storm zone.
Emotional reaction to the verdict of a Utah doctor accused of murdering his wife and the jury's decision, straight ahead.
And huge pieces of a satellite are expected to fall to earth over the next few days. We'll tell you what scientists are saying about exactly when and where it might land.
First up, the tragedy that's unfolding right now in the Philippines from a massive storm that could end up being the strongest to ever hit land. While the government's official death toll stands at 138, the Red Cross estimates as many as 1,200 people have been killed by super typhoon Haiyan. And 1,000 of those deaths are believed to be in one coastal town, the city of Tacloban.
Homes and buildings there are leveled from the storm's ferocious 195 mile-per-hour winds. Trees are blocking roads and communication lines are down. Torrential rains plus the storm surge have put entire towns under water.
