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Interview With NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills; Recovery Efforts Continue In Florida; Hurricane Ian Targets South Carolina. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 30, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:04]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Before we go, some new images showing rescues of some very, very valuable family members from this storm, first responders plucking dozens and dozens of dogs, and cats as well, from floodwaters in Orange County.

The message on Facebook: "Pets are family, period."

Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS. Try to have a peaceful weekend.

Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and thank you for being with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

And, right now, the people of South Carolina hunkering down with Hurricane Ian poised to make landfall again soon. Winds are gusting at 85 miles per hour. And the other big concerns, of course, are life- threatening storm surge and heavy rain. We're tracking who's in the most danger, all this as millions of people in Florida are taking those first painful steps toward recovery, so many lives up ended by Hurricane Ian's devastation, the storm likely one for the record books, as the grim evidence of its powerful strike now litters coastlines.

Today, Fort Myers Beach impassable, shells of buildings, really all that's left, nearby boats tossed like toys onto homes. This hour, we know at least 25 people have died just in Florida, roughly two million without power, and just a staggering level of destruction. Damage estimates are climbing fast.

We have teams covering it all.

We begin in South Carolina, where Ian is bearing down right now, and our Nick Valencia is in Myrtle Beach.

What are you seeing there, Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Ana.

We're actually getting a break in the rain right now. We're not expecting that to last, but, for now, residents are starting to actually emerge from this hotel just off camera here. People are actually bringing their dogs out to go to the bathroom and residents are checking out the beach here.

But what's most impressive of what we're seeing is the height of these water levels. The storm surge here, our CNN weather department puts the water levels at about 10 feet, which is the highest that Myrtle Beach has seen since Hurricane Matthew back in 2016.

When I spoke to emergency management earlier, what they were most concerned about are the lower-lying areas in and around Myrtle Beach. As it stands right now, there are no bridges or roads closed in Myrtle Beach, but some roads around Myrtle Beach have closed as a result of the severe weather that they're feeling right now.

The landfall of this storm is imminent. In the next couple of hours, we're really going to start to get hammered. I say that as I'm getting another gust of wind. We really would love to get you to the beach there, but just see how -- just see how aggressive those waves are behind me. I mean, it -- the water has slowly, slowly hour by hour started to creep closer and closer to the building that we're standing at.

We're told that about 7,000 people are without power throughout the county, but, really, they are preparing for the worst to come in the coming hours -- Ana.

CABRERA: Nick Valencia, we will check back. Do stay safe.

We are told, they're in Myrtle Beach, the water has been rising, the tide has been rising about an hour -- or, I should say, one foot per hour since 6:00 a.m. And so that storm surge is a huge concern, along with the winds that Nick was talking about and that you could see him experiencing.

I do want to get right to CNN Weather Center meteorologist Jennifer Gray, who is tracking the latest timing and all of that.

Jennifer, what concerns you most about this storm right now?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I really think it's what Nick hinted at, was the storm surge. That's really what we're most concerned about, because as long as we have this onshore push of wind, the surge is going to continue.

So we're not going to be able to see those water levels come down until the winds start to change direction, also really concerned about the amount of rain. We saw major flooding all across Florida. Now we have the potential for flooding across South Carolina, North Carolina.

The rain just continues to come down. We could see eight to 12 inches of rain across portions of South Carolina. And look at this yellow band right there over Charleston. That has been consistent. Some showers and storms are training over this area. And so we are going to continue to see that.

We're at the third highest water level that Myrtle Beach has ever seen. We just surpassed Isaias. And you can see that line is still crawling up. We haven't started to come down yet. So this is not over yet. We could see four to seven feet of storm surge in this area highlighted in orange, especially around Myrtle Beach and points to the east.

We have a tornado watch as well, Ana. And this is going to last until 10:00 p.m. So people not only need to look out for the flooding, the storm surge, but you have tornadoes to watch out for throughout the evening hours as well, especially across North Carolina and portions of South Carolina -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK, huge threats, a lot of danger lurking right now for those folks.

GRAY: Right.

CABRERA: Thank you, Jennifer Gray.

Ian is just relentless, already historic, one of the strongest hurricanes to ever slam into Florida. And these images capture only a thumbnail view of the devastation. This is Fort Myers Beach, where destruction stretches as far as the eye can see. A town councilman says about 90 percent of this island is destroyed.

[13:05:00]

CNN's Randi Kaye is there in Fort Myers Beach.

Randi, you just reached there a short time ago. What are you seeing?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are just on the other side of that beach area, Ana, the other side of the bridge.

And we are here in a very big tourism area. I just want to show you were at the San Carlos R.V. Resort, as it's called. This right here, this empty lot used to have a whole bunch of R.V.s in it. They were parked there. I'm told by people who know that well that they were parked there during the storm, and they have disappeared.

They either floated away or were taken away by the wind speeds. But this is what the R.V. park looks like now. And out there in the distance -- I just talked to the owners of that one R.V. -- it is the one surviving R.V. from the R.V. park, which is incredible.

You can see just what it's done here. There were some washers and dryers in this R.V. park. They're all twisted as well.

But if you come back out to the street with me, Ana, let me just show you what the situation is real quick. There are boats everywhere. Boats that used to be in the water on the other side of the street in the gulf are now on shore, on dry land. Just look at that boat right there. That's Captain Tony's Fishing Adventures.

And behind it are two other giant boats. They're 50 tons each. I spoke to the owner of them. It is his whole business. It's a hotel boat. And three of his boats were docked together, and they ended up on dry land.

Here's how he told me he rode out the storm while on his boat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE STACZEK, RODE OUT HURRICANE ON BOAT: Noisy, windy, a lot of rain, obviously. Wasn't -- just we held our own for a long time, until about 3:00 or so.

We could -- we actually -- we were able to keep the boat in the slip with the engines. But, after that, when the tide shifted and came higher and the winds really ramped up, then the boat released, and then we cruised across the parking lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: He thought it was safe. And he said it was a very smooth lift as he was carried to dry land in his boat.

And, Ana, one more. Look at that boat out there. That is actually -- we just talked to the owner. It's the one on top of the building, but it's actually on top of a car. He told us that boat of his has actually landed on top of a reporter's car who was here trying to ride out the storm. Now the car is stuck and the boat is stuck as well.

So that -- all of that just shows you the sheer power of Hurricane Ian, whether it was the water or the wind. This is what they're left with here in Fort Myers Beach.

CABRERA: That is just insane. And now to see the cars behind you, people coming back serving, what's left of their properties and what they're finding, I can't even imagine what's going through their minds.

Randi Kaye, thank you for your great reporting.

Just off the coast of Fort Myers, on Sanibel Island, we're learning at least two people have died. Sanibel was cut off from the mainland after Ian broke apart the only bridge leading in and out. And boats and helicopters are now the only way on or off that island.

Here CNN's Bill Weir on the damage and the search for survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Ian's violent visit, this is what's left of the Causeway Bridge from mainland Florida to Sanibel Island. And this is the now unpassable bridge to Pine Island.

So, for residents of both, boats and helicopters are the only exit options. And while Coast Guard Black Hawks and Chinooks buzzed over the barrier islands on the grim day after, two of the only boats in this part of the Gulf carry civilian volunteers from the Cajun Navy, those good old boys with bass boats and big hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us the name of an individual or tell somebody to go pick up, we will try to go get them.

WEIR: And a newer outfit known as Project Dynamo, led by a former military intelligence officer more accustomed to saving Americans from Russians in Ukraine or the Taliban in Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Americans are in trouble in bad spots -- usually, we do war zones and conflict zones, but Hurricane Ian qualifies.

WEIR (on camera): And you're named after Churchill's operation...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.

WEIR: ... to get the British soldiers off the beach at Dunkirk.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Off of Dunkirk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now here we are. We're going to rescue some people off of Sanibel, which is cut off from the world right now.

WEIR: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so it's very apropos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to help out if they need help.

Do you need help?

WEIR: You need help?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to get out of here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us a minute. We will come up there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will come there.

WEIR (voice-over): We follow the cry for help ashore on Sanibel to find a gentleman eager to accept a boatlift, but unable to convince his better half.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going. We're going.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To where?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fort Myers. Fort Myers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bridge is out. The bridge is knocked out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not -- I'm not ready to go.

WEIR: A cursory stroll around this part of Sanibel reveals plenty of hazards, like the hiss of natural gas spewing from a broken tank.

But in one of the most coveted zip codes in Florida, the construction mostly held up, which is in stark contrast to Pine Island.

[13:10:04]

(on camera): Look at this one, absolutely flattened.

(voice-over): Especially the mobile homes of the working class and retirees living in St. James City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, ma'am, are you OK? Your daughter called us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can imagine.

WEIR: When their phone cut out early in the storm, the grandchildren of Nancy and Robert Sharon (ph) were so scared, they called the Cajun Navy and Project Dynamo and begged them to go check for proof of life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard that they weren't going to do anything after the beach closed down.

But my granddaughters are in Ohio. And she was crying hysterical when I talked to her before. She's like: "We were thinking that you had gotten hurt." And I said: "No, there's no service. There's no service."

WEIR (on camera): Yes. That's the thing. The uncertainty brings so much fear and stress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I knew it. And that's -- that had me more worried than what was going on at the time, because I knew my family was worried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible what we're going through. There's a terrible set of circumstances. The destruction is unbelievable. The suffering is going to be bad. Hundreds of people are dead right now. We just haven't found them yet.

So this is true carnage. It's a war zone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, gentlemen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But, at the same time, I'm really happy that we can be here to help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: That was Bill Weir reporting.

We keep hearing it looks like a war zone. We keep seeing these images of the devastation. We also know people are still being rescued, with hundreds of rescues by air, by boat, by high-water vehicle happening in the last 24 hours.

We expect to hear from the president very soon. Stay right there. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:03]

CABRERA: We're back with brand-new aerial photos revealing a truly stunning level of destruction on Sanibel Island, Florida. Take a look at this.

This is the Gulf Breeze Cottages before and after the storm. Practically all that's left is the parking lot. This is Shalimar Cottages and Motel before Ian, and now 15 cottages and that entire motel building gone.

And Mitchell's SandCastles also wiped away, no buildings left, the property just covered in sand. The manager of Lee County, Florida, just got a firsthand look at all this destruction on Sanibel Island and joins us now.

Roger Desjarlais is joining us from Fort Myers.

Thank you so much for taking the time. I know you just flew over Sanibel for that damage assessment. What was going through your mind?

ROGER DESJARLAIS, MANAGER, LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA: From the air, you get a very clear perspective of what has happened. And you could tell clearly that the eye wall passed right over Sanibel, but stalled for about three -- a three-or-four-hour period of time.

And I don't think it's an overstatement to say that so many places on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach in particular were simply decimated. It looked as though someone had just dropped from the sky, picked up hotels and buildings and took them away, so much so that, in many places, there wasn't even debris.

CABRERA: Oh, my gosh.

What was most shocking to you? You knew this was going to be a powerful storm. You probably experienced all of the winds and the rain and the storm surge. But did you anticipate seeing what you saw?

DESJARLAIS: Two days before landfall, as you know, that storm was supposed to make its way through the Tampa area, a little farther north in the state.

So when it -- when, ultimately, two days later, and we realized that it was going to be Fort Myers area for landfall and the storm was reaching Category 4 status, we -- it was -- you get a very eerie feeling about that.

I have worked storms for many, many years, and one like this makes you really wonder if your home is going to be there when you finish work that day. With 140 mile-an-hour winds, it's hard to imagine exactly what that does to a structure. But it is as though a bomb has been dropped.

CABRERA: Do people in your county, Sanibel and beyond, still need rescuing?

DESJARLAIS: They do.

The causeway on the way to Sanibel, the bridge is breached in five areas. So, Sanibel is not accessible by ground vehicle. So we are right now doing rescue operations with boats and from the air. Same thing with Pine Island. The roads to Pine island were completely washed out and bridges destroyed.

And so we are -- it is slow-going. But the search-and-rescue operation has been under way since just about daybreak yesterday. But it is slow-going.

CABRERA: A member of the Cajun Navy told our Bill Weir there in Sanibel specifically that he worries that hundreds of people may be dead and haven't even been discovered yet. Do you worry that's possible? Do you know any more about lives loss that you can share?

DESJARLAIS: I can't verify numbers of fatalities.

But, yes, I am worried. When you take a look at these buildings or where the buildings were at one time, and you see that it's a pile of rubble, and we also know that not as many people evacuated from those islands as we had hoped for.

[13:20:00]

We know there has to be many fatalities yet to be accounted for.

CABRERA: Roger Desjarlais, the Lee County manager, thank you so much for joining us. My heart is with you. And I know I speak on behalf of so many people that we are wishing you the very best in the recovery ahead.

DESJARLAIS: Thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

CABRERA: We appreciate yours. Thank you, and good luck.

We will come back to our hurricane coverage in just a moment.

But, right now, we want to focus on tough questions aimed at the NFL today over an injury to Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is about to join us with an exclusive live interview with the NFL's top doctor.

But, first, let me just bring you up to speed. Last night, Tagovailoa suffered neck and head injuries when he was slammed to the ground. He had to be carted off the field on a stretcher. Now, the Dolphins later confirmed he did suffer a concussion.

But many, including NFL players, are publicly questioning whether he should have been on the field at all. Just four days earlier, on Sunday, remember this? His head slammed into the turf. He gets up, he's wobbly. But he apparently cleared a concussion checkup and he did return to Sunday's game and again was back on the field last night. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with his

exclusive interview.

Sanjay, take it away.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, thank you so much.

And we are joined by Dr. Allen Sills, who's the chief medical officer for the NFL. And Dr. Sills joins us from London.

Good to see you, sir.

We're both neurosurgeons. We have worked together in the past. We know each other well. I just wanted to put that out there.

But let me just start with where Ana left off, Allen. You saw what happened on Sunday with that. And we can show that footage again. He -- Tua has his head sort of really slammed hard back onto the turf. A little bit later, he gets up and has some difficulty walking.

And I remember being concerned about that at the time. Just what was your observation when you saw that?

DR. ALLEN SILLS, NFL CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Well, I think, first and foremost, it's important to say that any time we have a situation like this, we go back and do a very thorough review of everything associated with the situation.

So we want to go back and look at the video. We go back and look at the medical reports. And we, the NFL and the NFL Players Association, their medical leadership, will be speaking with everyone involved. So that means the team athletic trainer, the team physician, and our independent neuro expert who was involved in assessing the player, the spotter in the booth and the independent neuro doctor in the booth, and obviously the patient themselves.

So all of that is under way. We have been doing that already this week. And that work will continue. And, when we finish that review, Sanjay, we will be very transparent and very open about what we learn from that and exactly what the sequence of events are. So we're still in the process of that.

And that's not unlike something that you and I know about in our work as neurosurgeons. You know that we frequently go back, whenever we have an unexpected outcome, and have a review of those cases. We call it a morbidity, mortality and improvement conference. And that's exactly the approach we take here, is to go back and look at every aspect of this and see, what can we learn and were there any deviations or violations?

And, most importantly, what can we improve upon going forward?

GUPTA: The thing about these games, Dr. Sills, that we -- and everyone is seeing this -- obviously, they don't have the same access as you're talking about the physicians who examined Tua after this. But when you see this, and you're chief medical officer, you see this

sort of thing, and then you see what happens afterwards, where he's clearly having difficulty there just with his motor function. There are these no go signs when it comes to these concussion protocols, no go, meaning not going to be allowed to return to the field, loss of consciousness, an obvious one, confusion, amnesia.

But that second one, gross motor instability, I mean, he was having trouble, Allen, just walking around after that. And just in terms of giving people some confidence, because he returned to that game, that same game where you saw that, did that surprise you, as chief medical officer?

SILLS: Well, as I said, we're still reviewing this very carefully.

But I think one of the things important to realize, gross motor instability, in the protocol, is a no go sign if it's determined it's from a neurologic cause. And so we have seen situations in the past, Sanjay, where gross motor instability clearly did have a neurologic cause. We have also seen situations in the past where, on video, it looked like it was neurologic, but it turned out not to be a neurologic cause.

There was an orthopedic cause. There was a famous case a couple of years back of a quarterback who voluntarily fell to the ground because he was told to do so from the sidelines. So, I think that's very hard to judge from video alone.

But, again, we're going back and talking to everyone involved in understanding that decision-making process. One other thing that I think is really important to point out here, this decision is not made by one person. So it's not the team doctor only who is -- who's involved in the evaluation.

There is an independent neuro expert on the sideline. That's a person who is an expert in brain and spinal trauma, people just like you and me who have this training, who are very familiar with our protocol. And they are involved in going through that evaluation with the team physician and offering an opinion about the patient.

[13:25:12]

So this decision has never come down to just one individual. And there's both the team physician and then this independent practitioner who's involved in this decision-making at the time of the injury.

GUPTA: OK. All right. Fair enough.

We would really like to hear what the outcome of those evaluations are when you review this.

Four days later, he's back on the field, Tua. And a lot of people seeing this video. We can show it again. It's hard to watch, frankly. But when he is thrown down, and then, within a little bit of time after that, you see what is happening to his hands in this particular situation. He's flexing his forearms. His fingers are extended. You and I both know this can be a sign of a significant disruption to

the -- to these particular tracks between the brain and the spinal cord, very concerning. And I can show you this. It's called fencing response. This is what it looks like. When someone falls, they might get a brain injury from the fall. And then their arms actually do this posture that you see there.

You watched this video. How concerned were you?

SILLS: Well, of course, I'm concerned.

Just like you, as a neurosurgeon, any time you see someone with a significant injury and with neurologic signs like that, it's very concerning. And your immediate thought goes to that patient, to their family, to everyone involved and to making sure that, in the moment, we do everything we can to provide the most expert and timely care and take care of all the things that we need to do, which includes securing the airway, making sure there's not a spine injury, and so on and so forth.

So I'm concerned about that injury, and also all of these injuries that we have. And, Sanjay, make no mistake about it. We will get this right. We will get this right, in the sense of going back and reviewing very carefully all of the steps that led to the sequence of events that you described. We will also take a very critical look at our own protocols and these definitions and the points that you mentioned.

And we will be very transparent about the outcome of that. I think that you have seen us do that over the past several years. We're very intentional about the fact that we want to have the best-in-class care for our athletes. We want to always make the best diagnosis, to get it right, to give the best care for patients, and to keep them safe.

And that will be no different in this situation moving forward.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, it's tough, I imagine. Players want to play. I was surprised that he came back to play, I will be honest with you, last Sunday.

And then, yesterday, that was obviously a tough, tough thing to watch, especially given that there can be something known as second impact syndrome, where, if you have had a concussion, you're allowed to play and you get another one, it can be exponentially worse. So, that's obviously a concern.

A lot of players, though, worried. You're hearing, I'm sure, from a lot of players, saying, are these protocols working? Are they doing enough to keep us safe?

What would you say to that? How do you sort of allay the anxiety of people out there who say, this is brutal, and could some of this have been prevented for him?

SILLS: Well, I think, first of all, I am our harshest critic, I believe, meaning that I look at all of our data and all of our outcomes with the most critical lens and trying to see how we can improve and, as I said, be the best in the world at making these diagnoses and keeping players safe.

I think it's important to recognize, though, it's not a one-person effort. We have a group of experts called our Head, Neck and Spine Committee who are brain and spine trauma experts. They're not affiliated, in most cases, with teams. They're people that are outside the NFL.

They come together every year. They review our protocols. They review our data. They review our outcomes. And they help us look for ways that we can improve and get better on these evaluations and do a better job with diagnosis and management.

So, we are our own worst critics. And we will continue to be critical of ourselves and look for those opportunities to improve. And I think you have seen over the past couple years, again, we have done that in a very transparent manner. We evaluate three or four players who don't have concussions for every one that we diagnose.

We intentionally want to cast a very wide net on game day. There are about 1 percent of players who get evaluated on game day and are cleared and later show up with a concussion in the following week. Now, again, I want that number to be zero, but we have driven that number down to a very low rate.

And, again, we try to use every one of these situations as a learning opportunity, as an opportunity to get better, and, again, to do that in a very transparent manner.

And so we do that collaboratively with the Players Association and their medical advisers. And that's exactly the process that will go on here.

GUPTA: All right, Dr. Sills, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate you talking to us.

Sometimes, it's tough to get some of these answers. And please come back and talk to us when you get a review of what happened with Tua specifically or any updates. Appreciate your time.

SILLS: Thanks for having me, Sanjay.

GUPTA: You got it -- Ana, back over to you.

CABRERA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for that interview.

And we just heard the chief medical officer of the NFL saying: "We will get this right." So, we will keep watching as they do that review.

We are staying on top of all the headlines on Hurricane Ian, the storm now set to make its second landfall in South Carolina. These are live images, meantime, in Florida, a state still reeling. You can see live water rescues under way