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CNN Live At Daybreak

Arbogast Returns Home

Aired August 13, 2001 - 07:05   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: In other news this morning, Jessie Arbogast is sleeping in his own bed this morning. His doctor says that is nothing short of a miracle.

An ambulance drove Jessie the two-hour drive from a Pensacola, Florida hospital to his Ocean Springs, Mississippi home. The eight- year-old boy had been hospitalized for more than five weeks after being attacked by a shark.

Though Jessie is out of the hospital, his prospects for recovery still are not known. And for more on that now we are joined by CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, what are the obstacles facing Jessie as he begins his recovery at home?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, he certainly had a remarkable story up until now. And it may continue to be remarkable, but there are going to be significant obstacles.

Certainly he is sort of having stroke-like symptoms, Brian. That is probably from the extreme blood loss that he had at the time of the incident. The blood certainly came out of his body, and subsequently he underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation and -- I'm sorry -- cardiopulmonary resuscitation. And a lot of that blood flow that should have gone to his brain was not going to his brain as the result of that.

NELSON: Is there still danger of brain damage?

GUPTA: There probably has been some brain damage. In fact, his doctors just yesterday were talking a little bit about that upon his departure to home.

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DR. TIM LIVINGSTON, PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGIST: Medically, it's difficult to determine exactly how much of a recovery he will have from this point on. And it may take a period of six months or up to a year to really know exactly how much recovery you will have.

DR. ROBERT PATTERSON, INTENSIVE CARE SPECIALIST: Jessie will continue to receive home nursing at home at first almost 24 hours a day. And as the family is able to sort of transition into a schedule that they can manage, then that will be tapered as Jessie's condition allows.

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GUPTA: And what they're talking about as well, Brian, is that they keep describing him as being in a light coma. And they actually give a medical score to the type of coma that you're in. And from talking to his doctors and stuff and hearing how they are describing his condition now, if the top score is a 15 and the bottom score is a 3, he is somewhere around an 11 or a 12 maybe. So it's certainly not perfect. He is not obeying commands, for example.

NELSON: Right.

GUPTA: So if you tell him to actually lift his arm, he won't do that. But he will move his arms spontaneously. He is actually not communicating as of yet, but he is muttering speech. So we will have to wait and see how much he returns.

NELSON: And what about that arm of his? As he goes through his recovery, is he going to be able to regain full use of his arm?

GUPTA: Well, that is also a sort of wait-and-see thing. And what they usually say is that it can be up to two years before you will know how much function he'll get back out of that arm. You know, the arm seems to have taken well to the operation - to the replantation, which was a remarkable operation. But, you know, to see if he gets some of that fine movement back, and even some of the stronger movement in his upper arm, we'll have to wait and see.

NELSON: Yes, and Jessie still has got a long way to go.

GUPTA: He really does.

NELSON: Thank you, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

GUPTA: Thank you.

NELSON: Appreciate you being here.

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