Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

How Age Will Affect Bob Hope's Recovery

Aired August 30, 2001 - 07:08   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.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get back to the health of Bob Hope and here to help us is CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- welcome to the set.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Thank you.

CELLINI: You're a busy man this week.

Mr. Hope hospitalized with what's being called a mild case of pneumonia. But is there such a thing for a man who's 98 years old?

GUPTA: That's right, and that's a very good question. When you get to be 98, a lot of changes do take place in your body, making you a little bit more susceptible to pneumonia. Some of those changes are your immune system doesn't work quite as well. So what might be a mild case in you or me, Vince, could actually be a quite more serious case in someone of that age.

The other thing is that your heart doesn't pump quite as well so fluid can, you know, it pumps blood from your lungs to the rest of your body. Fluid can actually build up in your lungs. That can be a place that bacteria can accumulate.

And finally, you know, you just don't cough as well. You don't clear your secretions. So all those things can make, again, what might be a mild case of pneumonia a little bit more serious.

Incidentally, about 1.2 million people a year are hospitalized every year for pneumonia and it can be quite serious, up to 40 percent of those people actually eventually succumbing to that, so.

CELLINI: Ordinarily, what are some treatment methods for such a case?

GUPTA: Well, usually what you need to do is you need to clear the infection. And if it's a bacterial pneumonia, you need to give antibiotics. If it's a viral pneumonia, you usually just have to supplement with oxygen and things like that to make sure that they're breathing OK during the time that their infection is clearing. In more serious cases, sometimes you have to actually put somebody on a breathing machine to take over their breathing for them.

CELLINI: Well, doctors say he could return home in just a few days. But what are some of the danger signs that I'm sure physicians are looking out for?

GUPTA: Right. The biggest one is that that infection that's in his lungs right now could spread to his whole body, Vince, and that would be something called sepsis. In someone of that age, that would be a very poor sign for his overall survival. That hasn't happened yet.

The second thing would be if it just isn't clearing from his lungs he may have difficulty breathing and subsequently require that breathing machine and, again, that would be sort of a serious thing, hard for him to get off of that.

CELLINI: All right, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you, Vince.

CELLINI: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for the information. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com