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CNN Live Today
Doctors Report Hopeful Signs in Randy McCloy's Recovery; Inside Spina Bifida
Aired January 09, 2006 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is new information about the recovery of the lone West Virginia coal miner to survive last week's underground explosion. The latest when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.
Also, you've seen the incredible pictures. Grass fires spreading across the Southwest. Now meet one of the victims. A man who had already lost so much in his life is now without his home.
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KAGAN: Doctors in West Virginia are reporting hopeful signs in the recovery of Randy McCloy, Jr. He is the sole survivor of last week's tragedy at the Sago Mine. McCloy's wife and other relatives have gathered at the Morgantown Hospital. That's where we also find CNN's Chris Huntington.
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CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Randy McCloy remains in critical condition, but doctors say he is stable. He has apparently developed a slight fever. The doctors underscore that that is normal and somewhat expected for a patient in intensive care for the duration that Randy has been. They'll do tests today to find out if that fever is in any way related to pneumonia.
Regarding Randy's neurological status, they're saying it's unchanged from what they've seen in the past couple of days. But they've stopped giving him the sedative that had been keeping him in a medically-induced coma. They stopped that sedative noon on Sunday. They do say, though, that it could take as many as four days for that sedative to completely pass from Randy's system. But the doctors provided more details as to the type of responses they are seeing from Randy right now.
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DR. JULIAN BAILES, DIRECTOR OF NEUROSURGERY: If you would give him a noxious stimuli, or something that he wouldn't like, he comes up to grab your hand. And that's a very important distinction. As you go deeper into a coma, a patient may not -- their brain doesn't even care that they're being stimulated. They're not trying to avoid that noxious stimuli. So that's a very important stage.
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HUNTINGTON: Doctors plan to put Randy through some paces of physical therapy today, moving his limbs in order to increase muscle tone and also bloodflow. As one doctor put it, when he wakes up, we want him ready to go.
Randy's wife Anna has been ever present at his bedside and has brought personal effects and some of his favorite music -- we're told it's Metallica -- into the room.
Reporting from Morgantown in West Virginia, Chris Huntington. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Thank you, Chris.
Funerals were held yesterday for half of the miners killed in the tragedy. Services for the six were mostly private affairs attended only by relatives, friends and the communities that have embraced the grieving family. Three more funerals are scheduled for today. Federal investigators spent the weekend at the mine site, searching for causes of the disaster.
We heard from CNN's David Mattingly just a little bit earlier, live from outside Children's Healthcare here in Atlanta. That is where Baby Noor, the Iraqi baby, is in surgery at this hour. That infant suffers from a severe case of spina bifida and doctors never expected her to survive this long.
We want to take a closer look at spina bifida, a condition that affects thousands of people. Here now, CNN's Kyra Phillips with a CNN "Fact Check."
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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Right now in the U.S., there are an estimated 70,000 people living with spina bifida. It is the most common permanently disabling birth defect.
The condition arises during the first month of fetal development, when the spinal column doesn't close completely. Sixty million women are at risk of having a baby born with spina bifida, and each day an average of eight babies are affected with the condition or a similar birth defect of the brain and spine.
The condition can be detected before birth through blood tests, ultrasound or amniocentesis The exact cause of spina bifida is unknown, but research has shown if women take folic acid every day before and after becoming pregnant, the risk of having a baby with spina bifida or another neural tube defect, is reduced by as much as 70 percent.
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KAGAN: And let's welcome in now someone with a unique perspective on the condition, Dr. Tim Brei, a developmental pediatrician in Indianapolis. He's with Riley Hospital for Children. He's on the board of the Spina Bifida Association. And on a personal note, Dr. Brei also has spina bifida.
Doctor, good morning. Thanks for being here with us.
DR. TIM BREI, SPINA BIFIDA ASSOCIATION: Thank you.
KAGAN: When you look at Baby Noor -- and I would understand that you haven't examined her, but what you know of her case -- what do you think her prognosis would be?
BREI: I would first like to say our hopes and thoughts are with Baby Noor and her family today. This is an extraordinary opportunity and we're pleased that it is happening. With regard to her prognosis, my hope is that her prognosis is the same as it is now for individuals and children with spina bifida in the United States. We hope that she can live a long and productive and full life.
KAGAN: I know there's concern, once she goes back to Iraq, about the kind of medical care she would get there and the kind of follow-up medical attention she would get. Does that concern you?
BREI: Yes, it does. At present, we do not have a cure for spina bifida, so the extraordinary surgery that she's undergoing today will not be curative. Individuals with spina bifida require ongoing medical care throughout the life span, and that will also be important for Baby Noor.
KAGAN: And besides what's happening with her back and with her spinal cord, we're hearing there's a good possibility she would need a shunt inserted in her brain. Why is that?
BREI: Related to the way the spinal cord and the brain are formed, extra fluid builds up in the brain in 80 to 90 percent of individuals with spina bifida. And those individuals require a shunt to drain that fluid so that pressure does not build up in the brain.
KAGAN: And then on a personal note, if you don't mind my asking, since you bring a first-hand perspective to spina bifida -- obviously you're a shining example that those with spina bifida can grow up to lead productive, wonderful lives.
BREI: Yes. I like to think that perhaps I can be an example to individuals that I meet and to the families that I help care for. But certainly, across the country, there are many individuals with spina bifida who are adults leading productive lives, who are married, who are having children of their own, who are in many professions, teachers, jobs and ownership of job owners, lawyers, teachers. The full gamut is available to individuals with spina bifida.
KAGAN: Well, thank you very much, Dr. Tim Brei, for telling us more about spina bifida. And if folks have more questions or more information, a Web site for your organization?
BREI: Yes, they can contact the Spina Bifida Association in two ways. The first is a Web site, which is www.sbaa.org. The other is a phone number, which is 1-800-944-3141.
KAGAN: Dr. Tim Brei, thank you for your time today. Appreciate it.
BREI: Thank you.
KAGAN: We'll be going out to California very soon. A rough ride for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. No problems riding a motorcycle in "The Terminator," but that wasn't the case yesterday, a serious accident involving him and his son.
And a tip for you: If you have rodent problems, call a professional. The homemade remedy that went up in smoke, ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.
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KAGAN: Not letting up. Grass fires, big one, popping up in more states. We'll survey the damage and find out from Jacqui Jeras if weather conditions just might help firefighters today.
And an Oklahoma man shares his emotional story as he tries to recover following a wildfire that took everything he owned.
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KAGAN: It is another dry day in the South Central states. Wildfires are burning across Colorado, Arkansas and Texas. At least 6,000 acres have burned in southern Colorado. The fires have forced hundreds to evacuate and at least five homes have been destroyed. In Arkansas, a 3,000-acre wildfire destroyed four homes and that was just one of 43 fires reported there on Sunday.
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KAGAN: Well, in Oklahoma over the last two months, wildfires have killed two people, burned more than 370,000 acres and destroyed more than 220 homes and businesses. Nearly three dozen are still burning. Our Jeanne Meserve is in Oklahoma, where a day of prayers puts those fire statistics into human terms.
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(MUSIC)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Oklahoma churches Sunday, a special prayer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want these fires to stop. We want the rains to come.
MESERVE: In this congregation, one man prays particularly hard. Eleven days ago, Warren Sullivan lost his home to a grass fire.
(on camera): Pray for rain? WARREN SULLIVAN, LOST HOME TO FIRE: You bet. I'd do a dance if you'd do any good.
MESERVE (voice-over): The drought left deep cracks in what used to be Sullivan's yard. The fire left charred relics.
SULLIVAN: I bought that little mower, oh, about three weeks ago. Now, Wal-Mart says that they'll take them back with no questions asked. And I wonder if I could find that sales slip, that they'd take that feller back.
MESERVE: Warren Sullivan wasn't home when his house went up. He couldn't save a thing -- no photos, no mementos. Seventy-five years of living gone in an instant.
SULLIVAN: I didn't really realize, you know, that it's all gone. I know it is. But it's up here.
MESERVE (on camera): So you still saved it?
SULLIVAN: Yeah, I got that. I got that.
MESERVE (voice-over): There is a lot for Sullivan to remember. Over the years, he has lost three of his children and his wife.
SULLIVAN: I thought of her, I'd like to have my wife here to kind of hold my hand through all of this, but then I'm kind of glad too that she wasn't here to witness it.
MESERVE: Members of his church have given him shelter and comfort, and confidence that this too shall pass.
SULLIVAN: I'm not stopped. I might be old, but I can still kick out of this. I think I'll get there.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Ardmore, Oklahoma.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Jeanne, thank you for the story. Definitely moving.
We're going to talk technology just ahead. A crying child calling while you're in a meeting or an angry boss calling you at home while you're reading to your kids. Cell phones can add tension to our lives. Ahead, the author of a new study tells us how she says she has proven that. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break.
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