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American Morning

Doctors More Optimistic About Survival of 8-Year-Old Shark Attack Victim

Aired July 10, 2001 - 10:22   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 CORRESPONDENT: It's a story about another child, too. With each passing hour, doctors grow more optimistic about the survival of an 8-year-old shark attack victim. It's been almost four days now since doctors reattached Jessie Arbogast's arm after his life-threatening encounter with a bull shark. But the boy faces at least one more critical hurdle in his recovery.

And for the latest now, let's go to CNN's Brian Cabell, who's in Pensacola, Florida -- good morning, Brian. How is Jessie doing?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessie's doing fairly well. He had a stable night last night. He's going to undergo dialysis again today. But the doctors say his arm is doing well, his leg is doing well. The arm was reattached between his shoulder and his elbow. They say that's doing very well. He should get full function out of that. But he'll have a lot of rehabilitation in the months and years ahead.

His leg, he will probably walk with a limp. His other organs, some of them are doing well, some not so well. His kidneys, of course, are failing, but they're hopeful about that. The brain is the big concern, though, Brian. They're concerned about brain damage that he may have already suffered. They don't know about that quite yet. And they're also worried about swelling of the brain. If his brain swells, and it has not very much so far, but if it does swell in the next couple of days, that literally could kill him. So the doctors are watching that very carefully.

But right now he's resting, he's stable and he's unconscious.

NELSON: Brian, a question for you. Is Jessie conscious and has he been talking to anyone?

CABELL: They say he's in a state of depressed consciousness. He opens his eyes from time to time. He blinks his eyes. They're not sure whether he's fully conscious of what's going on. He is certainly not talking at this point. He is irritable sometimes. He will react to pain at times. So we asked him yesterday, is he comatose? They said well, he's perhaps a little bit comatose. They say that, the one term they used was a depressed state of consciousness. He's somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness.

NELSON: And tell us a little bit about his relatives, his parents and that. How are they coping with this?

CABELL: The parents, we're told, had their best night last night. They finally got some rest. They have been here ever since Friday night, as you might expect. They are not talking to the media, as you might understand. The uncle and the aunt, who have been portrayed as heroes because they were the ones on the beach that night, the aunt was the one giving the CPR, the uncle was the one who rescued him from the water and wrested the shark out of the water, as well, they truly were heroic in their efforts, but they have stayed out of the media, too, because, after all, their nephew is upstairs fighting for his life right now.

NELSON: All right, thank you, CNN's Brian Cabell. We'll keep our fingers crossed for that young boy.

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