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American Morning

Steps Hospital Might Take in Event of Nuclear Disaster

Aired June 11, 2002 - 08:38   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have been telling you about the suspected Al Qaeda member who allegedly plotted to detonate a so- called dirty bomb in the United States, and it is a bomb that would spread dangerous radioactive material over a wide area. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is standing by in Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta this morning to walk us through the steps that a hospital might have to take in the event of such a disaster.

Good morning, doctor.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

Yes, we're here actually in the decontamination room, a place where people would be brought immediately after such a disaster if it were to occur. But let's just sort of go over what would happen, first of all, at the site in terms of the health effects. Radiation experts like to think of three zones around the bomb -- outer zone, intermediate zone and inner zone.

People in the outer zone -- and that zone could be 100 feet away. It could be a few blocks away, depending on the strength of the explosives, how much radiation material it contains. If that were to happen, a radiation would actual given to the people, actually go down to the level of their cells, as you see here. And when it gets down to the level of the cells, it actually goes down into the nucleus. I'm not going to get too science-y here, but basically,it disrupts their DNA, and once their DNA is disrupted, that potentially effects all cells later on down the line.

So when they multiply, that could possibly lead to cancers, which is the biggest concern for the vast majority of people. Thyroid cancer, the most common cancer, could be treated with surgery or possibly prevented as we've heard about, Paula, with potassium iodide, if taken immediately before or after. Now people who are closer in might actually get something called radiation sickness. Radiation sickness, you hear of that, the vomiting and that sort of stuff, that's because the same radiation we're talking about can actually effect the intestines, if it gets down to the level of the intestines and actually affect things like bone marrow and things like that as well, decreasing your immunity.

The most serious case is certainly the people who are closest in to the level of exposure, and those people are going to be just penetrated with gamma radiation. That gamma radiation is the stuff that could potentially cause massive cellular shutdown, could potentially cause death. In any of those situations, these people are probably going to end up in a place like this. I'm here at the decontamination room at Crawford Long Hospital.

Dr. Jim Augustine, this is a place where people would possibly be brought. Let's take a step back. What happens at the scene, Dr. Augustine, of a potential radioactive bomb?

DR. JIM AUGUSTINE, CRAWFORD LONG HOSPITAL: An explosion occurs, dust comes up, people are nearby. They would be treated as quickly as possible on the scene by the fire department that would arrive first and begin their treatment, decontamination. They might be asked to take off their clothing there and to begin to wash off there.

GUPTA: One of the things I -- you don't know that it's happening; you don't know if it's radiation or if it's just a bomb. What will they do to assess that?

AUGUSTINE: They'll do field tests to see if there is radioactive material or any other dangerous material that's part of the bomb.

GUPTA: And so people are going to be running helter-skelter when something like this happens, right?

AUGUSTINE: Right.

GUPTA: What do you suggest that they do?

AUGUSTINE: I recommend if they're close to the blast, that they go immediately to a hospital. And at the hospital, they'll be greeted outside, which is different than our usual emergency department process.

GUPTA: Greeted outside because they're potentially contaminated.

AUGUSTINE: They're potentially contaminated, and potentially a danger to the hospital and to the staff.

GUPTA: OK, now I should point out, that door leads to the outside. So they're going to come in right in from that door, from the ambulance, into this room here. Describe what's going on in this room for us.

AUGUSTINE: Yes, this room is a decontamination room, which is set up with a variety of showers. We use warm water. We use a deluge system here to deluge somebody, who is standing up or able to stand up. We use a hand shower system to be able to shower off people who are laying down. We need to get the contamination off of them, whatever it is.

GUPTA: This is sort of an unusual room. You don't see this in all hospitals, is that right?

AUGUSTINE: That's correct. Some hospitals have been able to create decontamination rooms, but not all of them have it yet. GUPTA: OK, and so after the decontamination, the hosing down of radiation, they're taken into the hospital, and what happens then?

AUGUSTINE: We want to make sure they're clean first, so at all times, we might be checking them with a variety of testing devices, like Geiger counters, to know whether they have radioactive material still on them. We don't want them in the main hospital until they're clean. If they're burned or injured in association with that, that makes our job much quicker trying to decontaminate them.

GUPTA: Right, and Crawford Long is one of the hospitals that is becoming increasingly prepared like so many hospitals. Dr. Augustine said since October 17th when anthrax was released, people started to change the way they build these hospitals, the way they conduct health care here.

ZAHN: It sounds like this hospital has a pretty sophisticated setup? How well equipped are other hospitals across the country to deal with the scenario?

GUPTA: Right, and you know, that's one of the things, there aren't in hospitals that are well equipped yet. In fact, this hospital isn't even fully built yet. This is the decontamination room. They were prophetic enough to build this room in anticipation of things like that, but a lot of hospitals don't have these decontamination rooms yet, and aren't fully prepared, as Dr. Augustine told me.

ZAHN: Sorry to hear that. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for the update.

Important for us to understand all of this.

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