Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Dead for 30 Seconds

Aired October 15, 2003 - 09:40   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy fights for his life in a Las Vegas hospital, the New York post quotes a friend of Horn's as saying that the entertainer was dead for 30 seconds before reaching the hospital after he was attacked onstage by a tiger. Is that possible?
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with answers this morning.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

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

Well, first of all, it's probably not possible. But the definition of death is sort of an interesting thing, and it's changed a lot over the last 250 years. It used to be that people would just hold a mirror up to someone's nose and if it didn't fog up anymore, they'd declare that person dead.

Let's take a look at the history of death over the last several years. It was long assumed that death was when the heart stopped functioning. That's not entirely true anymore, and I'm going to tell you why, because in the 20th century, they started to see the advent of defibrillators, respirators, organ transplants. In 1965, it made it that brain death was coined as the reason that someone would actually be dead. In 1981, that was actually by virtue of a president's commission defined as cessation of blood flow to the brain, lack of respiration and loss of full brain.

So to put it more succinctly, if you're trying to define death specifically, it's the absence of life, where all the vital organs stop working.

But the key here, and the reason that Roy could not be called dead for 30 seconds is that all of this must be irreversible. Obviously in the case of Roy it was reversible. So not dead for 30 seconds. That wouldn't be the right way of saying it.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, there's a report out of "The New York Daily News" this morning that said doctors in order to save Roy Horn cut a piece out of his skull and then stored it in his stomach. Is that possible?

GUPTA: Actually, it is. And what happens here specifically, sometimes one of the biggest concerns is brain swelling. So if you're concerned about brain swelling, what surgeons, neurosurgeons, will sometimes do is actually remove part of the skull so that the brain is allowed to swell without being encapsulated by the bone itself. And then that bone is not actually put in the stomach, but rather in the abdominal cavity. That's an area that is well vascularized, that's an area where the skull can remain sterile as well, and the goal is to actually put that skull back at some point when the swelling is diminished.

So this is possible. I haven't heard these things necessarily yet. But those are things that are not uncommonly done in neurosurgery.

O'BRIEN: It sounds pretty shocking to me. Why would you want to put that in someone's abdominal cavity, as opposed to, I don't know, putting it in some kind of petri dish and leaving it on the side until it's ready to be returned to the skull?

GUPTA: There's a few things, and people do not always put them in the abdominal cavity. as well, But the abdominal cavity, it's a well-vascularized space. You really want to prevent the bone from drying out at all. If it dries out, it shrinks to some extent, and then it won't fit as well, quite honestly, when you're trying to put it back. And there's a lot of blood supply there, as well. So it keeps that bone a little bit healthier. That's just one trick that surgeons have come up with over the years. It's not the only way to do it, but if neurosurgeons do that around the country, that's not unusual.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, do we have time to talk about the new you project? How do I get to be part of that?

GUPTA: You want to be part of it?

O'BRIEN: Sure.

GUPTA: You can have and in for sure. But for the viewers at home, if you're interested in making some lifestyle changes that could ultimately lead to a healthier and longer life, and who doesn't, then CNN wants to help you. We're looking for four regular folks, men and women. You have to be 21 or older and we want you to participate in an eight-week program that could make you healthier. So if you'd like to be a part of CNN's "New You" resolution, that's what we're calling it, sign up on our Web site, that's at CNN.com/am.

Incidentally, it's going to begin on January 5th. So just in time for all those New Year's resolutions. It's going to air Tuesdays on this show with Soledad and Bill on AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: You have to be 21 or old.

GUPTA: Excited about it.

O'BRIEN: You know what, I just missed that deadline. Darn. Maybe in a couple of years.

Sanjay, as always, thanks so much.

GUPTA: Take care, Soledad. Bye-bye.

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






Aired October 15, 2003 - 09:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy fights for his life in a Las Vegas hospital, the New York post quotes a friend of Horn's as saying that the entertainer was dead for 30 seconds before reaching the hospital after he was attacked onstage by a tiger. Is that possible?
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center with answers this morning.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

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

Well, first of all, it's probably not possible. But the definition of death is sort of an interesting thing, and it's changed a lot over the last 250 years. It used to be that people would just hold a mirror up to someone's nose and if it didn't fog up anymore, they'd declare that person dead.

Let's take a look at the history of death over the last several years. It was long assumed that death was when the heart stopped functioning. That's not entirely true anymore, and I'm going to tell you why, because in the 20th century, they started to see the advent of defibrillators, respirators, organ transplants. In 1965, it made it that brain death was coined as the reason that someone would actually be dead. In 1981, that was actually by virtue of a president's commission defined as cessation of blood flow to the brain, lack of respiration and loss of full brain.

So to put it more succinctly, if you're trying to define death specifically, it's the absence of life, where all the vital organs stop working.

But the key here, and the reason that Roy could not be called dead for 30 seconds is that all of this must be irreversible. Obviously in the case of Roy it was reversible. So not dead for 30 seconds. That wouldn't be the right way of saying it.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, there's a report out of "The New York Daily News" this morning that said doctors in order to save Roy Horn cut a piece out of his skull and then stored it in his stomach. Is that possible?

GUPTA: Actually, it is. And what happens here specifically, sometimes one of the biggest concerns is brain swelling. So if you're concerned about brain swelling, what surgeons, neurosurgeons, will sometimes do is actually remove part of the skull so that the brain is allowed to swell without being encapsulated by the bone itself. And then that bone is not actually put in the stomach, but rather in the abdominal cavity. That's an area that is well vascularized, that's an area where the skull can remain sterile as well, and the goal is to actually put that skull back at some point when the swelling is diminished.

So this is possible. I haven't heard these things necessarily yet. But those are things that are not uncommonly done in neurosurgery.

O'BRIEN: It sounds pretty shocking to me. Why would you want to put that in someone's abdominal cavity, as opposed to, I don't know, putting it in some kind of petri dish and leaving it on the side until it's ready to be returned to the skull?

GUPTA: There's a few things, and people do not always put them in the abdominal cavity. as well, But the abdominal cavity, it's a well-vascularized space. You really want to prevent the bone from drying out at all. If it dries out, it shrinks to some extent, and then it won't fit as well, quite honestly, when you're trying to put it back. And there's a lot of blood supply there, as well. So it keeps that bone a little bit healthier. That's just one trick that surgeons have come up with over the years. It's not the only way to do it, but if neurosurgeons do that around the country, that's not unusual.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, do we have time to talk about the new you project? How do I get to be part of that?

GUPTA: You want to be part of it?

O'BRIEN: Sure.

GUPTA: You can have and in for sure. But for the viewers at home, if you're interested in making some lifestyle changes that could ultimately lead to a healthier and longer life, and who doesn't, then CNN wants to help you. We're looking for four regular folks, men and women. You have to be 21 or older and we want you to participate in an eight-week program that could make you healthier. So if you'd like to be a part of CNN's "New You" resolution, that's what we're calling it, sign up on our Web site, that's at CNN.com/am.

Incidentally, it's going to begin on January 5th. So just in time for all those New Year's resolutions. It's going to air Tuesdays on this show with Soledad and Bill on AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: You have to be 21 or old.

GUPTA: Excited about it.

O'BRIEN: You know what, I just missed that deadline. Darn. Maybe in a couple of years.

Sanjay, as always, thanks so much.

GUPTA: Take care, Soledad. Bye-bye.

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