Football Player Dies During Game; Oil Could be on the Ocean Floor
HOLMES: About ten minutes to the top of the hour now. The town of West Orange, Texas in a state of shock this morning after the star quarterback of the local high school football team collapsed and died during last night's game. His name is Reginald Garrett. He collapsed on the team's sideline shortly after throwing his second touchdown pass. He was rushed to an area hospital. Hundreds of fans, teammates, friends, everybody gathered there. A short time ago, I spoke with the hospital supervisor Susan Courtney who was there when he was brought in. This wasn't just another patient to her. She knew this young man personally like so many other people in town did.</s>SUSAN COURTNEY, BAPTIST HOSPITAL: The paramedics did everything possible in the field. We did -- we worked with him for well over an hour. And we did everything possible, including our physician getting on the line to a local cardiologist to see if there was anything else we could do, but we simply couldn't get a heartbeat back.</s>HOLMES: What was that hospital like? And was it full of people at the time when -- just trying to check on him.</s>COURTNEY: His family was all there, of course, and it was very devastating and lots of crying. But then shortly after the game ended, the -- my parking lot completely filled with people. The waiting room was full, the parking lot was full. There was cheerleaders, there was band members, all the coaches were there. It was just the entire community. Like the entire football stadium came to the hospital to check on him. We were trying our best to give them good news and comfort them, but it was -- it was impossible.</s>HOLMES: And Courtney went on to add that Garrett was a senior, a straight-A student at West Orange Stark High School and was being courted by a number of colleges. And this morning, as well, we shared the story and had that interview on -- certainly an emotional interview earlier. A lot of people were responding about it. But one of the responses I received was from a lady named Trina Moore. When I thanked her for writing in, she appreciated that we even did the story. But going to her Twitter page and watching her timeline shows that she was at that game last night when the young man collapsed. I want to share it with you here now. Again from Trina Moore who was at the game. And 12 hours ago her first tweet, we can show you here, said that she was at the game, getting ready -- it's the one at the bottom there -- but at the game, getting ready to watch those Mustangs play. A short time later she gave an update on the score saying West Orange up 14-0. The next message said West Orange up 21-0, but a player just passed out on the sideline, pray he's OK. And then her last tweet from last night saying, "Horrible news: our starting high school quarterback collapsed on the sideline and died. Rest in peace Reggie Garrett." A young man that everyone in town knew, understand he was going to be going to college to play football. But again, nobody knows why this happened just yet. According to the nurse we talked to over the phone, she had no idea and they had no idea about any medical history that would've affected him. But a young man -- a strong young man, football player, healthy by all accounts, collapsed and died last night. Well, we'll turn now back to the Gulf. Back to the Gulf of Mexico where BP says it should have its broken oil well permanently sealed later today. That will end one phase of a nearly five-month- long public relations debacle and environmental disaster. But people are still wondering where exactly did all of that oil go? Here now, CNN's Brian Todd.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A deep water CSI in the Gulf and a potentially ominous finding. Researchers discover what they say is a substantial layer of oil in the sediment in areas near the Deepwater Horizon spill. The team led by a University of Georgia marine science professor canvassed an area as close as two miles from the well head and as far away as about 80 miles. In several samples from the sea floor, they found concentrations of oil seeping as much as 2 inches into the sediment. (on camera): We're going to go to the source of this new finding. We're going to speak to Dr. Samantha Joye on a research vessel about 10 miles south, about 25 nautical miles east of the well head. She's on the research vessel, the Oceanus, we're going to call that right now. (voice-over): I asked Joye about other scientists who question her findings, including those who say so much oil seeps into the Gulf naturally every year that some of this might not even be from the Deepwater Horizon spill.</s>SAMUEL WALKER SR., NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN: There's spillage from other vessels, there's leakage from pipelines. There's all sorts of things like that and so to find oil in the Gulf of Mexico either in its sediments or in the water column is not an unusual thing.</s>TODD (on camera): How do you come to believe that the oil you found is from the Gulf oil spill in the BP situation?</s>SAMANTHA JOYE, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA RESEARCHER: We have samples that were collected in May, early in May on</s>TODD (voice-over): Joye concedes they won't know for sure that this water is from the Deepwater Horizon spill until they chemically fingerprint it when they get back to their labs. Joye discovered dead organisms underneath the oily sediment and worries about marine life that would feed off those organisms. (on camera): What kinds of organisms are exposed to this oil?</s>JOYE: Well, anything that -- anything that forages at the bottom. I mean any fish, any invertebrate, any squid, octopus, anything that is going to the bottom looking for food is going to be exposed to the material.</s>TODD: Then Joye says that could deprive other fish up the chain from a healthy food source. An official with NOAA tells CNN this finding does not necessarily contradict a government study issued last month saying about 75 percent of the oil from the spill was either captured, evaporated naturally, or dispersed into the water column in microscopic droplets. The official says the oil in these samples could be part of the 25 percent that got away. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.</s>HOLMES: Well, as the numbers showed this week, more and more Americans are living in poverty. Some of the numbers considered shocking. We're going to share those with you at the top of the hour. Plus we're taking a closer look at what can be done to get Americans out of poverty. We're just a few minutes to the top of the hour.