Lessons Learned from Moore Tornado; Face Blindness Examined
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What a terrifying week in Oklahoma. The question is what are the lessons learned going forward. Today I'm going to be talking to a doctor whose fast thinking saved dozens of her patients from a tornado. And what to make of Jodi Arias. A psychologist who has worked on more than 60 death penalty cases flagged something for us. And he says her "performance", quote-unquote "was as strange as anything you've ever seen." And Coca-Cola, they say they're in the healthy lifestyle game. The chairman and CEO agreed to answer my questions. First up, Oklahoma. You know the destruction I saw there was as complete as anything you might imagine. And I have seen disasters all over the world. The damage here was just so widespread. But although more than 2,000 people live in the exact path of the storm, 24 died; part of it was good warning. The alarms came in 16 minutes before the tornado hit and part of it was also knowing what to do. So I want you to watch this and maybe even grab a pencil and learn how now to protect yourself.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jump in when you guys are ready.</s>GUPTA: Thirteen minutes: that's the average lead time you'd have if a tornado was headed your way. There's obviously no completely safe option during a tornado. Your best bet is to get into the basement somewhere below ground level. But keep in mind that if you are there, you want to see what's on the floor above you as well. A refrigerator, a piece of heavy furniture could come crashing through the floor, so you want to be wary of that. Also here in Moore, Oklahoma, not a lot of basements. Studies have actually shown that there is another very good option. Take a look over here. An interior room or a closet like that can be the best place to be as well. The house is gone here, but that closet, preserved, even the clothes inside of that. Remember, just got 13 minutes. So find that safe place. Maybe grab a helmet or a bike helmet. Even throw some mattresses or a blanket over you to try to and protect the head. One place you can't hide from a tornado is in your car. Tornado strength winds can pick up a one- to two-ton vehicle like this one and toss it around like you or I would a basketball. Now you obviously don't want to be driving toward a tornado, but it's also a bad idea to be driving away from a tornado. It's hard to gauge the distance. If you must be driving, and the weather is clear, try driving at right angles to the tornado, perpendicular to get out of the path of the storm. There's another misconception as well, which is that you should get out of your car and run underneath an overpass. What happens in a situation like this is the wind is actually funneled. It's even more powerful than the storm and there's also a lot of debris. And that debris can injure you. Now if you are stuck outside as a tornado approaches, find a ditch or any place far away from potentially dangerous objects and vehicles and stay low. Something else interesting that I learned, when tornadoes hit, typically half the injuries occur after the storm has already passed. As you might imagine, hazards range from downed and hidden power lines to unstable debris, sharp objects. And I can also tell you, no one is immune. In fact, this week when I was talking to the fire chief in Moore, Oklahoma, he had just stepped on a nail himself that went right into his foot. Something else, Moore Medical Center, I spent a lot of time there, take a look at this map. It's right in the middle of the map at the top there of that hurricane pathway. It's an important hospital in town. It was also squarely in the middle of that storm. And at the time of the storm, there were 30 patients there who had no choice but to hunker down and hope for the best. Dr. Stephanie Barnhart was in charge of the ER when this all happened.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): On Monday afternoon, 34-year-old ER doctor Stephanie Barnhart had been watching the weather alerts. Growing up in Oklahoma, she knew tornado warnings were common for this time of year. But this one felt different to her.</s>GUPTA: When did you recognize there was a problem?</s>DR. STEPHANIE BARNHART, MOORE MEDICAL CENTER: Well, we had a very good alert system. The hospital was giving us these what they call Code Black warnings. So we knew that, one, that there was a possibility of a tornado. Then they gave us another alert that there was one. And then the final alert was one is nearby.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's not on the ground, it's very close to it.</s>BARNHART: Yes, you could definitely see that this is a developing situation, a developing tornado. There you go. You see it? There you see it, now it's on the ground. We all had to make the decision to go back into another area of the hospital, which is what we call our fast track or clinic area. And that is in the center of the hospital. We knew that the TV -- there was a TV back there that we were watching and it was within a couple of miles and the power went out. And at that time we knew that it was -- we were hearing it and we knew that it was coming for us. This is the Moore Medical Building. If you look at that, it looks like it has just been bombed out.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): The tornado hit Moore Medical head-on, and as it ripped through the building, Barnhart's team and the hospital's 30 patients used mattresses to protect themselves from falling debris.</s>GUPTA: Did you have any idea how bad this was going to be? I mean it literally ripped a floor off of your hospital.</s>BARNHART: Even until now when I got home, like I still didn't even have any, you know, I had no idea what it was like. Not until we stepped out of the hospital, that I even saw, you know, across the way was a bowling alley that was to pieces.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): Because of Barnhart's quick thinking, not a single person was hurt. And seeing the extensive damage here, that's hard to believe.</s>BARNHART: I just can't believe we walked out.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): People have written to thank Barnhart. But she says she doesn't feel like she deserves the credit.</s>GUPTA: Everyone keeps asking when they look at these images, how is it possible that nobody got hurt in there?</s>BARNHART: Someone had to make the decision to move. And I guess that was me. But I don't want to take any credit for this by any means. Like I know that you know, it was God that was with us and we were protected. When I walk out of that place where we were, it was boarded by two sets of double doors. And one ceiling tile was it that was damaged. And then, you know, we walk out and I see the rest of the hospital. I'm just -- I'm amazed. I can't even feel just how blessed we are that we walked out.</s>GUPTA: And to find out what you can do to help victims of the Oklahoma tornado, log on to CNN.com/impact. Now also this week you may have seen this: actor Brad Pitt told "Esquire" magazine that he's so terrible at remembering faces that he wants to be tested to see if, in fact, he has a condition known as face blindness. This may sound odd to you, but I can tell you it's a real disorder. I fact, I had the chance to explore this with a famous neurologist, Dr. Oliver Sacks, who himself suffers from severe face blindness.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): Oliver Sacks may be a world-famous neurologist. But there's one simple thing, something important, something most of us take for granted that he can barely do at all, that's to recognize a face, even a famous one.</s>DR. OLIVER SACKS, NEUROLOGIST: This one. Soft focus. The owner of this face is looking tough. But I don't know who it is. Sometimes I fail to recognize myself.</s>GUPTA: Even yourself?</s>SACKS: Yes, I have occasionally started apologizing to a clumsy bearded man, only to realize that this is a mirror.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): He's face-blind. It's a rare and incurable condition that he's had since birth. Sacks suspects it's genetic, since his brother suffers from the same condition. He can see each facial feature just fine, but putting it all together, that's the problem.</s>GUPTA: How about this picture?</s>SACKS: That is very beautiful, a model or an actress. Well, I suppose one thinks of Marilyn Monroe.</s>GUPTA: You're looking at me right now. Can you describe what you're seeing?</s>SACKS: You have very beautiful white teeth. So I would recognize you especially by your teeth.</s>GUPTA (voice-over): You see, he finds a way, a way to adapt.</s>SACKS: I mean now I've outed myself about face blindness. It makes it easier.</s>GUPTA: Would you want to be cured of this if you could?</s>SACKS: I think so. I think if I was suddenly presented with thousands of familiar, potentially familiar faces, I think this might overwhelm me.</s>GUPTA: Let me give you a quick word of explanation. Let me show you on this brain model. This is the front of the brain over here and this is the back of the brain. What happens is the visual system of the brain begins here in the back called the occipital lobe. That collects all sorts of various pieces of visual information and then sends it to a different region, the parietal part of the brain, where those pieces have to be turned into a coherent whole. In face blindness something goes wrong with that process of putting it all together. Hope that makes sense. Next up, another strange turn in the trial of Jodi Arias. What her statements to the court may say about her mental state.