Georgia Mayor takes Responsibility in Atlanta; Neurosurgeon Walks Miles to Operate
COOPER: Welcome back. Atlanta area schools will be closed again tomorrow, in part because they're still towing buses back to garages and cleaning facilities that were used as makeshift dormitories during the storm. Meantime, tow trucks also spent the day dealing with more than 2,000 private cars that were abandoned during the storm and traffic jam that followed. Now, in our "Keeping Them Honest" reporting last night, we highlighted how public officials failed to take the action or at least issue the kind of full throated warning that could have prevented a good deal of the misery. We also called the attention of the finger pointing and excuses that followed because "Keeping Them Honest" is about holding public servants accountable for bad public service. Conversely and all too rarely, "Keeping Them Honest" also means calling attention to public servants who get it right by accepting responsibility and accepting accountability. So tonight, we recognized Georgia's governor Nathan Deal who today got it right after first getting it very wrong. He first said the storm was unexpected when it was not. Then later, he tried to suggest the forecasting was unclear.</s>GOV. NATHAN DEAL, GEORGIA: I did not mean to imply that we didn't know something was coming. What I was referring to was, the national weather service had continually had their modeling showing that the city of Atlanta would not be the primary area where the storm would hit.</s>COOPER: Well, in fact, this forecast, which came out 12 full hours before things got bad was plain to see. So today Governor Deal was singing a very different tune.</s>DEAL: I want to start out by apologizing to those individuals who were stranded on our roadways, to those parents whose children were unable to return home in a timely fashion. I accept responsibility for the fact that we did not make preparation early enough to avoid these consequences. I'm not going to look for a scapegoat. I'm the governor. The buck stops with me. I accept the responsibility for it.</s>COOPER: I accept responsibility for it. That's what he said. And some really amazing when you think about how rarely we actually hear politicians say that. But for all the apologies, Atlanta is still face a big mess today and will again tonight, aiming thousands of cars, thousands of this morning still sat abandoned all around the Atlanta area. We have more on that now from Gary Tuchman.</s>GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Army National Guard Humbles in the streets and highways in an around Atlanta. It's emergency duty, as the military and police shuttle people back to the hundreds of cars that remain abandoned on roadways after the snow and isles of Tuesday.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of vehicle was it?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a 2008 grand prix.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's on Windy Ridge.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know if it's still there or not?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm not sure. It was yesterday. They're going to put you in a Humbee (ph) and take you out it to.</s>TUCHMAN: Many people have retrieved their cars on the road. Others have not because many roadways remain troches and icy. Jihan Johnston took the Humbee (ph) ride.</s>JIHAN JOHNSTON, ATLANTA RESIDENT: It was ice. My car was sliding backwards, and it just would not go.</s>TUCHMAN: She normally has a 40-minute ride from work to home. She spent 20 hours in her car.</s>JOHNSTON: It's a red Altima up the hill. By the track of trailers, it is red car on the left.</s>TUCHMAN: What made this debacle even worse in the Atlanta area is this is a very hilly region. There are many abandoned cars in this particular street. The reason? It's very steep and people were afraid they would end up in a crevice, like this one. And this is the street just west of Atlanta where Jihan's red car was. But her saga wasn't over yet. The battery was dead.</s>JOHNSTON: It won't start.</s>TUCHMAN: But a battery jump-start is part of the deal, too and it came quickly. As she let her engine warm up and prepared to go home. She told us what it was like trying to sleep in her car, afraid to abandon it in the middle of the night, afraid of keeping the heat on because of worries about carbon monoxide.</s>JOHNSTON: I was scared. I was petrified. I would turn my car on for five minutes then I would turn it off and just snuggle very closely with my blankets until I felt cold again and then start it up for another five minutes and then cut if off.</s>TUCHMAN: Like many Atlantans, Jihan says she'll try to avoid driving when snow is in the forecast. But she's driving now, home to her 5- year-old son.</s>COOPER: We're happy for her. Gary joins us now. Are there still a lot of abandoned vehicles on the road right now?</s>TUCHMAN: There's still a lot of abandoned vehicles on the highways around Atlanta, Anderson. The reason is that there's still icy patches on the road and a lot of people whose cars are on the highways are concerned about leaving their homes. \ And because of that, there is a whole new problem. You can see there's lots of traffic, lots of people who have come out right now. And because of the cars on the shoulders and in some cases lanes, there's a lot of danger that these people can hit those cars. So because of that, about 40 minutes from now at 9:00 eastern time, state police are going to start towing all the cars that remain on the highways. But the good news for the people that have their cars towed is the Atlanta police, the drug state police of the jurisdiction here say when you recover your car, when you go get it where it is impounded, you will not have to pay a dime for it. It will be free.</s>COOPER: That's good news. Gary, appreciate it. Thanks. My next guest may say that he was just doing his job. Don't believe it for just a minute. You are doing a lot more than that. There is nothing a neurosurgeon's job description that calls for walking nearly six miles in the cold wearing your scrubs, windbreaker and a pair of crocs to get your next procedure. Dr. Zenko Hrynkiw is in the Brookwood medical center in icy Birmingham, Alabama Tuesday morning when he learned he was needed to perform emergency brain surgery at another local hospital. Driving was impossible. The doctor set off on foot, did the surgery, saved a life and joins us tonight with this remarkable story. Doctor Zenko, so Tuesday morning you were trying to get to the hospital to perform emergency brain surgery. The snowstorm made it impossible to get there. What happened next?</s>DR. ZENKO HRYNKIW, NEUROSURGEON: Well, I just left my car on the side of the driveway. Rolled and walked down a big hill and started walking.</s>COOPER: How far away from the hospital were you?</s>HRYNKIW: Approximately anywhere between six or eight miles.</s>COOPER: You make it sound like it was an easy walk. I mean, six to eight miles, it's cold out, it is windy, hilly terrain. Were you dressed warmly?</s>HRYNKIW: No, I had my scrubs on and my lip-on shoes that I sued in the operating room, but I had a jacket.</s>COOPER: Wait, you had slip-on shoes and scrubs?</s>HRYNKIW: Yes.</s>COOPER: That's pretty incredible. I mean, there's not a lot of people I know that would walk six to eight miles in slip-on shoes and scrubs through a snowstorm like this. How long did it take for you to get there?</s>HRYNKIW: Probably under two hours.</s>COOPER: You must have been freezing?</s>HRYNKIW: No, no. Actually, traffic was just stopped. There was no place to go. At one point in time there was an ambulance that would just sitting on lake shore drive. I knocked on the window and got in there and sat there and warmed up for a little bit. Then I kept on, left the ambulance and kept on walking.</s>COOPER: Can you be my doctor? This is amazing to me. You made it in --</s>HRYNKIW: Do you need brain surgery?</s>COOPER: Well, no, no. Hopefully not. So, I won't need those services, hopefully. But maybe if I do, I will certainly call on you. You made it on time to the hospital to perform surgery, yes?</s>HRYNKIW: Yes, we were in contact the whole time, texting, looking at cat scans, getting medications order, getting the patient prepared, head has being shaved. So when I got there, the patient was ready to go. I talked to the family, and took him to surgery and battled a demon there for a while. But it all worked out OK.</s>COOPER: I understand you've been in the hospital since the snowstorm hit, and basically the hospital is so short staffed. How are you holding up?</s>HRYNKIW: Well, everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone is pitching in. The nurses are staying overnight. So, you know, you've got to do what you've got to do.</s>COOPER: And the hospital staff are saying this patient would have very easily died and most likely have died if you hadn't made it there.</s>HRYNKIW: Yes, it was a very, very large hemorrhage in the brain, and the patient was actually losing consciousness. And by the time I got to the hospital, the patient had lost consciousness. And they had about a 90 percent statistical chance of dying. But I think they're going to make it.</s>COOPER: That's incredible. Well, I know to you this is maybe just another day. But I think it's an extraordinary day and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Thank you.</s>HRYNKIW: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Pretty cool. As always, you can find more on the story at CNN.com. Just ahead a 360 exclusive, an important story. U.S. veterans dying because of delays in diagnosis and treatment at VA hospitals. They served their country, they served all of us. So why isn't the government, the VA keeping its promise to care for them? We have been asking the VA and they are not talking to us. We're "Keeping Them Honest" ahead tonight. Also, what drug test found in Justin Bieber's system the night of his arrest in Miami? Dr. Drew Pinsky weighs in on how serious pop star's drug use may be.