come to think of it, sunday, too. right now chevy truck owners can trade up to a silverado all-star edition and get a total value of $8,500. the dependable, reliable, chevy silverado. thanks for joining us. i want to bexwgin with the late from the boston bombings. he was moved out of the hospital and to a jail facility. we don't want to forget the people hurt that day. at least a dozen of the victims had limbs amputated and we want to get a sense of what their new normal is going to be like. i paid a visit to one of the best facilities in the country. the kessler institute for rehabilitation. it takes time. six-weeks post-surgery for a new amputee to take this first step. one of the most important things is that this wound around the

amputation has to heal up completely. this incision line that you see over here. after that is done, they actually have to shape the remaining area of the leg and then actually put something on to sort of shrink those tissues so that the prosthetic can go on. every patient that suffers an amputation, those who tailor therapy to use their new limb. peter coolidge who lost his leg due to complications from diabetes has had his prosthetic leg for less than two weeks. >> no hands there. he was using one hand earlier and two hands before that. let me show you something else. come around and take a look. when you actually look specifically what's hapwipening with his feet over here. stepping up with his good leg and look what's happening with his prosthetic. you get the heel to toe sort of rock. that's not something that comes

naturally. that's something that pete has to practice. surprisingly everyday tasks like making coffee, part of therapy, as well. >> he's not holding on to anything right now. he's actually able to keep his balance on his own. and he has a lot of balance that he's testing and successfully testing by actually moving around the kitchen here. so, he's never done this before. i mean, take a look. an uneven surface. he's got to essentially bend his knee. a lot harder than it looks for someone who has a brand-new prosthetic device. the first month of therapy is all about the basics for lower limb amputees. taking those first steps to learn to live independently. some people say, look, this is a new normal for these patients. but you say it's more of just normal. >> once they look back on this situation a year from now, two

years from now, you know, yes, this will be a nightmare. and, yes, there is a loss that is permanent. but they have every reason to expect that they're going to be able to go on and live the same, happy, satisfied lives. >> reporter: in fact, thanks to advanced prosthetic technology, most amputees go on to not only live a normal life, but to push themselves, even beyond previous expectati expectations. >> the future is really might brighter than they could probably imagine at this point in time. but for the people in boston, they'll have that experience. >> now, you know, if there's one person who should know about that road that lies ahead is an athlete turned inventor. he's based at m.i.t., which is just a few miles from the finish line where the bombs went off and builds some of the most advanced prosthetics in the world. he knows how modern technology

helps patients and he knows this, in part, because he's done it himself. >> i'm a professor at m.i.t. we develop robots that attach to the body that help people move, again. >> here at m.i.t.'s famous media lab he designs limbs with amazing capability. in rehab medicine, no one has done more to bring the future to the here and now. as you can see, hugh has a personal stake in this work. back when he was a kid, all he wanted to do was climb mountains. >> by the age of 12, 13, i was considered a child prodgy in climbing. climbing walls that had never been climbed before. >> then at 18 -- >> i was mountain climber and we

got struck by a tremendous blizzard and what turned out to a single day turned into four days. i suffered severe frost bite and after months the medical team gave up the fight. >> a personal quest for you, as well. >> it's funny. i was a terrible high school student. i got cs and then my accident happened when i was 17 and it just inspired me to begin developing prosthetic limbs for myself and for other people. >> losing both legs, a lot for anyone to overcome. with hugh, it lit a fire. >> whenever i run up stairs with my bionic limbs i get to the top and i giggle. i grew up with the television show "the bionic man" the $6

million man. so, when i'm running up steps and i hear the motor. >> one of his first designs, adjustable legs so he could do things on the mountain that used to be impossible. at m.i.t., this is how he and his team like to work. first, they break down a real human movement and then find a way to copy it with better and better machinery. his latest creation is a bionic ankle. >> the human ankle is a turbo charged. it gives so much energy as you're walking and running and conventional prostheses lack that energy. i want to have an innovation that allows him to walk with less internal and less pain. >> to help me understand it better he introduced sean brown who lost a foot in an industrial accident 20 years ago.

>> his gate is normal. it's normal. >> hugh says even this is primitive compared to what we will see in years to come. >> i'm often asked if i want my biological legs back. i say absolutely not. my bionic limbs are part of my creation and part of my identity. as my body ages, my artificial limbs get better and better, they are immortal. >> i tell you, set up a website where people can donate to his nonprofit. donations could help these amputees and help them to ride bikes again, dance, swim. whatever it is they're hoping to do. a woman hurt in the bombing explains the last-minute decision that probably saved her life. stay with us. you make a great team.

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second bomb and then there was an explosion, in her case, that actually ripped off her foot. she lost a lot of blood, but some quick thinking saved her life and she told cnn's anderson cooper what happened after the bomb went off. >> how far away was the bomb, do you know? >> my guess it would have been about five feet. >> five feet. >> we're lucky to be alive. >> did you lose consciousness? >> i don't think we did. i remember everything. so, if we did, it was for a matter of seconds. >> what happened then? >> i landed and sort of closed my eyes and was underneath adam and sort of covering my head and my face. it was very gray and quiet. smoke and ashes and a lot of debris falling and i remember telling adam, oh, my gosh, i'm alive. he said, i'm okay.

are you okay? my gosh, are you okay. i said, i think we're okay. i couldn't believe that we survived and we weren't hurt at all. i didn't feel any pain. i had no idea what happened and then i sat up and i tried -- he said, we have to get out of here. i sat up and tried to move and i said, my gosh, my foot. there is something wrong with my foot. we just lost it. adam had a lot of blood all over his pants. it was hard to tell his injuries and my injuries because of the amount of blood everywhere. but i know he was hurt, as well. >> what did you do then? >> i went into survival mode. i went into, i have to do something about this. i can't lose my foot. i have to get it somewhere safe and clean and something wrapped

around it and then i grabbed the door open with my elbow and grabbed in and asked a couple people for help and finally received it and got a couple people to do a tourniquet and then adam was shortly behind me. i had wanted to stay with him, but my brain was just on, i have to get to somewhere clean. i'm losing so much blood. >> what did you do then? >> i followed her. we have to get somewhere where we can lay down a little smarter where we could get a tourniquet around her leg. you know, start doing some of the little basic shock triage stuff. we crawled into forum and from there i remember her legs were over mine. i had one belt and another guy came over with another belt and just as much as i could and trying to put as much pressure as i could with a belt. >> when did you realize the full

extent of the injury? >> adam and i kept looking at each other and we were bouncing between tie the tourniquet faster and this may be our last minutes together, i love you and i'm so sorry for everything that has ever happened and it's hard to not get emotional thinking about it. but we were tbetween safety and helping his injuries and saying what we needed to say to each other. >> in case you didn't make it. >> in case we didn't make it, yeah. >> tying the tourniquet on the scene in the bar probably saved you. >> i am thankful to him a lot. >> when did you realize -- >> i woke up and realized my parents were there and i said, mom, i feel like my foot is falling asleep because it feels like my ankle is falling off of

the pillow and my foot is half on and i realize that was phantom pain and she looked at me and said, adrian, you don't have a foot. your foot's gone and i lost it. it's really hard to hear. >> you are determined to dance, again, though. >> i am, yeah. >> it is so important to you. >> it is so important to me, it's my life. >> so many people inspired by the determination to dance, again. they set up a fund to help with that recovery and it's already raised more than $200,000. coming up now, the former head of the cdc turned medical reporter colleague. he's from abc news dr. richard besser stops by, next. wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. for him, who dares to get in the picture. for her, who dares to show her love to the world.

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the doctor you're about to meet has a unique perspective on the headlines. a short while ago i spoke to dr. richard besser chief health and medical editor for abc news but before that acting director of the cdc. he has written a book called "tell me the truth, doctor." you are the health correspondent for abc, obviously, but acting director of the cdc, the first time you and i started talking to one another. >> we talked a lot in those days. >> yeah. you probably get a lot of questions about infectious disease still. a lot we talked about was h1n1 at that time. when you hear about recent outbreaks, how concerned do you get? how concerned should we all be about what's happening now? >> i think the public health community has to be very concerned and pay attention to

this. this h7n9 virus is called the bird virus but having trouble finding it in a lot of birds. that's worrisome. worrisome. when i talk to people at the cdc they see changes in this virus that put it on the path of going person-to-person. that's what you worry about for a strain that has pandemic potential. i'm glad the cdc is working on vaccines and diagnostic kits because you never know at this point which virus will make the turn and become dangerous and which one is going to go away. >> the things can be lethal. they can kill people easily, transmissable is the other thing where they spread from person-to-person. in fact, combination of things that worries you the most? >> and not having any immunity in the population. so if it's a new strain people haven't seen before, then you run that risk if you introduce it it's going to spread like wildfire. that's what you worry about. if it makes the change so it's transmissable, that's the big

concern. >> people paying attention to this should keep their ears open for it if we hear that transmissability. >> that's right. travelers who are going to china, yeah, they have to pay attention. and doctors need to ask about travel. if someone's sick, where have you been? it's a simple question. >> medicine is a constantly evolving field. we're always doing our homework, thing changes. advice changes as a result. how much does that affect how you report, how you practice? >> one of the things i try and communicate is that the science changes and with it you really do want to see a change in recommendation. it's one of the things during h1n1 the recommendations of what we were telling people to do to protect their health changed as we got more information. >> that's true with medicine across the board. you talk about a couple of issues which, again, as medical reporters we talk about all the time with cell phones and brain cancer specifically. do you really think this could be a problem -- may not just

recognize it yet? >> i don't think so. i think the data i see so far makes me feel pretty comfortable that cell phones do not cause cancer. but there are simple things to do if you're concerned. you know, my kids, they say they're talking to their friends, but when they say talking they really mean texting. so that's not putting a cell phone up next to their head and encouraging that as a way of communication is one way to go. speakerphones is another way to go. it's important to continue to study children. this is the first generation that's grown up with cell phones. but the real concern i have with cell phones is cell phones in cars. and i wish there was as much concern expressed about that. the data show that using a cell phone when you're in the car is equivalent to driving drunk. and it's a hard thing to do, but locking it in the glove compartment can remove the temptation and can remove a really, real public health risk. >> you see some of those apps that once you get over a certain

speed it disables your cell phone and it sends them a message back that dr. besser is driving now. he'll call you back later. a question on the other side of things because you had to deal with us pesky reporters with the cdc. >> yeah. >> what do you think about how dealing with reporters now or getting the questions answered that you need to get answered now? >> it's pretty wild. i spend a lot of time now talking to public health people about what an incredible opportunity it is any time a reporter calls. that it's a chance to get a message out. every day public health is trying to launch campaigns. and as reporters we're not interested unless it's tied to the news. well, if we're calling because there's a news phone, that should be in a sense of public health emergency. now's the chance to get that message out there. i hit the same roadblocks that i used to put up when i was on the other side. >> dr. richard besser and the book is called "tell me the truth, doctor." as richard points out in part, medicine is always changing pretty quickly.

with that in mind we're kicking off a new series on the show today. i'm going to be introducing you to medical innovators, we're going to talk about their life's work. the men and women who drive the change. you're probably not going to recognize every face, but you will recognize what they've all done. our very first profile is cardiac surgeon for more than 40 years now part of a team that performed the first open heart surgery on a living heart. >> looking back i would say that i was one of the luckiest young boys to come out of wichita, kansas. my name is vincent gott and i was one of the first researchers into the development of a pacemaker. i was in the operating room at the time the world's first open heart operation was carried out in 1954.

i was an intern when i observed dr. c. walton carry out the first cross-circulation case. i made an illustration of that first operation -- at least of the defect in the little boy's heart, put it in the patient's chart. he didn't know me, seeing that illustration he invited me into his lab and that's when the pacemaker was developed. it was just a great opportunity for me. it was an amazing time and amazing procedure, but i had no idea where it would take us over the next 60 years. well, i spent my life doing cardiac surgery. and how fortunate i was to have been there on day one as an observer. >> we have a check of your top stories just minutes away. i'll be right back with more on

the boston marathon bombings as well. stay with us. ♪ [ agent smith ] i've found software that intrigues me. it appears it's an agent of good. ge has wired their medical hardware with innovative software to be in many places at the same time. using data to connect patients to software, to nurses to the right people and machines. ♪ helping hospitals treat people even better, while dramatically reducing waiting time. now a waiting room is just a room. [ telephone ringing ]

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the cover of "boston" magazine this week says so much. take a look. pairs and pairs of running shoes worn by runners of the boston marathon and these brightly colored shoes make almost a joyous picture. it's a heartfelt tribute from the owners to chasing life, overcoming obstacles and challenging themselves. i've worn shoes like these.

and i remember it transporting me to a place where i can be alone with my thoughts and my dreams. it's a special place. for this week we salute the courage, the compassion, the conviction of all the bostonians who have risen above all this heart ache and continue to support one another chasing life. that's going to do us here. time for a check of your top stories making news right now. good morning everyone. happy sunday. i'm poppy harlow. it's 8:00 here in boston, 5:00 on the west coast. glad you're with us this morning. federal investigators are type-lipped this morning about what they may have found in a nearby landfill. they were searching for dzhokhar tsarnaev's laptop computer. it's believed the bombing suspect's computer could have very critical information about the plans of the attack and whether the brothers truly acted alone as dzhokhar told investigators. the fbi is still conducting interviews as they look fore