on all of our major stories. right now, keep it here for my friend, "sanjay gupta, m.d." welcome to "sg md." i want to spend a little bit of time today telling you what you should know about ebola. truth is thankfully most of you watching right now are never going to be touched by ebola. this is still a rare disease. especially in the united states. where although it is sad, but just one person has died. now admittedly there are lots of mixed messages and there's fighting over ebola guidelines and when and when not to quarantine people. in fact, i was in washington, d.c., at the white house on wednesday, and i got some news to share about that later in the program. but let's start with some of the good news. the rate of new cases in one key country liberia has started to slow down. the epidemic is still raging in sierra leone and guinea but at least we have a hint now that it might be possible to bring this under control. now, the key to all that is the health care workers on the ground in west africa. so, the question a lot of people

asking, how much would a mandatory quarantine affect these workers' desire and their ability to go back to west africa? i had a chance to talk about with dr. kent brantly. you remember him. he's an american medical worker who contracted ebola while working in liberia. he was then flown back to atlanta and became the first person treated for ebola on u.s. soil. >> i think it absolutely would. people are going to work over there. they've got to be motivated out of compassion for their fellow human being. but beyond that compassion, they need some incentive because it's a big -- it's a risk. it's a scary thing to leave your home, go to the other side of the world and take care of people who are dying of a deadly virus. so, i think any barrier to that is going to have an impact on people who are trying to decide whether or not they can go help. >> now, dr. brantly isn't alone in essentially condemning these

quarantines. dr. daniel churtow has also been on the front line of the epidemic. >> i think when we talk about quarantine without getting into issues of policies, those decisions have to be based on the science and there's not a void of science. we have science to help inform those decisions. >> both brantly and chertow both doctors are among a number of health care workers who were recognized by president obama this week. and i want to show you a picture that i took while i was at the white house. it's quite an extraordinary thing to think about. on the left you have president obama in the white house surrounded by health care workers many of whom had just returned from west africa. on the right, you have casey hickox also just returned from west africa, all of these health care workers within 21 days now all of them healthy. so, why are the doctors on the left in the white house with the president and the doctor, the nurse on the right, phasing a mandatory quarantine? you can see why it's so

confusing. but this is where we've arrived in this country. and while physicians and health care workers are speaking out against the quarantines, the airports, they're stepping up their screening procedures. people coming into the united states from west african countries impacted by ebola will now go through new screening measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. it's happening at five major u.s. airports. new york, newark, chicago, atlanta, and dulles international airport. and that's where we find cnn's rene marsh. she had an inside look at how passengers are undergoing these health screenings. thanks for joining us. thanks for being on the program, you know, you've been doing this for a while. how effective do you think the new screening procedures are going to be? >> reporter: you know, i asked that very question to cbpp today, customs and border protection because we got for the first time a face-to-face with them where they gave us a behind-the-scenes look. before we get there i want to share the numbers with you,

sanjay, since the enhanced screening started more than 1,100 people have gone through the enhanced screening. only eight of those individuals were transported to the hospital and at the end of all of this, no cases of ebola when we talk about the enhanced screening they have not detected anyone with ebola coming through these u.s. airports. that being said, how effective is this? we know that the doctor in new york came through jfk where there is enhanced screening but at the time he did not have symptoms. but when you talk to officials who are overseeing this, they say this is simply another layer. it is not 100%. but back to the behind-the-scenes. we also now know how it works with the process looks like. this is the cdc questionnaire we've been hearing so much about and now we know exactly what kind of questions people have to answer once they arrive at these u.s. airports. they're asked for two e-mail addresses. two telephone numbers. a home address. an address for where they're going to be staying for the next 21 days and then there's some

very detailed questions that the customs officer has to ask and depending on how they answer these questions that determines what happens next. >> yeah, that's a good point. although you do wonder obviously just how effective this will be for the reasons you just mentioned, if this person doesn't have a fever they may not be caught here. so, rene marsh, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> reporter: sure. now, just ahead a woman's death shocks her entire family, her entire community, really, and it launches this investigation. the question they were trying to ask was it assisted suicide or was it murder? got that story next.

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you know, as doctors we are taught to heal but in five states it is legal for doctors to help people die. one of those states is oregon. that's where a woman name brittany maynard started this big debate when she publicly announced her plan to take her own life. it could be any day now. she's 29 years old. she was recently diagnosed with an incurable form of brain cancer. every story is different. but today i wanted to look at an angle that maybe doesn't get paid enough attention to. i want to look at the impact that assisted suicide has on the rest of the family. also the questions that it leaves behind. when jana passed away, she didn't leave much behind. >> this is pretty much her life, a notebook of medical history. >> this is vickie, she and her husband tom live in the same phoenix neighborhood as jana

did. they saw her suffer. while jana had trouble most of her life, it had become progressively worse. >> she just -- it was just very tough for her daily. she took lots of different medicines to make her feel better. >> did she ever complain of fills cal pain? >> all the time. she thought she was seriously ill. >> and then had vickie got a troubling call one day. a woman who said she was a friend of jana's from church. >> and she said to me you know how jana is always sick and we're very worried about it because we can't get ahold of her. >> it was here at jana's house that tom and vickie discovered the worst. they got a spare key, entered the home and found jana lying in her bed. it was shortly thereafter that they discovered foul play. >> i think when we were going through her belongings there were a couple things we found. one was a brochure the final exit network. >> and in jana's checkbook another important clue.

on february 13th, 2007, final exit network membership fees. $50. but what was final exit. online they found this website. it says the final exit network serves members in all 50 states who are suffering from intolerable medical circumstances. are mentally competent, want to end their lives and meet our official written criteria. and suddenly it all made sense. that's when tom and vickie realized that jana had gotten help to kill herself. i went to meet dr. lawrence e eggbert. he approved jana's request to die. he was final exit's medical director at the time of jana's death. 87 years old. he's friendly, charming, disarming. he doesn't own a cell phone or a car and he is passionate about

this cause. >> a lot of people think of this as saints. >> according to final exit's own records these saints as he calls them helped hundreds of people to quote hasten death. by his own account when he was director eggbert approved 300 final exit applicants. >> they would say i'll get your name and your telephone number and somebody will call you back in a few days and that person would then call you back and ask you why. >> could you approve somebody without having met them? >> yes. i could. and say this is the reason to proceed. >> if that all sounds unnerving, then also consider this, according to police reports, jana told final exit she had lesions on the liver, possible breast cancer, head injuries, removal of the gallbladder, overexposure to radiation and ingestion of rat poison. did she have liver lesions? >> no. >> did she have breast cancer? >> no.

>> huh-uh. >> did she have toxins from rats? >> no. >> did she have arsenic poisoning? >> no. >> did you know all of this when looking at her application? >> i had the same records they had. >> the problem is dr. egbert took jana at her word. no doctor ever confirmed any of those physical ailments. jana certainly wasn't terminal, not even physically ill and there was something else in one of jana's last psychiatric evaluations her psychiatrist noted this paishts has become increasingly psychotic. on the last page jana's diagnosis, psychosis. >> her brother and her sister said she had life-hong issues with mental illness which was relevant. they question the whole thing. did you question it given this mental instability? >> sure. >> wouldn't that be a big red flag? >> it's a red flag all right. the question is how big. it was very clear from her psychiatric notes all over the file that she had psychiatric

problems and if i was uncomfortable with my ability to say or decide on that i had psychiatric -- psychologist who i did not bother. >> no psychologist, no psychiatrist, no other doctors were consulted. still, again and again eggbert told me he stood by his decision and he said final exit volunteers saw nothing wrong either. jana's exit guide as the group calls it was 89-year-old frank lansner he had just known jana barely a month before he went to her house and watched her die. >> so, there was no question in my mind that if she wanted to go through with the event -- >> as an exit guide he says he's very careful not to give specific suicide instructions. >> and then they may have some questions about it. but we don't touch any materials or any equipment. so, they're on their own. >> for jana, here's what the

last few days of her life looked like. march 27th, 2007, she wrote a check out to party city for $64.84. she noted helium balloon kits. a few days later she bought other supplies. i don't want to get too specific. you ever get used to seeing it? you saw 100 times. >> the day i get used to it i will stop. >> when breathed in, helium depletes the body of oxygen. dr. eggbert showed me how it all worked. we've chosen not to show the details, but to see it first hand even as a demonstration was disturbing. is it horrifying to you? because it's horrifying to me to just hear about it. i can't imagine being there. >> see, but you haven't -- you're not talking to a guy who is suffering with pain who is smiling and saying thank you, thank you, doctor. >> dr. eggbert and they other

final exit members were tried in 2011 in connection with jana's death. dr. eggbert was acquitted. three other final exit members pleaded guilty to other lesser charge. i was the last person to do a television interview with jack kevorkian before he died. there we are in front of the university of michigan medical school where we both became doctors a few decades apart. you can read my blog all about this on cnn.com/health. what if i told you this, in just three months you could turn your ordinary brain into a superbrain? i'm going to show you how. it's coming right up. get to the. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids

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what in you could make your mind better and faster and stronger. your mind. don't you want to do this right now? this is something i'm very interested in and i'm sure a lot of you are as well. well, the science channel has gone searching for answers by taking this idea of brain games to a whole new level. >> i'm todd samson and on a quest for a better brain. i've embarked on a unique three-month experiment to see if science can turn any brain into a superbrain. after one month of training i've already increased my speed of thinking, sharpened by attention and dramatically increased my memory. i'm not changing the order ever. but now i want to turbocharge my creativity. >> who doesn't want all of that? and todd joins us now. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> it looks like a great promo. i'm going to watch. >> my brain was tired just watching that promo. >> as part of how our brain

operates these days there's a lot of activity in that promo. i get the idea it's the tone of the show. >> yes, it's fast. it's based on the premise that science for a long time told us that our brain prandly develops at 78 and at 30 it starts to decline and there's nothing we can do about it. but we know it's positively false, you can correct your brain at any age. >> one thing you talk about in the show is the idea of creativity and how important it is, you make the comment we don't just want to be robots. can you define what creatiativity means? >> the ability to look at a problem and solve it individually or laterally. i was surprised it was a very controversial episode. there are a lot of people, artists, particularly, you can't learn creativity, you're born with it. that's not true. science has shown that there are ways you can improve the way you think laterally, the way you look at problems. >> so, it can be taught is your premise. to anybody? is anyone capable of learning

this? >> yes. we're particularly open to it when we're young and we have less restrictions on our mind, less constraints when we have less of the establishment pushing us down, but you can increase your creativity. you can become a more inventive person as you age. >> one of the things -- i have three small children so i think about this a lot is you want to build the fundamental knowledge well because ultimately creativity draws on concepts and puts them together in unusual ways, fair description? >> that's a fair description. some of the tests we do the alternative use test, if we hold up a shoe what comes to mind immediately as an alternative use to the shoe, when i do that with my children, the things they come up with are fantastic. i never two have got there on my own. >> it's almost as we get confounded as adults. you also talked about being faster, being able to pay more attention to things. did you find yourself changing? what seemed to really make the deference? >> they spend roughly seven hours with my head in an fmri

and mag machine to establish my baseline and some things i was good at. some things i was very average at. and after the training i did roughly three months of training, i was completely stunned by how much change there was. i was i thought faster, my memory which was terrible before, had improved dramatically. i had studied science at university but it was all theory. and suddenly it became real for me. >> so just can you give me some examples? like, i want to improve my memory, everybody probably does. well, there are a couple things that stuck out at you as being particularly good tips? >> attention. the fact is we pay little attention to the things around us. we live in this inattentive world because of overstimulation. just simply paying attention to something can dramatically improve your memory. a lot of people forget names and faces. and i get asked a lot how would you -- you know, what's the tip on that. well, it's relatively straightforward in that it's visual. a third of our brain is connected to vision as you know and if you can switch that name

into a visual image, i'll need to memorize john so you look for a distinctive feature and john you might think toilet and you put toilet in their eyes and that will be lodged in their heads. as opposed to you thinking john, john, john, john, john, john. >> and you can never take that guy seriously. >> he's always toilet face. >> and t-shirts, everybody wants their brains. >> no-brainer. >> i got it. >> watch the show. >> i saw it in the promo as well. i'm going to watch the show. i hope a lot of people do. >> thanks for having me. >> appreciate it. great conversation. and still ahead, what it took to get to this finish line? a woman of strength and her amazing journey. we'll even buy you out of your contract. so you can get the samsung galaxy note 4 for zero down today.

in over 400 pounds sia fagel was revered in her culture. >> i was revered as one woman of strength but there's no strength in pain, in hurt, in living with uncontrolled diabetes. >> complications from her diabetes even forced her to have all of her teeth removed. >> it was on that same day that i decided to be an activist against obesity and diabetes. >> to jump-start her own weight loss she joined the 2014 cnn fit nation team and began training for the nautica malibu triathlon. on september 14th she became a triathlete. >> i just feel like i'm a new person. i feel like i've been rebirthed. i've been baptized. >> she finished the race with her team by her side. more than 100 pounds lighter now, she's not ready to stop. >> i will do it again. >> now, sia was just one member

of the inspiring 2014 fit nation team who fought hard for a stronger and healthier life. and do you know what, you know have the chance to do the same. seven months. six cnn viewers. three different sports. one race to the finish line. >> you got it, girl. >> top coaches. >> yay! >> devoted teammates. >> thank god my team was there. and they brought me in. >> transforming bodies and minds. >> my goal was to do a triathlon. >> the hardest thing i've ever done. >> that seems like such a silly goal now because it's so much bigger than that. >> i took an oath early on if i can get through this that even if i can get through the ordeal, the journey will never be over. >> so now it's your turn. we're looking for some good people and if you think you're ready to be part of the 2015 fit nation team, logon to cnn.com/fitnation. submit a video.

tell us why you deserve the chance to hit the reset button. that's what i call it. and you can cross the finish line with us. that's going to wrap things up for "sg md" today. time now, though, to get you back into the "cnn newsroom" with deb feyerick. hi, everyone. you're in the "cnn newsroom." deborah feyerick in new york. a billionaire's space tourism plan now has a deadly test record. virgin galactic founder richard branson is vowing to find out why the spacecraft had a catastrophic failure during yesterday's test flight. one pilot was killed. a second pilot parachuted to the ground but was seriously injured. our stephanie elam joins me now. and, stephanie, virgin was supposed to offer the tourist flights next year. how t