there waiting for a train to come through. being at the intersection of multiple railroad tracks gave him more opportunities to get out of town before the crime was discovered. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. announcer: a train carrying republican members of congress to a policy retreat in west virginia struck a garbage truck, . killing one person we will get an update from house and senate republicans at the retreat. >> obviously, a tragic accident with a fatality today. most of the people, all but one or two up here, our physicians, and responded immediately, getting off the train and tending to those that were wounded. --we were the first off of the train and we were able to get to two people lying on the

ground. there was one gentleman who was walking wounded. you have heard that there was a fatality. i will tell you that this group of doctors here and other members of congress in the house and the senate worked together as a team with the emergency medical team that came in to try and do everything we could for these people at a terrible time. i think that we were blessed in many ways to have the opportunity to try and help people, and hopefully at least one life was saved today. i think everyone had a little bit different experience, but i can tell you if you watched what happened and what to place today -- took place today, everyone knew they had a role in what they should be doing, and took a role in trying to save lives, from cpr to controlling bleeding and maintaining airways. i'm very proud to be associated with everyone on this stage.

i think i will turn it over to dr. rowe next. >> thank you. i think all my colleagues. this is obviously a tragedy for the families. when you get up each day, last night was a big day for us. we were all very happy on the train heading to hear, for the conference this weekend. just in a millisecond how that changed. is young man's family changed forever. as a physician, you are trained to do these things. for a lot of people, not everyone wanted to help. do something to help these people -- first of all, we did not know what happened, it was just a slam. people were walking and dials. a good friend -- people were aisles. in the

wasod friend of mine walking. i want to tell the family of the man i attended to, he was breathing. i think the second gentlemen, it was an instantaneous death. for his family, he suffered. i think his death was instantaneous. that is important for them to know that he got every chance he could, but he just had a fatal injury. it really was amazing how many medical personnel, including our physician at capitol hill, his team was also there. you could not have seen a better outcome from humanity about what was happening, take a bad situation and helping someone. we will pray for these young men in the hospital. one very critically injured and the other not as bad. a doctor, ato have

cardiothoracic surgeon, and his wife, an anesthesiologist, who did great work. you can't do much on the ground other than clearing airway and do cpr. but after the equipment came in, people got other aid and help for these young men. both of these young men will survive. dr. burgess was there right afterwards. >> thank you, dr. roe. it is a scene you will never want to seen, you are going along in a vehicle and suddenly there is a loud bang, and things stop. the lights went out. there was a smell of electrical smoke in the car i was in. the immediate thought was this was an intentional act and someone has done something. but also, you look out the window and saw the debris field that the train had just passed

by. after realizing this was not an that veryl act, likely people were injured a differentas in part of the train, but made my way back to an open door. i will tell you that i learned today it's not as easy to get off a train if it's not in the station. it gets hard when you jump off. phil said it very well. there is a family out there tonight in tennessee that sent their husband or father out to work, and the day did not turn out like they got. -- thought. it puts a lot of things into perspective. we were fortunate to have so many people respond. actually, the house chaplain was on board as well. there was the ability to administer last rites. all in all, it was a very tough day. thank you.

i want to also complement the folks from emt. we don't know whether it was bute fluid or diesel fluid, it was spilling down, and we were all looking knowing that we cannot move the bodies. we were all looking at this, very cognizant, and hoping that off.atch does not go dmt came and immediately started putting absorbent on. they were also providing the airway for you to begin to attempt. it was great to have an anesthesiologist. among doctors, it's a little bit of a joke, but in trauma, it is because if you can breathe, you can't do anything. i just want to compliment everyone for doing this. dr. burgess and i were chuckling, when he finished he had blood all over him, and mud. i had a spare shirt, and i gave

it to him. and now i'm without a shirt because i don't have my luggage. humorat is a minor bit of in a day of otherwise tragedy. i will echo what people said about keeping families in your prayers for health and emotional healing. >> thank you. indiana's eighth district. i was a cardiovascular surgeon before i was in congress. my wife was with me, she is an anesthesiologist. i couldn't be prouder of people on this stage. we came to a very distressing scene with obviously severely injured people, and the atmosphere was, as professional as that setting could allow. i do think it mean -- make a difference. stagek the people on this

hopefully saved a life. with that, i would like to say my thoughts and prayers are with all the families. this does bring back thoughts of .amily and friends in a partisan washington, d.c. climate, i think sometimes some of us start to lose what really is important in life. this incident today i think really brings that back into .ocus for everyone we are just very hopeful that the person that was transported to the hospital survives this instance. thank you very much. doctor.ot a i just grew up in a small town on a farm. just being a small town like this today, it made me think

that this man who is deceased is going to be missed, probably by the whole town. that adds significance to it. as we were attending to their braded -- diluted and -- as we were tending to the , i was reminded that six or so months ago on the baseball it was the same thing, brad cutting away the uniform to apply a tourniquet. i thought after that time that i never wanted to experience a day like this again. unfortunately, it came too soon. im just grateful for medical professionals all around and that they were quick off the train and were able to apply their skills. >> i'm jeff denham, chair of the rail subcommittee.

say that having so many doctors respond in such a quick fashion made everyone on the train, the passengers as isl as first responders, it just something that you never expect. to have all the doctors there with their quick response was amazing. i went to the front of the train to check on the engineers. they sustained minor injuries. i took a look -- at the derailment. we were already planning on having a hearing on rail safety. as many accidents as i've been to, you never expect to go yourself.e i thought it was important to work with the amtrak personnel on the scene to see specifically the challenges they were facing as well as the safety procedures they go through as well. thank you. >> i'm roger marshall, a physician, freshman congressman from kansas.

i think you have heard the stories enough. you've heard it over and over. gettingon requests i am are the reflections at this point in time. i think back to president trump's state of the union message last night. he said "in god we trust." right behind him, it is embodied there behind the podium. among everything else, president trump talked about last night a message of hope. from last sad day, night tied to the low of this morning. one of the things i have learned as a congressman is my job is to give people hope. i have never been able to explain why bad things happen to good people, but as a physician, i've always tried to give people hope. thoughts and prayers for the family members and reaching out to them. certainly, i just truly believe

that god works all things for good if you trust in him. we will keep praying for this family. we will keep our heads down. we have a tough weekend ahead of us, but we plan on persevering. we can take a couple questions, perhaps. to?don't want ok. [laughter] >> you are not used to this, but i want to comment on the work she did and the challenge that it is. the key is to maintain and airway.- an this gentleman was at great risk of losing his ability to breathe. we were doing the best we could externally and succeeding, and made every attempt in a difficult situation to intimate -- intubate this gentleman. it is hard to do that to someone when they are not sedated. that is the biggest challenge. but gave us a great glimmer of

hope is his resistance to the intubation. that showed us that he had a chance. he was bucking. it's not comfortable if you are not sedated. he was bucking. after that is when he started using his hands and grabbing my hand. i do want to thank you for your heroic efforts as well. we will entertain questions. you guys have to put your trust in a number of law enforcement agencies. -- you concerned that [inaudible] any question to do with security, i would turn that over to capitol police at this time. [inaudible]

i'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it is like for you, playing baseball one second, then being surrounded in these sewage -- situations where people's lives depend on you. >> i was in a combat hospital where it was extremely busy, but i expected it there. you had all your assets around you immediately and a team to work with. it is a little bit different. i think instincts for me take over, and you just go do what you see you can do. today was a little bit different from the standpoint that in june, we had to wait until the shooting stopped, until the shooter was no longer shooting. he was shooting down the ring where i was at the time. that was a little bit different.

today, we were able to react a little bit differently. for me personally, from what happened in june and what happened today, it didn't affect a at the time, but it's little bit later when you see your wife and your son and you think of what could have had i have -- what could have happened. i think of that many times of what could have happened in june. if not for steve being there, we would not have capitol police there. i could think of three areas of divine intervention. the fact that this part had an actual dugout, that people could use as a bunker. the fact that i went down to the batting cage, which gave me the see.position to when you start thinking about what could have happened, i think that's what makes it even tougher. today, we had a fatality. that is bad enough. but when i think about the fact that this train did not derail

and that everyone on board was solacehat gives me great compared to what it could have been. that's what i think about later, but not really at the time. i will let him answer. the difficult thing for the june shooting was having to wait and to see steve out there waiting for us, until the shooting stopped. that was a far more difficult thing here. to see people go in without regard to any concern for safety , we saw it in both cases. and is what is heartening makes something good out of a horrible situation. [inaudible]

>> there is a bipartisan push to have it implemented as quickly as possible. this hearing was planned quite a while ago. see where the implementation is, how far along is amtrak, how far along are the freight rails and the commuter rail, and see what they need and what the holdups are. we have seen a number of accidents. certainly, any accident is too many. as train control, it is a big part of our safety for all the trains, but they all need to be working well together, which is why we are having a hearing. >> [inaudible] >> personally, i gave it a lot

of thought. i was very conflicted. "get homee of me said to texas as fast as you can." coming to a retreat is not novel or new or different. we do it every year, usually after the state of the union. the democrats will do there is next week -- their retreat next week. it's part of the planning process and part of how you approach the coming year. it is important work that is going to be done. for me, it is encouraging to hear that the president and vice president said that their plans were unchanged and they would be there. that put it in different context. if the vice president is going to be there, i better be there as well, and you also need to be there, so we need to wrap this up. >> just quickly to that as well, we had family and other members that were already year, and we wanted to stay together as a family between all of us as members.

that was a big part of it. >> let me answer your question over here in just a second. doing have been something 30 plus years as i have, you don't forget it just because you become a congressman. it is something you do.it's almost like riding a bicycle . you know what you do. you know you need an airway. you know you have to stabilize. you know you need to do all those things. it is your training that kicks back in. every single person up here, they are all experienced physicians, they all know these things. it can be scary if you don't have that training, but when you do, you can use every skill you have. i don't care whether it's in the dirt like today or in an operating room. you do what you can to try and save a life. that's what everyone has done for decades. >> thank you. we do need to get moving.

announcer: now we will hear from vice president mike pence, who spoke at the republican policy retreat in west virginia. he talks about the trump administration's priorities, and the train accident involving gop members of congress as they traveled to the retreat. vice pres. pence: good evening. if you could all take your seats, and we will get started -- >> all right. i'm theis mark, president of the congressional institute. welcome to the 2018 congress of tomorrow retreat. [applause] a couple of quick announcements.