♪ >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> i'm don dahler. we've got a lot more to tell you about this morning, including a possible breakthrough in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder. it involves an experimental drug known as sgb. one study found it reduced symptoms by roughly twice the rate of a placebo. sgb offers hope to the more than 8 million american adults who experience ptsd every year. here is dr. tara narula. >> this is like splitting the wood or mowing the lawn. you see the results right away. >> one, two, three. >> reporter: dr. sean mulvaney has treated thousands including medal of honor recipient. mulvaney, who is also a former

navy s.e.a.l. first spoke to "60 minutes'" bill whitaker in annapolis, maryland earlier this year. he now tells us the new gbs study is proof of what he's seen with his own eyes over the past ten years. >> i think it's going to help a loft people reduce their suffering and the suffering to their families as well. >> reporter: in the new study, active duty military members with ptsd were given two injections two weeks apart, some with sgb, and others with a placebo. their symptoms were monitored for eight weeks. those who got the sbg injections saw twice as much improvement. how do patients describe the effects of the treatment to you? >> usually the is some form of i feel relaxed and calm in a way i haven't for years. >> reporter: the sgb procedure works like this. a generally harmless anesthetic is injected deep into the neck, affecting a set of nerves. those nerves help control the fight other flight reactions, often amplified in ptsd

patients, which can cause them to have trouble sleeping or easily become irritate and angry. the sgb anesthetic appears to block those impulses between the brain and the body. a handful of veterans hospitals across the country already use sgb. it's also given on a limited basis to civilian, including first responders, survivors of childhood trauma, and assault victims. >> this entire time there is a very, very fine gauze that you were looking through, and it really diminished your experience of >>ter: ts woman, asked us not to use her name, says she spent 35 years reliving a brutal sexual assault by ain report over the summer, she sought out a doctor in chicago who was providing sgb treatment. she says it changed her life. >> i started grinning, and i couldn't quit. and i said this stuff works. >> reporter: her dr., eugene

lepov has treated sgb therapy for more than a dozen years. >> you take the fight and flight and turn it on, it stays on. this takes the switch and turns it off. >> reporter: sgb has been used for decades to treat conditions such as hot flashes, migraines and other pain, but many ptsd patients still need intensive psychiatric therapy, and no one is calling it a magic bullet. >> it gives you an opportunity to change your life. and the more you work with it, the more successful you will be. >> reporter: dr. mulvaney told us he is proud to have made a difference as a veteran and as a healer. what does it mean to you as a retired navy s.e.a.l.? >> i helped a lot of my s.e.a.l. brothers, hundreds of them. buff it's not as parochial as that. i'm just as glad to be able to help marines or firefighters or people that were abused as children. >> sgb is expected to help many people and their families who suffer from the ripple effects of ptsd. the next study is still awaiting

larger and last for one year with a longer follow-up plan. pn run you upwards of $1500. the "cbs overnight news" will be right back. s

before she puts them in the dishwasher. so what does the dishwasher do? (vo) cascade platinum does the work for you. prewashing and removing stuck-on foods, the first time. (mom) wow! that's clean! (vo) cascade platinum. sleep this amazing? that's a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no next-day grogginess. zzzquil pure zzzs.

lly or s.t orho. melatonin level means no next-day grogginess. so wbuilt ow glo. i'll get that later. dylan! but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to hssu switching and saving was really easy! i love you! what? sweetie! hands off the glass. ugh!! call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i love her! around here, nobody ever does it. i didn't do it. so when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, it was just what we needed. dad? i didn't do it. #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. best-selling author mitch albom has sold millions of

books. you may even have read a few of them, but he is also a family man, caring for 47 kids. nancy giles has the story. [ bell ]. >> line up, line up! >> reporter: the first day of school at the have faith haiti mission in port-au-prince. new backpacks. >> are you going to take care of it all year? >> yes. >> reporter: new school uniforms. new teachers. >> are you ready for school? >> yes! >> reporter: and at the center of it all, mitch albom. yep, that mitch albom, the guy who wrote "tuesdays with morry" and lots of other best sell. >> oh, you're backpack is so big, we can put you inside it. >> reporter: straightening backpacks, giving pep talk, and doing whatever needs doing to get the school year off to a good start. so ten years ago when you first came to haiti, did you plan to run an orphanage?

>> so you start with the funny questions. >> reporter: hey, you know. we sat down with mitch and his wife janine in late august. >> i donve hai was on a map. i was moved by what happened in the earthquake. >> reporter: it's been almost ten years since that terrible earthquake devastated haiti, killing over 100,000 people and leaving millions more injured and homeless. like so many others, mitch albom wanted to help. >> and we landed just a few weeks after the earthquake. we saw people missing arms and legs walking around and covered in white dust. and then here was this little oasis where there were these kids. >> reporter: kids huddled in an orphanage. >> i saw kids sleeping on the ground here. i didn't even know if they had parents, makeshift foam mattress, not eating anything. >> reporter: he flew home to detroit, but -- >> i couldn't leave it alone. i couldn't get it out of my head. there were no toilets, really. there was no shower there was no real kitchen to speak of.

so i said well, i live in detroit. we do things with our hands in detroit, and i put a call out. >> reporter: 23 people answered the call. >> they call themselves the detroit muscle crew. >> reporter: love it. >> little muscle t-shirts. we built the first real toilets, shower, kitchen, dining area. >> get under the water. i was here for the first shower. i'll never forget that. they didn't know what it was. i said are you ready? yeah, yeah. i turned the water on and the water came down. it was like witnessing the lord's first rainstorm. they went nuts with glee and water. and then they started doing this dance, singing and dancing, pushing off the walls. >> reporter: now the children of the mission have daily classes in english and french. ♪ amazing grace >> reporter: they study music and science and math. what's your favorite part of

school? >> science. >> reporter: science! i love that. they have regular medical checkups, three healthy meals a day, and a lot of big dreams. what do you want to be when you grow up? >> i want to be a doctor and a writer. >> a surgeon. >> i want to be a lawyer. >> i want to study business. i want to be a businessman. >> i want to be a veterinarian. >> reporter: really? >> i love animals. and i want to be a chinese translator. >> reporter: when jane pauley visited with mitch albom five years ago in detroit, he was spending four days every month with his kids in haiti. he still does. but something has changed since then. a little girl named chica arrived. was she special from the very beginning? >> oh, yeah. >> oh, yeah. >> chica. >> she had a spark. >> most of the kids are shy and they'll lower their eyes and everything. chica just sat back and checked

him out. it was like -- >> i went and she went. and i laughed. and then she laughed. and i said well, i met my match. >> reporter: but when chica was 5, the director noticed something was wrong. her eye drooped. they found the one mri scanner in all of haiti and got this report. >> the child has a mass on her brain. we don't know what it is, but whatever it is, there is nobody in haiti who can help her. and that was basically our clarion call to say she's going to have to come to america. >> reporter: and that changed everything for you? >> it changed everything. ♪ count on me, on one, two, three ♪ >> reporter: mitch and janine took little chica io their me and into their hearts. >> all of the sudden it there was chica, and she was there. >> reporter: for two years together, they battled dipg, a

rare pediatric brain tumor, and they laughed and danced and sang and became a family. ♪ i am a child of god >> and it was glorious blessing. >> and she wasn't the perfect child, but she was perfect for us. >> right. >> she really was. >> capturing you forever. >> reporter: a journey mitch albom has written about in his new book, "finding chica." >> families are like pieces of art. you can make them from almost anything, any kind of material. and sometimes they look like you and sometimes they don't. sometimes they come from your dna and sometimes they don't. and the only ingredient you need to make a family is love. unconditional love. >> reporter: chika died at age 7, but her story continues. the proceeds from mitch albom's

book will build a new earthquake-proof school for all their other children. >> janine and i didn't have kids, and suddenly we have 47 kids. probably somewhere in between 0 and 47 is the average and normal desired size, but that's okay. i like having 47 kids. >> reporter: mitch and janine's two oldest kids, mano and sam are now sophomores at mcdonough university. is it named after madonna the singer? >> no, not at all. >> reporter: it's in detroit, where mitch can still give them pep talks. >> every single time he came he always talked about college, and this pushed me. okay, okay, maybe i can do it, really. >> reporter: mano's dream is to become a doctor. >> i want to good back to haiti and see kids on the street, living on the floor. this breaks ves me strength to go harder and doan what i can here. >> reporter: did mitch and janine change because of their relationship with chika and

their relationship with you guys at the orphanage? >> yeah. >> reporter: tell me about it. >> they like to show us love. ♪ love is all that i can give to you ♪ >> reporter: at the close of every day, mitch albom's kids remember chika by singing her favorite song. >> every day we sing this song, just to remember her and to keep her here in our lives. >> she has taught a lot of kids here what they need to do with their lives and how precious life is. she taught me when i had to carry her from place to place towards the end of her life, we were sitting and coloring. i looked at my watch and jumped up. i said chika, i have to go. she said no, stay and color. i said chika, i have to work. this is my job. she crossed her arms, the way she always did and said no it isn't. your job is carrying me.

a ride in the back of an ambulance can be a terrifying experience for anyone, especially a young kid. jamie yuccas found one paramedic who discovered the magic that puts them at ease. [ siren ] >> reporter: when an emergency call comes in -- >> head to a crash. >> reporter: paramedic ivan rolls out, ready to make life-saving decisions. he is passionate about his profession, but still finds time for a little slight of hand. ivan's tricks are a regular part of the job on calls where kids are involved in order to help them stay calm. what does magic do for a child? >> it breaks the ice. it takes down their wall. their association of an ambulance is blood and needles that can literally turn kids' worst day into one of the best days. >> reporter: in the last five

years he's responded to more than 4,000 emergencies. still, ivan remembers the worst call of his career. >> he was screaming for his dad over and over again, and this kid was just absolute fear. i watched a 5-year-old boy go from screaming for his father to lifeless. for the first time in my career, i actually felt powerless. >> reporter: that tragedy drove him to search for a way to better connect with kids. >> my name is ivan, okay? >> reporter: that's when he realized his boyhood love for magic just might hold the key. so he stopped at the eagle magic store, the oldest shop in the country, and signed up for lessons. is there anything we shouldn't be looking at? >> if i gave away all the secrets, i would let money burn away. >> reporter: now he works magic in the back of his ambulance. >> i was saying i had one and you had one. but in reality i had how many? >> zero. >> and you had how many? >> two, what, three. >> so i learned a couple of tricks and i was terrible at ito

be good at it. i just had to be good enough for that kid, that one kid. >> reporter: of course, some kids are too critical for card tricks. but after he delivers a patient safely to the e.r., he'll still take the time to distract a child from the scary task at hand. >> one time i doing magic tricks in the e.r., and i was doing it while they were starting anni v on the kid. the kid still definitely felt the iv, but he was still interested in what i was doing more. >> lift up your arms. >> reporter: and until his next call,he amateur magician will continue to make the fearhe fea disappear. >> is it over here? no. it's actually right here. all i want to do is be good at my job. and if it means me finding another way to get be a better paramedic, which is doing magic tricks for kids, by all means i'm going to do it. >> reporter: surprising kids to soothe their souls. jamie yuccas, minnea lis, miesota. and that's the "overnight news" for this friday from the