elizabeth cohen will join us in about 30 minutes. will bring you the latest on the breaking story with the diabetes drug avandia. stay tuned. >>> we all know cnn equals politics. our deputy political director, mr. paul steinhauser joins us live from washington, d.c. tell us what's crossing the ticker now. >> let's talk about the battle for control of the senate. iffed republicans win ten senate seats, they take control of the chamber. one place it could happen, colorado. our brand new cnn poll of likely voters in colorado, and the numbers suggest that right now the republican challenger there, ken buck, backed by a lot of people in the tea party movement has a five-point advantage over michael bennett, the man appointed u.s. senator there earlier last year when the senator stepped down to become interior secretary. a lot of great battleground polls, all on kcnn.com/ticker. maybe hillary clinton's seat may be up for grabs. a new poll in new york state by quinnipiac suggests that the current senator there, kiften jill brand only has a

elizabeth cohen has a special this weekend and i'm sure you've bought her book, too.ve. that's big section in your book. what we need to do to be proactive for our kids. >> we're going to be talking about this on your show all week and then this weekend. the first story is a parent's nightma nightmare. you know your child is seriously ill, but when you get to the hospital, they don't take you seriously and say your child is fine. an ohio family faced that question and we're going to tell their story with the help of animation folks and turner studios. what to do when you know you're right. >> reporter: one spring even, don was playing ball with his kids in the yard. he meant to hit a fly ball to his son, matthew, but instead, it socked his 7-year-old daughter on the head. she knelt to the ground in pain. morgan had quite a bump on her head. her parents iced it down and she seemed fine. two nights later, something changed. >> she started crying. >> what did you hear? >> my head, it's hurting. she was holding it. my head's hurting. >> they rushed morgan to the emergency

here's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen.lessons. >> reporter: drew, as a parent you can appreciate that this is every parent's nightmare. you know that your child is seriously ill, but the folks at the emergency room aren't taking you seriously. and they tell you to bring your child home. well, this happened to a family in ohio but they fought back. we teamed up with the animation people at turner studios to bring you their story. one spring evening, don mccracken was playing ball with his kids in the front yard. he meant to hit a fly ball to his son matthew, but instead it socked his 7-year-old daughter morgan on the head. he knelt to the ground in pain. morgan had quite a bump on her head. her parents iced it down and she seemed fine. two nights later, something changed. >> she started crying. >> reporter: tell me what you heard. >> my head. it's hurting. she was holding it. my head's hurting. my head's hurting. >> reporter: the mccracken the rushed plorgen to the emergency room. >> when the doctor showed up what did he sa

elizabeth cohen reports. >> reporter: carl was an all-american teen, good looking, talented and popularfor much of his high school years he was getting high on over the counter cough syrup. his mother misty always talked to him about the affects of drugs and alcohol but never thought to talk to him about cough suppressants until she tried to wake him up one morning and couldn't. >> unfortunately i found him in his bed and at that point it was too late. >> reporter: that was in 2003. since she's been on a mission to make sure other parents are aware that over the counter cough medicines can be abused. when she discovered empty bottles in her home, it never occurred to her that carl might be doing something dangerous but on the day he died it hit her. what triggered the death was sitting there in the medicine cabinet. >> it is inexpensive and they don't have to have a scary drug dealer to obtain it. >> reporter: 8% or 1.3 million teens have reported abusing over the counter cough suppressants over the past year. the ingreed yaents that creates the high is dex. it's found in all sorts of p

here now, elizabeth cohen. >> reporter: the first time she got breast cancer, she was 27 years old. when it came back, she was 31 and pregnant. >> and when i was 27 weeks pregnant, is when i found out of the recurrence of my cancer, which it had spread from the original site into my bones, and this particular case into my right hipbone. >> reporter: little maddy was born healthy, but the cancer is still in her bones. and now it's in her liver, too. >> i had a healthy, beautiful baby. >> reporter: most patients who get a diagnosis of stage four breast cancer can expect to live only another year-and-a-half. but she has lived two-and-a-half years and counting, and her tumors have shrunk a bit. why has she lived longer than most? >> i think, first and foremost, it's my faith. and -- in god. >> reporter: and also, she says, because of one of her medicines, avastin. like other patients, she uses it in depositicombination with chey drugs. >> people respond differently to different treatments. and for whatever reason, i have responded positively to this treatment. >> reporter: dr. edith per

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen reports. >> reporter: carl hennen was your all-americanpular. but carl had a secret. for much of his high school years he was getting high on over-the-counter cough syrup. his mother, misty, a registered nurse, always talked to him about the effects of drugs and alcohol but never thought to talk to him about cough suppressants until she tried to wake him unone morning and couldn't. >> unfortunately, i found him, in his bed, and at that point it was too late. >> reporter: that was in 2003. since, she's been on a mission to make sure other parents are aware that over-the-counter cough medicines can be abused. when she first discovered empty bottles of the stuff in her home it never occurred to her carl might be doing something dangerous. on the day he died had hit her. what triggered his death was sitting right there in her medicine cabinet. >> it's inexpensive. the kids don't have to have a scary drug dealer to obtain it. >> reporter: according to the partner for drug-free america, 8%, 1.3 million teens reported abusing over-the-counter cou

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen learned how important that is. fact, it's the title of her new book and a special cnn report this weekend, joins us with lessons to save lives and just the fact your book keeps getting printed more and more shows how much people really want to know how to do this. >> they do want to know, kyra, because they have learned that a hospital is not a hospital is not a hospital. there's differences between hospitals and you need to learn which to go to. i have a story of a man who likely would have died or become paralyzed if he'd gone to the wrong hospital. with the help of turner animation studios, here's his story. fair valley, california, is a mountain paradise. gorgeous skiing and loads of snowmobilers. after skiing down the slopes one morning, chuck stopped in at the local snowmobile center. and while he was inside, all of a sudden, he fell down. >> you could draw a line down the center of the body. everything disconnected on the right-hand side. >> chuck had a massive stroke in the middle of nowhere. kathy snider r

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen here with updates on both.t coming in to us. where do you want to start, with uninsured or unbelievable high rates in poverty? >> we'll start with the poverty numbers. it's the highest in decades. the number of americans living in poverty was about 13.2% in 2008 and the numbers we just heard moments ago is that it's now 14.3%, not a gigantic increase but you never want to see an increase in that number. poverty is a family of four earning about $22,000 a year or less. >> this is one more sign of what's happening due to our bad economy. we interviewed another gentleman for our 30-second pitch, the president out trying to create new jobs. these numbers shouldn't come up. we're america. we help so many people internationally. we have to take care of our own people. >> if you think this number is bad, this number is worse because the jump is bigger. in 2008, there were about 36.3 americans without insurance and now there are 50.7 without insurance. we know not having insurance is one of the major reasons people go

elizabeth cohen joins me now in atlanta. elizabeth, your thoughts on this? could that kind of stress have brought on a heart attack? >> talking to cardiologists they say, yes, that actually can happen. any kind of stress, whether excitement kind of stress, or a bad kind of stress, can bring on a heart attack, if there is underlying heart disease. we don't know antonio's health history, but the cardiologist i talked to said if there is any even sort of building up of plaque in the artery, the excitement can bring on -- well, even without that blockage, excitement brings on what's called the catacolamine surge, hormones surge through your body, make your heart race, pump fast. any underlying heart disease that can spell a heart attack's we're told dan tone ye went to the hospital, had actually had a heart attack and they needed to do surgery to open up one of his arteries. >> as we learn about heart attacks we learned there are so many things that can cause them. is this -- how tight is that causal relationship? i've heard if you ingest too much fatty food at

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen in atlanta with an update on this.he ruling and what are the impacts? >> before i get into that i want to back up a little bit. a lot of people haven't heard about this story in a while. when avandia came out 11 years ago it was supposed to be a wonder drug for diabetes. then when people took it, it was found they had a higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke. doctors said if you want to continue to prescribe this drug, you have to document for each and every patient why they should be taking it and why they can't take anything else. chances are there will be a lot of doctors who will not want to do this. the doctors i've been talking to says prescriptions for avandia will be plummeting very soon. we reached out to glaxo smithkline who makes this drug. here's what they had to say. the company continues to believe avanedia is an important treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes. ali? >> now, this restriction, this ruling by the fda, is that it -- people who can't be treated with something else can still get a

elizabeth cohen stepping in here, our medical correspondent. let me start with this.ht not realize what a phantom recall is. explain that, first of all. kind of tricky. >> this recall wasn't even a recall. it was sort of under the radar. it was very odd. what happened is johnson & johnson makes all sorts of products like tylenol and motrin and other products both for adults and kids. in may 2009 it appears that they realized that at one of their factories, they were getting things like little pieces of metal and bacterial contamination in their products. now, what they should have done is they should have issued a recall. instead what it appears that they did is ahired a contractor to go out and buy all the products up. >> pretty slick. >> it's an interesting way of dealing with the problem, i'll certainly say that. so now there's a hearing. william welden, who's the ceo of j & j is going to speak for the first time. they invited him a couple months ago. he said he was too ill to testify in front of congress. >> i'm fascinated by this. these phantom recalls, it's lega

. >> let's check in with elizabeth cohen. >>> crucial provisions of health care reform go into effectre and how they affect you at the top of the hour. >>> i'm stephanie elam in new york. what do those provisions mean for your wallet? are premiums and kobe pays going up? >> i'm alison kosic at the new york stock exchange. we're watching the stocks retreat because of the fresh reports. we will look at the economy next hour. >>> thanks so much. also ahead, selena gomez mays a wizard on television but is hoping to lend her magic to a good cause. the halloween tradition is celebrating a milestone. [ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm. >>> it's not exactly e.t. using a turntable to phone home but close. someone used a ham radio to contact the international space station, and he did it. no small feat. he's joining us not by ham radio but on the phone from pittsburg, texas. darryl, di

>> elizabeth cohen, thank you. >>> cnn has learned that president obama will officially make a controversial appointment to he is expected to name harvard professor elizabeth warren as special adviser to help set up a new consumer protection agency. instead of making a formal nomination, he is creating the role especially for her so she can build the agency from scratch. the move is ticking off many republicans, even democrats who say warren is too liberal and lacks government experience. some democrats, as i said, aren't very happy either. our national political correspondent jessica yellin has been spent time work thong story. this appointment will affect a lot of americans? >> yes this agency, wolf is designed for anybody who has a credit card, a car loan, a mortgage t is supposed to give -- create this agency that has broad powers to check on financial firms and make sure that they are protecting consumers and kind of avoid the kind of mortgage crisis we just went through. >> would have been much more controversial if the president formally would have nominated her to be the director of

our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen learned first hand how important that it.the new book "empowered patient." she's here. good morning. >> good morning. you and i both know that doctors sometimes get things wrong. hospitals sometimes get things wrong. it's just the way that it works. and sometimes, you have to take charge which can make people a little bit mad. but if you try to be a nice, good patient, that can hurt you. here's a story of something that happened to my mother. we bring you her story with the help of turner animation studios. >> a firecracker, mother of four, grandmother of 11, wife, lawyer and social worker, he's been active and healthy her whole life. but around the time she turned 60, something changed. she began feeling achy and dizzy, her blood pressure went up and she was so tired. my mom's family doctor told her, don't worry about it. so they told you, look, lady, if you just stop working so hard, your blood pressure will come down? >> don't get excited. don't be quite so busy. >> reporter: if mom's doctor had only ordered a simple blood

our chief medal correspondent elizabeth cohen is live for us in atlanta.ng out the disease and believe that the drug is the lifeline. >> reporter: that's right. they have stage iv breast cancer which means it spread to other parts of their body an they're hoping to keep taking the drug. they think it's brought them precious more lime with the ones they love. the first time ronnie got breast cancer she was 27 years old. when it came back, she was 31 and pregnant. >> and when i was 27 weeks pregnant is when i found out it was a reoccurrence of my cancer in which it spread from the original site into my bones and this particular case into my right hipbone. >> reporter: little maddy was born healthy but the cancer is still in the mother's bones and now it's in her liver, too. >> i had a healthy, beautiful baby. >> reporter: most importants that get a diagnosis of stage iv breast cancer can expect to live only another year and a half. but she's lived two and a half years and counting and her tumors have shrunk a bit. why? >> i think first and foremost it's my f

we talked a lot about this with elizabeth cohen. title of her new book. >> she has a special this weekend you don't want to miss. elizabeth joins us now from atlanta with the first of several lessons that could save lives. elizabeth, as the parent of two children who played baseball, this one is really frightening. >> it is. i mean, john, kiran, you are parents, this is every parent's nightmare. your child has an injury, you know that they are seriously ill but the folks in the emergency room say don't worry and want to send you home. as you said, this happened to a family in ohio, and we here at cnn medical teamed up with the animation folks at turner studios to bring you their story. one spring evening don was playing with his kids. he meant to hit a fly ball to his son but it socked his daughter on the head. she melted to the ground in pain. morgan had a bump on her head. her parents iced it down and she seemed fine. two nights later, something changed. >> she started crying. >> tell me what you heard. >> my head. it's hurting. s

joining us from atlanta elizabeth cohen.weather, seems to me everybody's always sort of gone to teenagers, looked at cough medicine to get cheap alcohol and this is more than that. >> right. this is very different. this is a very powerful drug that when combined with other drugs can cause death. so what the drug enforcement agency wants the know is they're asking the fda will it save lives to change the rules and make these cough medicines by prescription only. carl was an all-american teen. good looking, talented and popular. but carl had a secret. for much of his high school years he was getting high on over the counter cough syrup. his mother talked about the effects of drugs and alcohol but never thought to talk about cough su press sants until one morning she couldn't wake him up. >> it was too late. >> reporter: that was in 2003. since, fedco is on a mission to make sure other parents are aware it can be abused. when she first discovered empty bottles of the stuff in the home never occurred to her carl could be doing s

joining us now, elizabeth cohen. she's the author of "the empowered patient." n as opposed to all the ordinary salmon we've always been eating? >> wolf, this salmon grows much faster. here's the issue. regular salmon, the kind we eat all the time, they only have growth hormone in their bodies during the warm weather months, so that means they don't have growth hormones when it's colder. so here's what scientists did. it's pretty interesting. they went to another fish called an ocean pout, which does have growth hormones in its body all year round, they took that gene, that growth hormone green from the ocean pout and they put it into the salmon. so now the salmon instead of taking 30 months to reach maturity, reaches maturity in about 16 months. it grows much faster. you can see there's a clear business advantage for doing that. wolf? >> have they studied how this modified salmon, this genetically modified salmon, affects humans? >> you know, the folks who make this salmon say there's nothing different about this salmon except for this one thing, that it has gro

. >> all right, elizabeth cohen, thanks so much. empowered patient special this weekend. the name of your book. thank you very much. hand it off now to my colleague wolf blitzer in new york. >>> the president is struggling to prove to voters they're walking the walk and creating jobs. democrats try new tactics and a tax to save their jobs on election day. >>> also, the nerve-rattling video from inside an emergency plane landing. stand by to hear the warnings of a possible crash and feel the fear that you hope you never have to experience for yourself. flooding crisis in the nation's heartland. we're tracking the danger that are overflowing right now. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> president obama and the democrats are taking their last best shots at convincing voters that they're part of the solution to america's economic problems. with just 36 days to go until the election, they're hoping the bill mr. obama signed into law today will help make that clear. the $42 billion measure is designed to create jobs bip giving tax credits to small businesses

. >> who's the complete opposite, senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen, one of the most positive this place. there is danger with being difficult? >> who is their cardiologist? who takes care of oscar and charlie brown? their hearts are in danger. it sort of makes sense, when you're pessimistic and the world is out to get you, people might even say, oh, you have a bad heart and they might mean it kind of figuratively. it might make sense literally. there is a new study that looks at the type d personality, and here's what they found. they found they're at a three times higher risk of having a heart attack. so what we all sort of feel intuitively, apparently there's science behind it. >> it's the whole mind/body. it's amazing what we can overcome physically. let's talk about what happens in the body then when we have this attitude and act this way. >> the oscars of the world see the world as a threat, that the world is out to get them, their colleagues, their family, whoever it is, and when you think the world is out to get you, you get this kind of fight or flight effect in your

our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is here. tinkered with the genes. all, good to see you, elizabeth. >> good to see you. >> so explain this to us. what's been done here? >> this is very interesting. here is the issue with salmon. i bet you probably never flew was an issue with salmon, but here's the issue with them. they don't grow as fast as fish farmers would like. they only have growth hormones in their system during the warmest months of the year. wouldn't it be great if they grew faster and had growth hormone year-round instead of a few months. that led to this. this is a salmon. this is spg called an ocean pouch. you probably never heard of it, because -- i know. doesn't look so good. >> no. >> apparently it used to be eaten. it's been eaten by humans, not currently on menus commonly in this country anymore. what they did, scientists took a gene from the ocean pout. they have goethe hormone all year long. scientists said, isn't that cool? take the all year long growth hormone gene out of this fish, put it in this fish. this fish now grows a whole

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joining us.erence between this salmon and ordinary salmon? >> this salmon matures faster so it can get to market faster. that's really the only difference. let's take a look at how they did this. it's kind of interesting. this is a fish called an ocean pout. it's not eaten much which is probably why the name is unfamiliar. what they do, these ocean pout, they have growth hormone all year-round. they take dna and put it into the salmon. the salmon only have growth hormone usually for a couple of months a year. so, in other words, by taking a gene from a fish that has growth hormone all year putting that in the salmon, the salmon grow faster. the company that makes it says that is the only difference is that these salmon mature faster. they look and taste and everything else like a regular old salmon. >> so have they studied exactly what happens when humans eat this genetically modified fish. >> they haven't done really major studies where they feed people this fish and see what happens. so no, the

more now from our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. >> don, the women affected by this decision. they say avastin has given them precious more time with their families. the first time ronnie villarreal had breast cancer she was 27 years old. when it came back she was 31 and proceeding nant. >> when i was 27 weeks pregnant, i found out of the recurrence of my cancer which is had spread from the original site into my bones, and in this particular case my right hip bone. >> reporter: little maddie was born healthy, but the cancer is still in villarreal's bones, and now it's in her liver, too. >> i had a healthy, beautiful baby. >> reporter: most patients who get a diagnosis of stage four breast cancer like villarreal can expect to live only another year and a half but villarreal has lived two and a half years and shrinking. why has she lived longer than most? >> i think first and foremost it's my faith in god. >> reporter: and, also, she says because of one of her medicines, avastin. like other patients, she uses is in combination with chemotherapy drugs. >> people respond differen

. >>> well, becoming an empowered patient, our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen learned hownt that is. the title of her new book in fact. in a special report this weekend and she joins us now with the second of several lessons that could save lives. >> true. the lesson today is, what hospital you go to matters. there are hospitals that are good at some things and hospitals that are good at other things. so a hospital can save you or a hospital can kill you. so we have a tale of a gentleman i'm glad to say he was saved because someone helped him get to the right hospital. now, with the help of turner animation studios we bring you his story. >> reporter: in california a mountain paradise, gorgeous skiing and loads of snowmobilers. an skiing down the slopes one morning, chuck stopped in at the local snowmobile center, and while inside, all of a sudden he fell down. >> draw a line down the center of my body and everything was just connect edisconnected on t right-hand side. >> reporter: chuck had a massive stroke in the middle of nowhere. a nurse raced him to the ep of town to

joining me is elizabeth cohen. that seems extreme. >> sometimes you really do need to rest.ong with you and the doctor kid of blows it off and says take two aspirin, call me in the morning, you need to question that. we learned that in my family. with the help of turner animation studios, we bring you my mother's story. my mother, sheila schwartz, is a firecracker. mother of four, grandmother of 11, wife, lawyer and social worker, she's been active and healthy her whole life. but around the time she turned 60, something changed. she began feeling achy and dizzy. her blood pressure went up and she was so tired. my mom's family doctor told her don't worry about it. so they told you, look, lady, if you just stop working so hard your blood pressure will come down. >> don't get excited, don't enjoy life so much. don't be quite so busy. >> if mom's doctor had only ordered a simple blood test instead of blaming her, he would have seen my mom's kidneys were in trouble. caught early enough, a simple treatment could have fixed it. but now it's come to this. she needs a kidney transpla

elizabeth cohen joins us now from atlanta with the details. candy, the concerns about this drug may might be linked to heart attacks and strokes. there was an italian study that came out recently that has some people worried. they compared people on meridia to people on a placebo. the risk was 11%, with placebo, 10%. it was still a difference. the fda holding hearings to see if it ought to be pulled off the market or have stronger warnings on the labels or anything like that. abbott labs that makes it, they say, hey, in the italian study the patients were having heart problems to begin with so they say that the study results aren't valid because they shouldn't have been taking it to begin with. candy? >> so, elizabeth, 10% and 11% when you're comparing the p placebo and the drug and occurs to me don't you have to weigh the risk of being overweight and the same risk, strokes and heart attacks. >> that's true. you have to put that in the equation. here's the issue. some doctors say, look. it's a small increased risk but when you look at it you ar

. >> senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen knows just how important that is. new book and she has a cnn special airing on this subject this weekend. elizabeth joins us from atlanta. all this week. she's sharing lessons that could help save lives and she's got today's lesson. good morning. >> good morning, john and kiran. the today's lesson is that if you end up at the right hospital, it can save you. if you end up at the wrong hospital, it will kill you. we have an uplifting story of a man whom it worked out so well. we're going to tell you his story with the help of folks at the turner animation studios. here it is. fair valley, california, a mountain paradise. gorgeous skiing and loads of snowmobilers. after skiing down the slopes one morning, chuck stopped in at the local snowmobile center. and while he was inside, all of a sudden he fell down. >> just draw a line down the center of the body. everything disconnected on the right-hand side. >> chuck had a massive stroke in the middle of nowhere. kathy snider raced him to the edge of town to wait for a helicop

cohen aye. lloyd . ortiz aye. ford aye. item 10 is approved. item 11, authorizing the executive director to execute a minute 1 with elizabeth transportation agency to add temporary traffic control services and corresponding not to exceed budget of $997,690, increasing the total not to exceed budget to $3,280,677. >> good morning, directors. the item before you is -- provides parking control officers for the start of operations at the temporary terminal. as you know, the buses will operate on the street, so it will be critical that we maintain the bus route, primarily on fulsome, went on to the bay bridge, so we need parking control officers to make sure that key intersections are maintained an open access, primarily during the pmp. >> i will move the item. >> second. director ford: item has been moved and seconded. >> and no members of the public indicated they wish to address you on this item. daly aye. cohen aye. lloyd. aye. ortiz aye. with the chairman abstaining and four ayes from the rest of the group, the item passes. item 12 was optimizing the executive director to issue the second notice to proceed under the tjpa contract 08-08-dm-000, e

cohen. then he shot his mother and then kill themselves. the doctor is expected to survive. >>> president obama is said to a point elizabeth hollen as a specialsee the creation of a new consumer protection agency. 00 elizabeth warren. >>> today pope benedict will be in london meeting with dignitaries and politicians. dkms yesterday in scotland. >>> metro thought the cards would cost $2 to make, but the actual cost is $3.40. they considered selling the cards at $2.50, but they lose a million dollars. the smartrip cards. >>> a teenage boy was shot before 7:00 last night in hyattsville. two men fled the scene. there's no word on their identities. >>> a deadly crash between an suv and an ambulance on all turrell pike in district heights. this is security videotape that shows the suv seconds before impact. it is on the wrong side of the road and going so fast that you only see a flash as it travels across the screen. for all three people in the suv died on the scene. those in the ambulance survived. >>> nichols does not plan to work for the gray administration should the democratic nominee been. he says he plans to resign at the end of the year to