charles bad, california. sanjay gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon. what do you make of this? elena talked about a complete spinal injury. what does that mean? how extensive may they have been? it makes a world of difference whether someone has a complete spinal cord injury or incomplete. complete spinal cord injury means the spinal cord had such a significant impact on it, the cells in that area died. incomplete means a lot of different things here. you re looking at a skeleton here, take away any muscle and take away blood vessels over here. this is the spine, designed to protect the spinal cord in yellow. incomplete means there may have been pressure on the back, front, side. the point is this entire spinal cord is not damaged, is there still some possibility of connections getting through. in the world of neurosurgery and rehab, that simple point makes a world of difference. this guy is not a doctor, not a physical therapist, basically a trainer.
reporter: what s your dream for kendall? dance with her at her wedding and get her life back. it s up to me. i m going to make this happen. i will walk again. reporter: elena cho, cnn, carlsbad, california. sanjay gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon who has seen many spinal cord injuries in his career. he joins us now. what do you make of this? elena talked about a complete spinal injury. what does that mean? how extensive may they have been? it makes a world of difference whether someone has a complete spinal cord injury or incomplete. complete spinal cord injury means the spinal cord had such a significant impact on it, the cells in that area died. incomplete means a lot of different things here. you re looking at a skeleton here, take away any muscle and take away blood vessels over here. this is the spine, designed to protect the spinal cord in yellow.
reverend al sharpton dough announces it. sheriff joe ar pay yoe defends it. i referee next on larry king liv live . brett michaels from poison and reality tv stars in critical condition this week. he suffered a brain hemorrhage last week. joining us with all the late sest donald trump jr., executive vice president of the trump organization. his father will be here wednesday night, by the way. he appears on nbc s celebrity apprentice, one of the more successful nbc shows. brett is currently a contestant on that show. dr. sanjay gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon. he ll be joining us in a moment. and in los angeles, carlos diaz, syndicated radio host and former correspondent for extra. what s the latest, carlos, on
now. what i m anticipating what her recovery is in the next 24 hours. let s bring in our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay is a practicing neurosurgeon himself. you heard dr. rhee describing what was going on. let s go through some of the specifics and you can interpret. he s very optimistic, he says, that she is following commands. explain what that says to you. probably the most important piece of information. and very, very important and good sign, wolf. what it means is that she is able to hear something. she s able to process that information. and then able to execute a command on that. so the scenario typically is she is out of surgery, still waking up from surgery. may still have a breathing tube
he appears on nbc s celebrity apprentice, one of the more successful nbc shows. brett is currently a contestant on that show. dr. sanjay gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon. he ll be joining us in a moment. and in los angeles, carlos diaz, syndicated radio host and former correspondent for extra. what s the latest, carlos, on his condition? well, the latest, of course, is that brett michaels will be going undergoing tests all week long as doctors continue to try to find the source of the bleeding. there have been several reports that he is out of the woods. that is not true. he is still listed in critical condition as doctors continue to look for the source. he suffered a major brain hemorrhage thursday, was taken to the hospital. he s going to undergo more test this is week. he said that the pain while he was headed to the hospital is like a baseball bat hitting him in the head over and over again and doctors describe this kind of pain as a thunder clap headache. larry: is he