The Interview

Sanjay Gupta, behind the headlines

He's a neurosurgeon, an author and an Emmy Award-winning reporter. And he's not yet 40. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta has covered some of this era's worst disasters, from Hurricane Katrina to the 2005 tsumani, and has become America's most trusted medical news source. NRM talked to the charismatic doc about stem cells, the war in Iraq and his sexiest man alive rivalry with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

All Sanjay Gupta photos courtesy of CNN

How did you become a reporter? I was a White House Fellow as a speechwriter in 97-98, and I got really interested in how people interpret medical information and then act on it. I realized there was a real need to translate a lot of available information into knowledge and I wanted to help do that.

Did you ever screw up at the beginning of your reporting career? [Laughs] Sure, I've made many mistakes. Every now and then, my boss and I look at my first takes, and I just think, "I can't believe they've let me stay."

Were they that bad? They were awful! There were just so many things, like looking at the wrong camera, for one. I also owned one suit when I started working there. Then I got a call from this talent co-ordinator saying, "You should invest in your wardrobe. You're on television, they're going to notice you're wearing the same suit every day." That sort of defined my early career.

But you've come a long way since then. Your report on Katrina earned you an Emmy. That was because of the fact that Charity Hospital, according to all official reports, had been evacuated. But I was getting messages from some of my colleagues in New Orleans saying that it wasn't. So I went there -- I flew by chopper, which I had to beg for -- and found there were 200 patients still there. They had no power, hardly any food, very little water. People were dying. And as soon as we reported on it, literally within half an hour, helicopters started showing up and they were flown out.

Was the emergency response better during the tsunami? You know, during the tsunami, they were able to establish people's needs for food and for water and were able to drop supplies. No one should have to starve or dehydrate to death, and that was happening in New Orleans.

What was more harrowing to cover, the war in Iraq or Katrina? Iraq, for sure. People fired at me. I had rocket-propelled grenades blow up near me. My convoy went over a land mine and I was thrown out of a truck and into a field. I wrote a letter to my family because I thought I was going to die. I felt stupid at times, because I kept thinking, "I can't believe I'm going to lose my life out here."

You were embedded with the US Navy medical team when you were there. Do you think the embedding system hurts war reporting? When you're travelling with people who are saving your life on a regular basis, there's some concern that your objectivity might be compromised. But I think with this particular conflict, there would have been no way to go out independently, it would've been too dangerous. It's really taking your life in your own hands.

Operating on soldiers and civilians in Iraq got you in hot water as a reporter. Some said it blurs ethical lines between a reporter and his subject. It's one of those things that people who have never been in the middle of a war might theoretically say. And maybe theoretically that's possible, because any time that you are more involved in a story, there's a threat of losing objectivity. But I think there's a different set of rules when it comes to saving lives. Nowhere does it say that when you put on your press credentials, you have to lose your humanity.

Things are set to change in the US with the elections in full swing. Who's got the better healthcare plan among the presidential candidates? Every candidate in this election is talking about healthcare. Hillary Clinton has been talking about universal healthcare since 1994. Barack Obama has talked about some universal healthcare insurance. Hopefully this will translate into something significant.

What do you think of Canada's healthcare system? There are a lot of plusses to Canada's healthcare system. The biggest plus -- besides the fact that people have healthcare insurance -- is that there's a certain amount of psychological well-being, feeling safe just from knowing that you're going to be taken care of if something bad happens to you. Unfortunately, in the US people don't have that.

In your book Chasing Life you talk about the quest for immortality -- are stem cells the key? You know the old saying, where there's smoke there's fire -- I believe there's a certain rejuvenative property to stem cells. They're somehow designed to help our bodies tolerate the wear and tear of life and the toxic insults of the environment.

You also wrote about cryonics -- are you going to be frozen when you die? [Laughs] I don't think so. I don't know enough about it to say yes, but there's so much happening in the research world.

What other cutting edge research interests you? When my daughters were born, I stored their cord blood. To what purpose? My hope is that 40, 50 years from now, if -- god forbid -- they had something that required it and the technology was there, then it can provide some help to them. There's a lot of hope and optimism in terms of scientific development.

I heard you broke your hand recently. I did. [Laughs] I was covering the wild fires in San Diego and in the chaos of it all, I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my hand. I didn't realize it at first. Then eventually it got so swollen it looked like I had a boxing glove on. I was doing some shots with Kiran Chetry, who is one of the American Morning anchors, and she just looked at my hand and said "Doctor, go see a doctor!"

Doctors are notoriously bad at going to see other doctors -- are you? I'm actually good. I'm 38 years old and I've been getting yearly physicals since I was 30, which I think is pretty unusual, so I'm kind of proud of that.

You were picked as one of People magazine's sexiest men alive. What did you think of it? I thought they made a mistake in the beginning. Gupta is a pretty common name. But you know, it's a story for the grandkids -- when you go through life's natural aging without stem cells, you can tell them 'I used to look pretty good at one point!'

Was Anderson Cooper jealous you made the list before him? Yeah, he's jealous of everything I do. [Laughs] No, no... Anderson's obviously done very well without stem cells himself.

Do you watch medical shows like House or Grey's Anatomy? It's funny, I was just talking about this the other day. The only medical show that I've really watched recently is House. I used to watch ER too.

Do they glamourize the profession too much? House is a curmudgeon, I'm not sure he makes hospitals seem glamorous. He may actually scare patients away!

You're a successful neurosurgeon, reporter and author -- what's next? I'm pretty happy where I am. People are always thinking about 'the next step' -- almost to the point where they stop enjoying what they are doing now. I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

No politics in your future? I don't know if I'd ever want to run for electoral office, but I can see myself one day in a position where I can do something with health policy. I've always been interested in health policy. I think the way we take care of other people is a reflection of our society.

Interview conducted by Judah Issa