How Fish Skin Saved a Child’s Life

What's up, sunshine? Happy Friday, Fri-yay. I'm Koi Wire on a CNN 10 field trip coming to you from Asheville, North Carolina, along the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. We are on the grounds of America's largest privately owned home, the Biltmore Estate. And this calls for...

Did you know the Biltmore Estate was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt, the grandson of famed shipping magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt. It took six years to build. He and his wife, Edith, and their daughter, Cornelia, lived in this 200- 350-room home with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. There's also a lot of secret doors and hidden passageways. Maybe the coolest part though, the 8,000-acre backyard of beauty.

In 1930, the family decided to open the mansion to the public as a way to boost Asheville's economy during the Great Depression. The estate is still run by the descendant of George Vanderbilt. And today about 1.3 million visitors enjoy this nostalgic, whimsical throwback into time each and every year. You can go horseback riding, hiking, biking, take carriage rides, have a picnic, gallivant through the Immaculate Gardens. and falconry.

The Biltmore Estate is a must-see spot, along with the quaint and gorgeous downtown Asheville. Now, another part of the reason I'm here today is to highlight the amazing recovery effort. After this eccentric, artistic town was devastated by hurricanes,

haleen it has been nine months since the category four storm tore through the suananoa river valley of western north carolina where flooding and landslides toppled trees demolished homes and businesses and while many of the scars left behind are still fresh

progress that has been made to clean up and rebuild is nothing short of remarkable. Asheville and its surrounding towns rely on tourism to fuel its economy and locals are hopeful that this summer visitors, art lovers, and adventure seekers will come back to Western North Carolina. It has been a long road since Helene, but we're excited to get people coming back and know that we're still here and we're rebuilding.

Thank God for volunteers and thank God for donations, but they're putting this town back together. In times of tragedy or hopelessness, the great Mr. Rogers famously once said, look for the helpers. And North Carolina hasn't had to look far. Here are just a few of their stories.

In between the rocks and rapids of the French Broad River, signs of Helene still sit in the water. Piles of pipes that Mountain True says their crews have been working tirelessly to clear out. These plastic pipes that were coiled up have come loose and they're intertwined into our log jams. It's a pretty big environmental disaster that we're picking up one piece at a time right now.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been working one waterway at a time, using heavy machinery to get out the big stuff, while these paid crews, along with volunteers, are trying to clear out everything else. we are at it until the last bag of trash comes off these rivers so far mountain true says they've removed nearly 300 000 pounds of trash by hand like these piles of tires and bins of twisted metal

These crews hope others will realize that portions of the French Broad like this one are safe and back open to enjoy this summer. I think that Asheville and the outfitting community at large is ready to have people come back. Cut a seven and three eighths by seven and three eighths. After the flood, we knew that our program was a rare opportunity to really be able to help.

Inside of Jeremy Dott's carpentry class at Mountain Heritage High School, I've never built a house until now. You'll see a group of students working on a project they didn't originally anticipate. I do one there, one there, one there. Dot says that within two weeks of the storm, they were looking for any sort of grant to get the funds they needed to help.

It wasn't until late November when that help arrived from the foundation rebuilding haulers. I just started making sure as donations came in that we were putting money aside to make sure we could fund this as well for the materials so they could start building about. 670 square feet. It's a one bedroom, one bath house with a loft. I take a lot of pride in this, helping people from my community.

but our measurement is sitting at 184 and an eight dot says in his 15 years of teaching he never saw this coming but i'm going to tell you something i'm glad i'm here to be a part of it with years of rebuilding ahead dot says their goal is to build two to four homes a year for victims to have this offering for our people here that have lost so much to bring so much joy. I was in disbelief when Michael said that all 1600 were handed out.

Families and individuals showed up standing patiently in a line through Warren Wilson's parking lot. The founder of national old-time radio show Wood Songs made this unconventional and joyful gift to this community take place. Do you play? Yes. Josh Lander of Black Mountain got a guitar. I thought it was great. Some of these guys, you can't replace what they lost, you know. I lost a drum set and a PA system. Ten-year-old Haley Elliott of Old Fort showed us her new keyboard.

It's simply the right thing to do. We reached out to our audience. We collected 1,600 good instruments, guitars, banjos, fiddles. And they're gone. Filling others' musical cups is a passion for Michael. On this day, sweet notes of all kinds for many still facing so many hardships after Helene.

A lot of these small businesses still have a long road to recovery. If you'd like to see ways that you can help, even by just buying everyday items from the stores in this region, go to cnn.com slash impact your world.

Pop quiz, hot shot. What is the heaviest organ in your body? Brain, stomach, skin, or intestines? Slather up that sunscreen. The answer is skin. Your skin accounts for 10 to 15% of your body weight, did you know? Which is composed of water, oils, lipids, nutrients, hair follicles, blood vessels, and living and dead cells.

The average adult clocks in at about 20 pounds of skin. Now to a phenomenal medical procedure for one precious little mermaid. A three-year-old in Texas is now thriving after fish skin. helped heal a severe wound on her neck this happened when she was a baby born prematurely but her doctors say they continue to use this type of treatment today cnn health reporter jacqueline howard has more who is that

Ariel, yes. Is she a mermaid? Are you a little mermaid too? Three-year-old Eliana Davos in Texas just may be a bit of a mermaid. Shortly after she was born, it was the healing power of fish skin that helped her recover from an open wound on her neck. It looks like a normal scar that you and I would get. You would have no way of knowing that they used fish skin to help expedite that healing process. Eliana was born preterm in April of 2022 at 23 weeks gestation.

Four months before her due date, she weighed a single pound. What's going on baby girl? She spent more than 100 days total in the NICU, but it was about midway through her stay when she developed a serious bacterial infection on her neck. It damaged the tissue under her skin and caused a deep wound. It sounds scary, but it was almost like a flesh-eating disease. Eliana was transferred from a general hospital to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus.

Christy. Despite her severe wound, she was not a candidate for surgery or a conventional human skin graft. They were too risky. Instead, Dr. Dimas and nurse practitioner Roxana Reyna tried something different. They used a medical-grade honey solution to clean out the wound. Medical honey is known to help safely remove dead tissue and support healing. Then they applied a mixture of that honey with the fish skin to cover the wound. It's microscopically so close to human skin that it helps.

You see, the fish skin taken from wild Atlantic cod provided a type of platform for Eliana's body to grow new skin tissue and some of the omega oils and other natural elements. helped contribute to the healing process. Once it basically does its job helping. the wound heal, then it sort of just melts away. Eliana's care team appears to be the first to use fish skin in this way in fragile preterm infants.

Now to one of the world's most active volcanoes showing off, Mount Etna, erupting to heights that haven't been seen in decades, sending clouds of ash and soot into the sky, so much so it sent tourists running. Authorities say the latest... sent a plume of ash and rock some 21,000 feet into the air. One tour company told CNN they had 40 people on the volcano when it erupted. 1.5 million people visit Mount Etna each year.

hiking to the summit. Despite the awe inspiring yet equally terrifying show, officials say there is no danger to the population at this time. today's story getting a 10 out of 10 a scene from a safari hoofing it down a highway in tennessee this pet zebra named Ed has been spotted roaming through Rutherford County, Tennessee, neighborhoods after its owners acquired it just one day earlier. Everybody's just getting the hoot out of it, you know, here in Murfreesboro. As of Wednesday, local reports

said the animal is still unaccounted for while it is legal to own exotic pets like zebras in the state of Tennessee officials warn they are not domesticated like horses they can be difficult to train and they can even be aggressive so if you live in Tennessee keep your head on a swivel y'all

All right, superstars, before we go, time for our favorite part of the show. Three shout outs today for this special summer edition of CNN 10. Mr. Bossy at the Pineland Learning Center in Vineland, New Jersey. Pineland family, rise up. And Mrs. Macedon. at South Jordan Middle School in South Jordan, Utah.

you to best. And finally, shout out all the way over to Switzerland, Mr. Xander and Zurich International School. Thank you for making us part of your day. Go on out, make someone smile today. You never know how or when, but you may be the difference someone needs. You're more powerful than you. know. I'm Koi Wire and we are CNN 10.