CNN has launched an investigation into claims that one of its star correspondents misled viewers in a report showing his emergency medical intervention on an earthquake victim in Nepal. 
 
 
 
 Dr Sanjay Gupta, an acclaimed neurosurgeon and the network’s chief medical correspondent was reporting on the devastating 7.8 magnitude quake that killed more than 8,000 people in the poor South Asian country in April, when he participated in an emergency operation on a victim. 
 
 In both a report and interviews with CNN anchors, Gupta said he had been involved in an intervention which had saved the life of an eight-year-old girl suffering from major head injuries. Gupta was shown inspecting scans of what were said to be the girl’s skull prior to the surgery, and then in the operating theatre at the Bir Hospital, in central Kathmandu. 
 
 His actions, which came only two days after the tremor, were widely reported across the world. The girl was said to be suffering from a life-threatening blood clot in her brain. 
 
 The accuracy of Gupta’s report has now been challenged in an investigation by the Global Press Institute, an independent organisation that trains journalists in the developing world and publishes their reports. 
 
 After speaking to doctors involved in the incident as well as patients and their families, the institute reported that Gupta had actually helped with an operation on a different patient – a 14-year-old – and that the eight-year-old named in the report had not sustained any serious injuries. 
 
 The institute also reported that CNN had published a text story before the video segment aired that correctly described the girls’ injuries. Hours later, the article was updated to remove one of the girls and misreport the others’ injuries. The modified article reflected the reporting in the broadcast story. 
 
 On Wednesday, Gupta attempted to clarify the situation on the network’s morning news program, New Day, conceding that the patient he operated on “may not have been this eight-year-old girl but rather separately a 14-year old girl in that same hospital”. 
 
 He described the scene at Bir Hospital as complete chaos in the aftermath of the earthquake. Amid the havoc, details may have been confused, he said. 
 
 “These facts are important to us ... we are trying to independently verify which child it was who got that operation at the time. There were many children, many people in the hospital,” Gupta told viewers. 
 
 “When you report on these kinds of situations you take lots of different bits of information and you consolidate it and in the end you tell the story.” 
 
 Nepal was certainly in turmoil in the days after the earthquake struck, but that should not excuse the reporting errors, said Cristi Hegranes, the founder and executive director of the San Francisco-based Global Press Institute and the publisher of Global Press Journal. 
 
 “A pretty grave mistake was made … the excuse that things were chaotic shouldn’t hold up for any journalist especially when that journalist is also performing a medical operation,” Hegranes said. 
 
 The publisher said the culture of celebrity reporting raises concerns about the way foreign correspondents report abroad, Hegranes said. She argued that local journalists wouldn’t have made this mistake, and that her team, comprised of local female reporters, undertook this story to “set the record straight”. 
 
 “Now we know the identity of the patient on the table,” she said. “I’m hopeful that this conversation can be the first of many about the role of foreign correspondents and celebrity journalists in America and how they cover the developing world.” 
 
 Gupta, a former candidate for US surgeon general, said he was shown several children who were suffering brain injuries. 
 
 In a statement CNN said: “Journalism is not brain surgery. But brain surgery is brain surgery.” 
 
 “We are so proud that Sanjay was one of the few reporters in Nepal to cover the earthquake, and while there was asked to help save a young victim’s life. As we reported he assisted the surgeons at Bir Hospital by performing a craniotomy on a young victim. Some reporting has suggested it was not the young girl we, at the time of our own reporting in the midst of the crisis, believed her to be. We will try to verify that. Regardless, Sanjay spent a week in Nepal, helped save a young life in the operating room, and we couldn’t be prouder of him. He has our full and unequivocal support.” 
 
 Dr Rajiv Jha, the senior neurosurgeon at Bir Hospital who conducted the operation, told the Guardian on Wednesday that Gupta had repeatedly asked to participate in an operation, rather than been requested by medical staff to help. 
 
 “I met him that day. He said he was a reporter and a neurosurgeon too. He said ‘if you need some help, I can help you’. We only had one [theatre] at the time and I had sufficient manpower,” Jha said. 
 
 After “a few hours”, Gupta was allowed to “assist in one of the cases”, Jha said. 
 
 On CNN on Wednesday, Gupta maintained that he had been asked to intervene. 
 
 Jha also said he had been surprised to see footage of the operation broadcast as he had refused to allow CNN to bring a “big camera” into the theatre but believed a colleague of Gupta had filmed the intervention on a cellphone. 
 
 “It was never discussed with me that it would be broadcast ... He never took permission to take film,” Jha told the Guardian. 
 
 There was no immediate response from CNN to the claim. 
 
 Gupta has regularly stepped in to save lives while covering a story for CNN. He treated a two-year-old boy in Iraq, and examined patients on camera after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. 
 
 Ethics experts have previously raised questions over the conflicting instincts of a physician-journalist. 
 
 Connie St Louis, director of the Science Journalism programme at City University in London, told the Guardian in April that she was “really, really worried” about the ethics of filming a journalist’s medical intervention. 
 
 “As a journalist with medical training, do you really need to film the times when you get involved? There’s certainly a possible confidentiality issue, as well as the potential for self-promotion. If you film the journalist doing the medical procedure, they become the story. My feeling is, why do it in Nepal when there is no way you could possibly do this in America?” she said. ||||| Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Prescription and illegal opioids are commonly abused because they are so addictive. 
 
 
 
 Opioid medications bind to the areas of the brain that control pain and emotions, driving up levels of the feel-good hormone dopamine in the brain's reward areas and producing an intense feeling of euphoria. 
 
 
 
 As the brain becomes used to the feelings, it often takes more and more of the drug to produce the same levels of pain relief and well-being, leading to dependence and, later, addiction. Hide Caption 1 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Oxymorphone hydrochloride – Oxymorphone hydrochloride, under the name Opana ER, was at the center of an HIV outbreak in Indiana in 2015. Some addicts began injecting and shared needles increased the spread of HIV. 
 
 
 
 In June, the Food and Drug Administration requested that Opana ER manufacturer Endo Pharmaceuticals pull the drug from the market. It was the first time the agency has asked that a opioid pain medication be pulled "due to the public health consequences of abuse." Endo announced in July that it would pull the drug. Hide Caption 2 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Codeine – Codeine is one of the weakest opioids, often given when painkillers such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen fail to work. Because it decreases activity in the part of the brain that controls coughing, it's frequently mixed with other liquids to develop cough syrups for colds and flu. It has frequently been used for pain relief after removal of tonsils and adenoids in children. 
 
 
 
 After an investigation, the FDA restricted the use of codeine and tramadol in children under 12 and recommend against their use in children between 12 and 18 years of age. Additionally, the FDA has warned breastfeeding mothers not to take these medications due to the risk of serious adverse reactions in breastfed infants. Hide Caption 3 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Heroin – 
 
 
 
 CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta 
 
 
 
 , deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin continue to be the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, rising 14% from 2013 to 2014. You can't get heroin by prescription, but many heroin users start off abusing prescription opioids, then turn to this illegal opioid.CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has reported on recent research that shows today's typical heroin addict starts using at 23, is more likely to live in affluent suburbs and was likely unwittingly led to heroin through painkillers prescribed by his or her doctor. According to the CDC , deaths from overdoses of prescription drugs and heroin continue to be the leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, rising 14% from 2013 to 2014. Hide Caption 4 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Fentanyl – Fentanyl citrate, pictured here, is a Class II controlled substance and one of the most powerful opioids on the market. It's often administered via injection or transdermal patch, or in lozenge form for pain after surgery, for difficult-to-manage chronic pain and for people who have developed a tolerance to other opioids. 
 
 
 
 The type of fentanyl usually associated with overdoses is bought on the street in powder or pill form and is often mixed with heroin in a clandestine lab to increase the high it produces. Street names include Apache, China girl, goodfella, jackpot, murder 8, TNT and Tango and Cash. Hide Caption 5 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Hydrocodone – These pills are a more powerful form of codeine, called hydrocodone, and are often mixed with acetaminophen. Hydrocodone is the most frequently prescribed opioid painkiller, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , and the most abused. An overdose of hydrocodone can cause "cold and clammy skin, severely constricted pupils, and slow breathing that can lead to a loss of consciousness and death." Hide Caption 6 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Oxycodone – Oxycodone is a powerful narcotic pain reliever prescribed for moderate to high pain relief. It's often given in an extended-release formula for patients who will need to be on pain medications for long periods of time. 
 
 
 
 Patients are warned not to break, chew, crush or dissolve extended-release tablets because the rush of oxycodone into the system could cause serious health problems, including overdose and death. 
 
 
 
 Though highly addictive, oxycodone is not thought to be as frequently abused as hydrocodone. OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan and Tylox are some trade-name oxycodone products. Hide Caption 7 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Morphine – Morphine is another powerful opioid often administered via syringe for severe pain. It can come in pill form, usually as extended-release tablets and capsules, and is prescribed only to relieve difficult, chronic pain that cannot be controlled by the use of other pain medications. 
 
 
 
 As with most opioids, mixing medications, drinking alcohol or taking other meds that contain alcohol, or using street drugs while taking morphine, increases the risk of breathing problems or other serious, life-threatening side effects. Hide Caption 8 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Meperidine – Meperidine is another narcotic analgesic, similar to morphine. It's often used to help put people to sleep before an operation and to provide pain relief after childbirth. 
 
 
 
 The most common brand name is Demerol, which comes in both tablet and liquid forms. It is usually taken with or without food every three or four hours as needed for pain. 
 
 
 
 As with all opioids, meperidine can cause drowsiness, so never drive a car or operate machinery after taking it until you know how you will react. Hide Caption 9 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Hydromorphone – 
 
 
 
 Liquid hydromorphone holds the dubious honor of being 
 
 Hydromorphone is another highly potent prescription painkiller. It's most commonly known by the brand names Dilaudid, pictured here, and Exalgo.Liquid hydromorphone holds the dubious honor of being frequently mistaken for morphine in hospital "wrong drug" medication errors because of the similarity of the names and appearances. Hide Caption 10 of 12 
 
 Photos: Opioids: Addictive painkillers Methadone – Though methadone is used to relieve severe chronic pain, it's most commonly known for preventing withdrawal symptoms in patients who were addicted to opioid drugs, as a part of their recovery process. 
 
 
 
 Methadone has many of the same side effects as other opioids, including weakness, headache, nausea and vomiting, stomach pain, sweating, difficulty urinating, mood changes and vision problems, and difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Hide Caption 11 of 12
– He didn't use the word "conflate," but Sanjay Gupta used many other words to try and clarify why a report he filed from Nepal after the April earthquake there was apparently filled with inaccuracies, the Guardian reports. The Global Press Institute, a journalist-training nonprofit, reports not only that Gupta didn't save the life of an 8-year-old girl he claimed to have operated on—it says he actually helped with a surgery on a 14-year-old—but that after Gupta's segment aired, CNN took down a story that accurately reported on the 14-year-old's injuries and put in its place a story that swapped in the 8-year-old's name to match Gupta's report. Gupta tried to clear things up yesterday on CNN, admitting he may have mixed details up during the chaos. "There were many children, many people in the hospital," he said, per the Guardian. "When you report on these kinds of situations, you take lots of different bits of information and you consolidate it and in the end you tell the story." The neurosurgeon who performed the surgery on the older girl also tells the paper that Gupta wasn't asked to help, as Gupta claims, but that he harangued staff until they conceded; the surgeon also says he never gave permission for Gupta's team to film the operation. His statements underscore what some ethics experts are saying is a conflict of interest: being a physician and a journalist and filming your interventions. Meanwhile, the director of the GPI isn't buying Gupta's "things were so crazy" excuse. "A pretty grave mistake was made," she tells the Guardian. "The excuse that things were chaotic shouldn't hold up for any journalist, especially when that journalist is also performing a medical operation." CNN notes it's investigating, adding, "Journalism is not brain surgery. But brain surgery is brain surgery. … Sanjay spent a week in Nepal, helped save a young life in the operating room, and we couldn't be prouder of him. He has our full and unequivocal support." (Read the Global Press Institute's entire damning report.)