Fumbling on television is not a new occurrence in the profession, but when it does so because of a sudden health problem, it raises alarm. Recently, an American news anchor started to have a stroke live on air, which caused her to stumble over her words and compelled the broadcast to end on Saturday morning. While reporting on NASA‘s postponed Artemis-I launch, Julie Chin of Tusla NBC station KJRH in Oklahoma suddenly started having difficulty with her speech on air.
About the stroke incident
In a video that was posted on social media, Ms. Chin was seen struggling to speak the lines she was reading from her teleprompter. The video was tweeted by Mike Sington, a Senior Executive at NBCUniversal, and it went viral. Ms Chin struggled to continue the broadcast while confused and stuttering, but she eventually discovered that she was entirely unable to read her script aloud.
“I’m sorry, something is going on with me this morning and I apologise to everybody. Let’s just go ahead and send it on to meteorologist Annie Brown,” she said and quickly tossed the broadcast over to the weather forecaster.
Sington, in his tweet, revealed that the anchor had in fact suffered “the beginnings of a stroke” while she was on the air. “She knew something was wrong, so tossed it to the meteorologist, as her concerned colleagues called 911. She’s fine now, but wanted to share her experience to educate viewers on stroke warning signs,” he wrote.
“I’m glad to share that my tests have all come back great”
Ms Chin was heard attempting to apologise for off-camera as Annie Brown seamlessly took up the show. “Julie, we love you so much, we love you so much,” Ms Brown then said with a laugh as the broadcast cut to her. (sociobits.org) “We all have those days,” she added.
Sington, in a follow-up tweet later, shared a photo of Julie Chin from the hospital saying she was “recovering from the stroke” and was “doing well, and expects to be back at work soon”. Chin took to Facebook late Sunday, saying “the episode seemed to have come out of nowhere. I felt great before our show.”
“The past few days are still a little bit of a mystery, but my doctors believe I had the beginnings of a stroke live on the air Saturday morning. Some of you witnessed it firsthand, and I’m so sorry that happened,” she wrote, thanking for the support and blessings she received. “I’m glad to share that my tests have all come back great,” she wrote on Facebook.