While reporting on NASA’s scrubbed Artemis I rocket launch on Saturday morning, news anchor Julie Chin started to experience what she described as “the beginnings of a stroke.”
China was reading the news for an NBC station in Tulsa over the weekend when she started stumbling on her words and acting confused.
“I’m sorry,” Chin told the audience. “Something is going on with me this morning, and I apologize to everybody.”
While making very little fuss, she managed to maintain her composure and pass over to the channel’s meteorologist to comment on the ongoing news.
Fortunately, Chin and her colleagues quickly realized the severity of the situation and dialed 911. Once she reached the hospital, it became evident that her unusual symptoms were most likely “the beginnings of a stroke.”
“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,” Chin said in a Facebook post on Monday.
“The episode seemed to have come out of nowhere. I felt great before our show. However, over the course of several minutes during our newscast, things started to happen. First, I lost partial vision in one eye. A little bit later my hand and arm went numb. Then, I knew I was in big trouble when my mouth would not speak the words that were right in front of me on the teleprompter,” she added.
Chin’s colleagues say she’s recovering well and hopes to be back on the air shortly. In the meantime, she’s hoping to use her traumatic experience to spread awareness to others about strokes and how they can be spotted.
A stroke is a condition that happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. The most common form is an ischaemic stroke, which occurs when a tiny blood clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.
Without its supply of oxygen, your brain cells can quickly be damaged. For some people, the effects may be relatively minor and short-lived, but others may be left with more serious life-changing problems. This can include changes in behavior, emotional changes, memory problems, issues with cognition, paralysis, and more
Prompt treatment can lessen the brain damage that a stroke can cause, so spotting symptoms early and receiving medical attention ASAP can prove crucial.
A simple way to recognize a stroke is using the BE-FAST acronym:
- Balance (Sudden loss of balance, dizziness)
- Eyes (Sudden vision changes, blurred vision)
- Face (One side of the face drooping, ask them to smile to test)
- Arms (One arm becoming numb or weak)
- Speech (Slurred or confused speech)
- Time to call the emergency services.
Source Link: News Anchor Has Stroke Live On Air – Here Are The Signs To Look Out For
