A morning news anchor in Oklahoma is in the hospital after she suffered what her doctors called the “beginnings of a stroke” live on the air over the weekend.
Julie Chin of Tulsa’s NBC affiliate KJRH was reporting on NASA’s now-canceled Artemis I launch at 8:45 a.m. CT Saturday morning. She became visibly confused and was unable to read the words on the teleprompter.
In spite of multiple attempts to start over and continue the report, Chin surrendered something was not right.
“I’m sorry, something is going on with me this morning and I apologize to everybody,” she said. “Let’s just go ahead and send it on to meteorologist Annie Brown.
Brown took over and finished the newscast. Chin did not return to air.
On Sunday night, the veteran Tulsa anchor updated her followers on the situation and apologized.
“I’m so glad to tell you I’m OK,” she wrote on Facebook. “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.”
Chin added:
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. If you were watching Saturday morning, you know how desperately I tried to steer the show forward, but the words just wouldn’t come.
Chin said her colleagues in the newsroom immediately phoned 9-1-1.
“I’m glad to share that my tests have all come back great,” she wrote. “At this point, doctors think I had the beginnings of a stroke, but not a full stroke. There are still lots of questions, and lots to follow up on, but the bottom line is I should be just fine.”
Chin said she hopes to be back in the actor’s chair in a few days and asked her followers to educate themselves on the potential warning signs of a stroke.
Watch above, via KJRH.
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