Live broadcasts are usually meticulously preplanned and everyone knows what to do at any given moment because you can’t retake a shot or a scene. It requires a lot of professionalism and it is something you can learn, but even then, there is a possibility of something unexpected happening.
The person on TV can make a genuine mistake or it can be something out of their control, like the electricity going down or, as it happened to an Oklahoma news anchor Julie Chin, you may not understand why it is so hard to do your job, only to later find out you were experiencing the beginnings of a stroke.
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It is not usual for news anchors to struggle with reading the teleprompter so when it happened to Julie Chin, she realized something was wrong
Image credits: Mike Sington
On Saturday morning, September 3, a reporter with NBC affiliate KJRH of Tulsa, Julie Chin, was live on TV presenting the news and seemingly struggling to get through the report about an event which was celebrating the launch of Artemis 1, a flight test without a crew orbiting the Moon.
What people watching the live broadcast didn’t know were the other symptoms that the news anchor was experiencing. In a Facebook post she shared that first of all, she lost partial vision in one eye, and while talking with Today Show, she revealed that her thought was that her contact was not sitting right.
After a while, Julie’s hand and arm went numb, but the moment she realized something was really wrong with her was when she couldn’t say the words she was seeing on the teleprompter, especially because she was the one who wrote the segment and knew it by heart.
Image credits: MikeSington
Even before she struggled to get words out of her mouth, she noticed that her vision was impaired and her arm and hand felt numb
Image credits: Julie Chin
Julie was trying to get through the report and finish it, but she was stumbling over her words and trying to start over. Realizing she couldn’t continue, the reporter apologized to the viewers, “I'm sorry, something is going on with me this morning and I apologize to everybody" before gracefully passing on the word to the weather broadcaster.
Julie’s wonderful colleagues understood right away that the woman was having a medical episode, so they called 911 and the news reporter was hospitalized for several days. In the Facebook post, she shouted out to Anne, Jordan, TJ, and Kaden for their quick reaction.
Image credits: Julie Chin
Now the woman is feeling great and all of her tests that she had done in the hospital came back without an indication of something serious. Her doctors told her that they aren’t completely sure what happened but they suspect that Julie was having the beginning of a stroke, meaning that her body corrected itself without having a full stroke, as she explained to the Today Show.
For now, Julie is seeking second opinions to find out what caused her to feel the way she did because she is only in her 40s and as far as she knows, there is no early stroke history in her family. On top of that, it was so sudden and she actually felt great before the show as she came well-slept and in a good mood.
The woman was confused as to what was happening because she had a good night's sleep and was feeling great that morning
Image credits: Julie Chin
Even though it wasn’t the proudest moment in Julie’s career, the woman is grateful for the positive response and all the support she received. She is also glad that something good came out of it as that clip traveled around the world followed by a message of how to recognize strokes and the importance of listening to your body and asking for help when you need it.
The news reporter reminded people about the BE FAST acronym which stands for balance issues, eyesight changes, face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty and time to call 911. But she also added that “when it comes to anything medical, if you think you need help, if something’s really not right, don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
However, Julie doesn’t think she is the best example to follow because she tried to tough through it and now realizes that it wasn’t the best course of action.
She decided to pass the word to the meteorologist and in the meantime, other colleagues called 911 because they realized Julie was having a stroke
Image credits: Julie Chin
Not-for-profit health care organization Scripps stresses the importance of recognizing symptoms of a stroke and seeking help as “getting fast treatment can prevent death and disability from stroke.”
It is not only important to recognize and treat a stroke, but it is also essential to try to implement habits that would lower the risk of having one altogether.
Although it is not possible to prevent strokes completely because there are things like age, family history, ethnicity and your medical history that you can’t change, which determine your risk of having a stroke, there are measures you can take to prevent both types of strokes.
The woman was hospitalized for several days but now is feeling great, so the quick reaction was what allowed her to not experience any serious consequences
Image credits: Julie Chin
There are two types of strokes and the more common type is an ischaemic stroke, which “happens when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain,” according to the NHS.
Blood clots form when arteries become too narrow and of course, they can be narrow naturally and become narrower with time, but smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol level, diabetes and excessive alcohol intake speed up the process and puts you at a higher risk of experiencing a stroke.
That is why she reminded people of the BE FAST acronym helping to recognize stroke symptoms and encouraged people to seek help if they have any medical concerns
Image credits: Julie Chin
Another type of strokes are haemorrhagic strokes, which happen when a “a blood vessel inside the skull bursts and bleeds into and around the brain.” You increase the risk of having such a stroke if you are overweight, you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, you smoke, don’t exercise and deal with a lot of stress.
To sum it up, to help prevent a stroke, you should follow a healthy diet, exercise regularly and avoid smoking and drinking too much alcohol, because that helps keep arteries a normal width and helps keep the blood pressure and cholesterol at a normal level, which makes it less likely for the arteries to get clogged up or for blood vessels to burst.
People online were glad Julie was recovering and shared their own stories which show that it can happen to anyone and at any age
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