Oklahoma news anchor Julie Chin has opened up about what it was like for her to have a stroke on live television, and shared the harrowing text message she sent her husband in the midst of the medical emergency.
Julie, who works for NBC affiliate KJRH in Tulsa, was delivering a story about NASA’s canceled Artemis-I launch on Saturday morning, when she suddenly found herself unable to coherently speak.
Bewildered and stuttering, the newscaster tried to push ahead with the broadcast but continued to stumble to get her words out.
‘I’m sorry, something is going on with me this morning and I apologize to everybody,’ she finally said, going off script and tossing the broadcast over to the weather team instead, ‘Let’s just go ahead and send it on to meteorologist Annie Brown.’
News anchor Julie Chin opened up about what it was like for her to have a stroke on live television, and shared the harrowing text she sent her husband in the midst of the emergency
Julie, who works for NBC affiliate KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was delivering a story on Saturday morning, when she suddenly found herself unable to coherently speak
Bewildered and stuttering, the newscaster tried to push ahead with the broadcast but found herself stumbling to get her words out; she then tossed it over to the weather team instead
Now, she has opened up about the horrifying experience, explaining that she ‘felt great’ before it happened.
The reporter, who is in her 40s, said she ‘knew what she was trying to say like the back of her hand,’ but added that it ‘wouldn’t come out of her mouth.’
Now, she has opened up about the horrifying experience, explaining that she ‘felt great’ before it happened
‘I truly felt great that morning, I had a good night of sleep – which y’all know on a morning show, you don’t always have,’ she told the Today show recently.
‘I felt good. And that section that everyone’s seen me struggling with, I wrote that section, I knew what I was trying to say like the back of my hand but it just obviously wouldn’t come out of my mouth.’
After going off the air, Julie said she sent a text to her husband telling him that she needed help, but when she read it back afterwards, it was alarming.
‘I need help. Something is not Run today. My work won’t work is working my help my,’ the message read.
‘I never send messages like that obviously,’ she added to Today. ‘That just shows my state of mind that morning. I just couldn’t put any words together as hard as I tried.’
In a Facebook post afterwards, Julie recalled losing partial vision in her eye, but thinking her ‘contact was not in her eye right.’
The reporter, who is in her 40s, said she ‘knew what she was trying to say like the back of her hand,’ but added that it ‘wouldn’t come out of her mouth’
After going off the air, Julie said she sent a text to her husband telling him that she needed help, but when she read it back afterwards, it was alarming
‘I need help. Something is not Run today. My work won’t work is working my help my,’ the message read
But then, suddenly, her arm and hand went numb and she was unable to read the words on the teleprompter.
‘The episode seemed to have come out of nowhere,’ she wrote. ‘I felt great before our show. However, over the course of several minutes during our newscast, things started to happen.’
As soon as the segment ended, Julie said she got ‘immediate help’ from her coworkers, who ‘recognized she was having a medical emergency’ and called 911.
She gushed on the Today show: ‘I’m so grateful to my coworkers, they’re my heroes.’
She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told her she had suffered from the beginnings of a stroke, but they believed her ‘body corrected itself midway’ so it never became a full-on stroke.
‘I never send messages like that obviously,’ she added to Today. ‘That just shows my state of mind that morning. I just couldn’t put any words together as hard as I tried’
In a Facebook post afterwards, Julie recalled losing partial vision in her eye. Then, suddenly, her arm and hand went numb and she was unable to read the words on the teleprompter
As soon as the segment ended, Julie said she got ‘immediate help’ from her coworkers, who ‘recognized she was having a medical emergency’ and called 911
She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors said she had suffered from the beginnings of a stroke, but they believed her ‘body corrected itself midway’ so it never became a full-on stroke
‘I’m seeing more specialists and more doctors and getting more opinions because we really don’t know what caused this,’ she revealed.
‘Of course, I want to know what caused it so we can prevent it from happening again.’
The anchor concluded by warning others to get help immediately if they think something may be wrong.
‘When it comes to anything medical, if you think you need help, if something is really not right, don’t be afraid to ask for help,’ she stressed. ‘I tried to tough through it and that wasn’t the best thing to do.
‘And for everyone else around, if you see somebody struggling, help them. There’s so much bad stuff in the world but there’s so much good.
‘Here’s my little video clip that’s gone all around the world. It’s maybe not my proudest professional moment, but people have been so kind and they have been so kind and cheering me on and praying for me – our family couldn’t be more grateful.’
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