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Oklahoma news anchor recovering after on-air stroke

A television news anchor is recovering after she suffered an apparent stroke while reading a news story during a broadcast over the weekend.

Concerned colleagues at Tulsa NBC affiliate KJRH (Channel 2) noticed something unusual with news anchor Julie Chin’s concentration and speech after she started to read the ending of a news package on the Artemis rocket launch.

“Something is going on with me this morning, and I apologize,” Chin said before the broadcast transitioned to a weather segment.

Chin said she knew something was wrong when she lost partial vision in one of her eyes, followed by a numbing sensation in her hand and arm.

“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,” Chin wrote to viewers in a Facebook message. “If you were watching Saturday morning, you know how desperately I tried to steer the show forward, but the words just wouldn’t come.”

Colleagues immediately understood what was going on and promptly called 9-1-1. A producer asked Chin to toss to the station’s meteorologist during the broadcast, then pulled her from the anchor chair, so she could receive medical attention.

Chin was taken to a local hospital, where a doctor diagnosed her with “the beginning of a stroke, but not a full stroke,” she said.

“There are still lots of questions, and lots to follow up on, but the bottom line is I should be just fine,” Chin wrote in her message. She added that it’s “not always obvious when someone has had a stroke, and action is critical.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says around 2,000 people suffer from a stroke each day in the United States. Symptoms of a stroke include trouble with balance, speech, motion in the arms, eye problems and headaches.

Chin will return to work after a period of rest and recovery, a spokesperson at KJRH said.

KJRH is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is an award-winning journalist with more than 10 years of experience covering the business of television and radio broadcasting, streaming services and the overall media industry. In addition to his work as publisher of The Desk, Matthew contributes regularly to StreamTV Insider and KnowTechie, and has worked for several well-known news organizations, including Thomson Reuters, McNaughton Newspapers, Grasswire, Comstock's magazine, KTXL-TV and KGO-TV. Matthew is a member of IRE, a trade organization for investigative reporters and editors, and is based in Northern California.

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