Iowa meteorologist reveals her ALS diagnosis live on air after being accused of being ‘drunk’
Phoebe Tonks
Featured Image Credit: Jeriann Ritter / Facebook
Beloved meteorologist Jeriann Ritter, 49, has been keeping Iowa residents up to date with the weather on WHO13 since 2004 - but on Tuesday she gave a very different forecast for her future as she went public with a devastating health diagnosis.
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, the long standing weather presenter revealed that she has been diagnosed with the progressive neurological condition, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS for short.
“I pray every day that a miracle is going to happen. I keep thinking, ‘It could be something else,’ ” the broadcaster said. “But if the doctors are right, I’m probably done telling you about the weather.”
The rare degenerative disease, which has claimed the lives of high profile names such as Eric Dane and Stephen Hawking, causes progressive paralysis of the muscles, eventually leading to the inability to swallow, speak, move or even breathe independently.
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Crucially the condition has no known cure, and carries with it a life expectancy of around three to five years after diagnosis, however in rare cases, such as that of Hawking, disease progression can be much slower.
In a candid and emotional interview, Ritter revealed that she first began to experience symptoms last summer, when she began to feel numbness in one side of her face and was having some speech difficulties.
As she wasn’t in any pain, she presumed it must be related to her teeth and booked an appointment to see her dentist, however they believed she was suffering from a stroke and sent her for further investigation.
What followed was months of doctor’s appointments and rigorous tests, until finally she was given the devastating diagnosis that she had ALS.
For the entire duration of her search for answers, Ritter continued to work, battling with her health woes privately, but even viewers at home had begun to notice she wasn’t her usual impeccable self.
“Viewers started sending me messages in late November. ‘Are you drunk? Are you okay?’ Those [messages] hit me hard,” she recalled. “People think I’m drunk? I was trying so hard to disguise it.”
“It is killing me that something that came so easy is so hard now,” she added. “When I was having the speech problems on TV but still working, I knew what I was facing but the people watching me did not. It started to open my eyes, you never know what people are going through. So just remember that.”
Although the road ahead is now a tough one, Ritter was quick to assure her fans she isn’t alone, as she praised her husband and her sons for how they had handled the news of her condition.
“They said, ‘Wow Mom, are you gonna fight?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah I’m gonna fight but there’s not a lot you can do,’” she recalled. “So instead, I’m gonna do what I’ve always done for almost 50 years of my life. I’m gonna live and I’m gonna love. And that’s what I’m doing.”
“I’m gonna finish this race strong,” Ritter said, starting to cry. “There is not one ounce of ‘I’m scared.’ It’s like, I’m gonna miss out but I’m gonna have fun doing it.”