A team of news presenters were left shocked and concerned when the weather presenter suddenly passed out live on air. You can see the terrifying moment in the video below:
The news team at CBS Los Angeles KCAL News were right in the middle of a morning broadcast at the time, keeping their local viewers right up to date on what had been going on.
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When throwing over to weather presenter Alissa Carlson Schwartz for the 7:00am update on what the day in LA was set to look like, the co-anchors noticed that something wasn’t quite right.
As they were just ending their segment and passing to Alissa, she seemed to take a serious turn for the worse and leaned forward, momentarily putting her head on the desk.
Then, in a single second, she slumped backwards and fell to the floor completely unconscious.
She did try to right herself just beforehand, but her eyes went back in her head before falling down.
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At first, her co-anchors seemed a bit unsure about what to do.
In fairness to them, it’s not a situation that they probably trained for, or one that they find themselves up against regularly.
Eventually, one of them – Rachel Kim - let out an involuntary ‘oh!’ and her co-presenter Nichelle Medina told the viewers: “We’re going to take a quick break now.”
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“Yeah,” her co-host concurred. Then, the network cut the broadcast and went to commercial.
Thankfully, Schwartz later updated everyone about the incident, telling everyone that she’s going to be OK.
“Thanks for the texts, calls [and] messages,” she wrote on Facebook.
“I’m going to be OK.”
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Schwartz had previously suffered a similar incident on TV whilst working for another network.
Back in 2014, she was sick live on air, eventually discovering that it was caused by a leaky heart valve.
Recalling that incident in 2018, she told KGET Bakersfield: "They told me that, eventually, the valve would probably have to be replaced.
“They didn't know when it would wear out.”
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That caused her and her husband to adopt a healthier lifestyle, as they also welcomed a child into the world.
Then, she revisited the doctor.
She continued: "It comes back that the valve had actually started to repair itself.
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“The stem cells from my baby had started to heal my heart.”
As for this latest incident, CBS Los Angeles Vice President and News Director Mike Dello Stritto told TMZ: “I want to thank [Schwarz’s] co-workers who took immediate action to comfort Alissa and call 911. Alissa is being treated at the hospital right now. Hopefully we’ll know more shortly.
“In the meantime, Alissa will be in our thoughts and we’re praying for her to be feeling much better soon.”
Topics: Film and TV, US News, Weather, Los Angeles
Tom Wood