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It's not often a news reporter becomes the news story themselves, but that's what happened this week in Canada. CTV Edmonton's Jessica Robb was live on-air when she began to slur and repeat her words.
Robb was presenting a story on the families of the victims of flight PS752, which was downed by the Iranian military three years ago. Things seemed okay as she began to speak, but before long she lost her train of thought and stumbled on her words. She then said to anchor Nahreman Issa, "Sorry Nahreman, I'm, I'm, I'm not feeling very well right now and I'm about to just..." At that point, her eyes glazed over and the newscast cut away with the anchor promising, "Okay, we'll come back to you and we'll make sure that Jessica, you are doing okay. Thank you."
A few hours after the scary incident, the newscast tweeted that Jessica was feeling better. They wrote, "Thanks to everyone who inquired about our reporter who became ill during the 6 p.m. News. Jessica Robb is feeling better and is now resting." Jessica also tweeted that she was okay, adding, "Thank you to everyone who has reached, my cameraman, @Stmcclune for being there for me, & @NahremanIssaCTV for being an absolute pro (as usual)."
In a later statement, she thanked fans, saying, "To everyone who has reached out with supportive messages of well wishes and concern, thank you. It's been overwhelming, and while I can’t get to all the messages, please know I’ve seen them and appreciate every single one." She also admitted to receiving a wave of negative comments, stating, "I have also received an overwhelming amount of harassment and hatred, tied to false theories about the reason for the incident." As for what happened, Jessica explained, "While I will not share private medical information publicly, I can say that there is no cause for concern, and that my understanding of my own medical background provides a reasonable explanation for what happened."
It's not the first time something like this has occurred during a newscast. In September, an anchor in Tulsa suffered a stroke on-air. Fortunately, she too was okay.