During the 7 a.m. weather report for the CBS Los Angeles news station, meteorologist Alissa Carlson Schwartz suddenly collapsed on live TV.
As her co-anchors were setting Schwartz up, Schwartz turned white in the face, leaned forward to balance herself on her desk, and slumped forward before falling behind her desk.
Schwartz was hospitalized for a head injury but was soon back to work at the station with a message to prioritize our health. “Sometimes we put ourselves last,” she said. “We go go go until something happens, and then it’s too late.”
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In 2014 Schwartz was diagnosed with a leaky heart valve, which when combined with vasovagal syncope, which Schwartz also deals with, causes fainting spells. According to Mayo Clinic, vasovagal syncope is your body overreacting to certain triggers and, “causes your heart rate and blood pressure to drop suddenly,” resulting in fainting.
Schwartz documented how the moment felt for her. “Initially when this happened, I think a lot of people- including myself – thought I was having a heart attack on the air. That was not the case, thankfully, and my heart has proved that I’m fine. My heart is great.”
She went on to explain how she hadn’t eaten anything yet that morning and was running on several cups of coffee, two risk factors for fainting with vasovagal syncope.
“At that point, I thought, ‘I’m just gonna power through. I’ll be fine as I usually am…’ I could feel the tunnel vision coming and just starting to get black and so I tried bracing myself on that desk but no, it was too late.”
