WANE-TV's David Scott is No MD
No, Mr. Scott, his heart did not explode.
The WANE-TV 5:00 P.M. newscast had a story on the cause of death for the Markle man who was found dead in the wreckage of his ultralight aircraft near Huntington Monday.
WANE anchor David Scott said that the Huntington County Coroner's office released a report that stated Richard Woods, 69, of rural Markle, did not die as a result of injuries sustained in the crash. An autopsy was conducted Tuesday.
Mr. Scott said that the autopsy showed Mr. Woods died of "a coronary thrombosis." Mr. Scott then excitedly said something which I doubt was in the script scrolling on the teleprompter. Mr. Scott exclaimed, "That means his heart exploded!"
A coronary thrombosis simply indicates a blockage in blood flow to the heart which results in an infarction, or death of heart muscle. In other words...a heart attack. One's heart does not spontaneously "explode."
I used to think such moronic ad libs were a function of FW being a small TV news market, but it doesn't get better the further you go up the food chain. The other day in Detroit, an anchor said a reporter had been "literally pouring out his heart" for some disadvantaged children. That must have been messy.
Posted by: Nance | April 26, 2006 at 06:42 PM
Geez, I've never studied medicine beyond helping my mother get her EMT license, and I knew that. Who would honestly say something like that?
Posted by: Damian, the Left-Hand Player | April 26, 2006 at 08:12 PM
Thank-you for the post calling this to everyone's attention. I heard this on the news and thought "how many other things that I am not so well-informed on do our newscasters feed incorrectly to me and I believe?" Public retractions would be appropriate, Mr Scott.
Posted by: Karen | April 27, 2006 at 05:54 PM
At 11 PM he left this observation out.However the next morning Terra Brantley said the exact same thing.
Posted by: | April 28, 2006 at 11:27 AM