Serene Branson Recalls Her Terror at Slurring Words on Live TV

There were signs that something was wrong before CBS 2 TV reporter Serene Branson became suddenly tongue-tied during her live report from the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

"I didn't feel well before that live shot," Branson tells Julie Chen on Thursday's episode of The Talk. "I had a headache. I was having some blurry vision and when I went to open my mouth, obviously you heard, the words were not coming out."

But Branson, who hopes to return to work soon, says she was fully aware when she slurred her speech during her report.

"Seeing [the footage] – it's obviously very disconcerting [and] scary because I know what was going on in my head at the time," she says. "I was terrified."

Branson also tells Chen what she was trying to say in the report: "I knew I wanted to say that Lady Antebellum had swept the Grammys that night," Branson recalls. "But the words were not there for me."

UCLA Medical Center's chief of neurosurgery Dr. Neil Martin says she suffered from a "complex migraine" – a severe headache which can mimic strokes.

View the original article here

Read more...

Doctors Look for Explanation to Serene Branson's Speech Problems

CBS Los Angeles reporter Serene Branson says that she is doing well and that her garbled speech during a live post-Grammys report was not the result of a medical problem, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Emmy-nominated reporter, whom viewers thought may have suffered a stroke or seizure when she became completely incoherent on the air, was immediately examined by paramedics but not hospitalized after the incident.

"The Episode Should Be Taken Seriously"

"This is what we call a class neurological event," Dr. Keith Black, director of the Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, told NBC's 'Today' show. "She was obviously aware that she was having difficulty."

According to Black, Branson's episode was likely the result of a transient ischemic attack, essentially a "blockage in blood flow going to the brain," or a "mini-seizure located in the language area."

The New York Post also spoke to doctors who viewed the tape, and they said that Branson's garbled speech could have resulted from "aphasia, which affects the ability to articulate, and that it could have been brought on by a mini-stroke, a tumor or a circulatory issue."

View the original article here

Read more...