TV anchor returns with dyslexia after sudden stroke caused by ‘coughing’

A BBC anchor last week returned to work with dyslexia and other disabilities after suffering a sudden stroke last year, reportedly from coughing.

Formula One Presenter Jennie Gow in December was found unresponsive by her husband Jamie and six-year-old daughter Isabelle. She was treated at Frimley Park and St. George’s Hospitals for a “serious” stroke which nearly ended her life. Dr. Thomas Pain, a consultant at Frimley Park Hospital, told BBC that Gow had suffered a viral infection which caused a coughing fit which tore a blood vessel in her carotid artery and allowed a blood clot to enter, causing a stroke.

Now 46, Gow returned to work over the weekend to cover the Dutch Grand Prix, though she faces new challenges. The TV anchor is now dyslexic and features a slight droop on the right side of her face. Her right hand has suffered severe nerve damage and lost sensation. She has suffered a change in taste so that white wine now tastes like vinegar and foods she previously relished she now detests.

But Gow is not the only TV anchor to suffer sudden near-fatal events from a viral infection.

MSNBC anchor Yasmin Vossoughian earlier this year blamed the common cold for her sudden onset of myopericarditis—inflammation of the heart’s lining and muscle—which kept her admitted to the hospital for approximately three weeks. Prior to the incident the 44-year-old had been running seven miles a day and practicing yoga regularly. She did not smoke or drink and was a “pretty healthy person”.

Vossoughian said the heart trouble was “brought on by a virus, a literal common cold.”

In addition to common infections, other possible causes have been put forward recently to explain the rise in sudden strokes and cardiac arrests among otherwise young, healthy people.

Not vaccinating or masking enough, for example, has been blamed for a recent increase in heart attacks. Other culprits of strokes and cardiac events include the sound of an airplane overhead, shoveling snow, skipping breakfast, postal codes, paychecks, parents, “climate change,” loneliness, sleeping positions, soil, and others.