Screengrab of the video posted on Facebook.
Credit: Facebook/lopamudra.sinha.14
A TV anchor fainted while reading heatwave updates live on air due to a sudden drop in blood pressure, several publication reported on Sunday.
Lopamudra Sinha, a Doordarshan anchor in Kolkata, could be heard slurring as she read the information before blacking out.
Sharing the video on her Facebook page, Lopamudra said, "The teleprompter faded away and I blacked out. But luckily, it happened while a 30 to 40 seconds animation was playing out on television. During that time, I collapsed on my chair."
Lopamudra claimed that she fainted due to intense heat and because her blood pressure plummeted suddenly.
She also stated that the studio was extremely hot due to some snag in the cooling system. She also mentioned feeling ill and parched prior to Thursday's morning broadcast.
"I never keep a water bottle with me. Be it a fifteen-minute or half an hour broadcast, I have never felt the need to sip water during broadcasts in my 21 years of career. But, I felt parched even as 15 minutes were left for the broadcast to end. When the TV was showing visuals and not my face, I pointed to the floor manager and asked for a bottle of water," the anchor said in Bangla.
Furthermore, she claimed that because as general stories were running without any bytes, she was not getting a chance to drink any water.
"Towards the end (of the bulletin), a byte came and I used the opportunity to drink some water," she added.
She somehow finished reading two stories after consuming the water, and two more were unfinished when she fainted. She said that her speech began to slur while she was reading a heatwave story.
Some men were seen rushing to her aid as she passed out and splashed water on her face.
Sinha also apologised to her channel for the incident and thanked the producers for handling the broadcast after she fainted.