A New York City-based sports reporter, Kim Jones, said on Tuesday that she has been “incredibly lucky” to stay alive after suffering from an aortic dissection while she was covering a Washington Redskins practice in November.
The NFL Network host and reporter told WFAN Radio’s Mike Francesa in Atlanta that her neck got hot on both sides. She is covering Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
She said, “I was at the Redskins [facility] and all of a sudden … I knew it was something out of the ordinary.” “As great as you are, Mike, you and I aren’t here if my aorta ruptures because I’m nowhere.”
Jones further explained that an aortic dissection happens when “the layers of your aorta separate, and that leaves the aorta subject to rupture.”
The sports reporter said Redskins Medical Staff’s team doctor Robin West initially treated her before she was eventually taken to Inova Fairfax Heart and Vascular Institute in northern Virginia, where she spent two weeks.
Jones posted an Instagram video sharing her experience with her followers on Thanksgiving Day. She said she had “almost died,” but she declined to reveal any further details. She posted another video after getting discharged from the hospital. She said, “The surgeons saved my life, against big odds … everyone in this hospital has helped put me back together.”
Speaking with Francesa, Jones said that a cardiologist had explained to her “80 percent (of those who have an aortic dissection) don’t make the hospital.”
She also said that one surgeon told her that aortic dissection had led to the death of an actor and comedian, John Ritter, in 2003. The surgeon said John Ritter went to the hospital but he was misdiagnosed and died. The surgeon further explained to Jones that she came to the hospital and was properly diagnosed and lived.
The sports reporter says that she now “feels great.” Jones, 49, has worked as a full-time NFL Network host and reporter since 2012. Previously, she worked as the clubhouse reporter for New York Yankees telecasts. Also, she worked as a beat reporter covering the New York Giants. She also works as a host on New York-based WFAN Radio.
