Snakebitten reporter on mend

By RANDY DOTINGA - For the North County Times | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:33 AM PDT ∞

Thanks to quick action by a helicopter crew, traffic reporter Jo Eager should be spending plenty more time in the skies above local freeways.

A rescue helicopter plucked Eager from San Diego's Mission Trails Park on May 11 after she was bitten by a rattlesnake. Her recovery hasn't been easy, and she's expected to have to remain in the hospital for the rest of this week.

Still, the veteran traffic reporter ---- heard on KSON, KiFM and KFMB/Channel 8 ---- was in good spirits during a conversation on Tuesday. After blood transfusions and treatment with antivenin, things are "looking pretty optimistic," she said, although doctors don't expect she'll be back on the job for at least a couple of months.

Eager, who's been on the broadcast scene here since the 1990s, was walking in the park with a friend when she heard a rattle. She tried to run, felt a stab of pain and assumed she'd encountered a thorny rose bush. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she'd been bitten in the leg by a rattlesnake. Her friend called 911, other hikers comforted

her as she began to feel tingly, and a helicopter came to the rescue.

According to KFMB-TV, a doctor initially told her that he didn't know if she'd be all right. "I thought I'm not asking him that question again," she said. "Wrong answer, pal."

Now, Eager is walking around the hospital although her leg is swollen, and she hopes to go out for a run on the Fourth of July. Normally, she runs 3.5 miles a day, but struggled to walk three feet last week.

"I set some goals, and thought that would be a good one," she said. "I don't know how long the run will be, though."

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Back in January 2006, I profiled National Public Radio newsman Leroy Sievers and wrote about his public battle with cancer. More than two years later, he is still with us and still sharing his story with the world. Sievers no longer records a weekly podcast for NPR, but he does write several updates each week on a blog at npr.org/blogs/mycancer.

The former war correspondent and executive producer of ABC's "Nightline" reports that both radiation and chemotherapy have failed.

"The chances of the cancer going away, for any length of time, are pretty much zero," he wrote last week. "But that doesn't mean I have to give up all my hope. You never know what might happen.

"Actually, cancer patients pretty much do know what will happen. When we're given that first prognosis, we learn to ignore it. And the next one, too. But the overall theme is pretty clear. The end result isn't really in doubt.

"Still, I'm holding onto that hope. Maybe this is just my way of being stubborn."

In an interview in 2006, he talked about his longtime girlfriend, Laurie Singer, a sports reporter at Channel 8 in the 1970s, and said the public discussion of his cancer helped him atone for remaining a neutral observer during his wartime coverage.

"I've stood over people as they've died, and my camera crew and I were the last thing they ever saw. I felt a need to make up for that," he told me. "I couldn't find the right outlet, until oddly enough I got sick and this came along."

Whatever happens, Sievers is leaving quite a legacy.

Quickies

If you hear someone yell, "Do it live!" and then laugh uncontrollably, don't be alarmed. It's just the latest catchphrase to sweep the Internet. Last week, a video clip emerged of TV and radio talk-show host O'Reilly having a profane meltdown while taping an episode of "Inside Edition" some 20 years ago. O'Reilly becomes more and more frustrated over a teleprompter problem before finally scrunching his face and exploding into a fantastic rage. "Do it live!" is one of the only things he says that can be repeated in a family newspaper. You can check out the video on YouTube. Just remember that it is, as they say, not safe for work. It is, however, utterly hilarious. O'Reilly, meanwhile, acknowledged the video on TV but failed to show any sign of a working sense of humor. â€- L.A. talk station KGIL ---- simulcast on San Diego-area station 540 AM ---- is trying to give its listeners whiplash. Michael Savage, the vicious right-wing talk show host, is now on the air from 7 to 9 a.m. each weekday. Following him is veteran L.A. talker Michael Jackson ---- no, not that Michael Jackson ---- the king of old-fashioned talk radio. You know, the kind that's respectful, intelligent and tirade-free. It's extremely unusual for a talk station to make anything more than a token effort at mixing conservative and liberal talk-show hosts. (Jackson is on the left side of things). It'll be interesting to see if listeners can stand a station that doesn't assume they're righties or lefties.

Randy Dotinga avoids rattlesnakes by never leaving his couch. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.