Carrie Fisher in critical condition

[Bob Juch]

She had a heart attack while flying from London to L.A.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

[thguy65]

Very ominous details in the LA Times article.
You don't perform CPR on someone who still has a pulse, and the words "cardiac arrest" are used as well.

If they were able to revive her, I'm sure we will all try to muster Force Vibes for her.

- Tim H.

[triviawayne]

Happened about 15 minutes prior to landing.

She was unresponsive with eyes closed.

EMT on plane did CPR for some time before getting a pulse

[ghostjmf]

My friend who called EMTs for themself, & now has a pacemaker, definitely had a pulse when the EMTs did CPR. It just was a very erratic pulse. Friend was conscious when they applied the defibrilator paddles. Friend says "they hurt".

[SportsFan68]

I was very sorry to learn about this. I think there's not much doubt that her substance abuse contributed to the attack.

I loved her performance in Star Wars: Episode IV and still she think she had the best part.

[Brit Canuck]

Her brother reported to the AP that she's in stable condition. Good news there.
Hope she pulls through; be hard to imagine Episode IX without her (still expecting Ford to appear as a hologram in VIII).



Substance abuse is no joke, though people have previously joked that it started with that Holiday Special in '78 (*'We celebrate a day of peace...'*).

[Bob78164]

Best wishes for her recovery. --Bob

[bazodee]

Once again, TMZ had the best early reporting of this story.
Essay question: what does that say about the state of media today?

[silverscreenselect]

Once again, TMZ had the best early reporting of this story.
Essay question: what does that say about the state of media today?

In a perfect world, it would mean that the real press was too busy working on real stories of national and international importance to devote inordinate resources to covering the illness of an actress who hasn't been relevant in over 30 years.

But, we know better.

And I don't mean to be spiteful to Fisher, who seems like a decent person and who I hope recovers.

[triviawayne]

Once again, TMZ had the best early reporting of this story.
Essay question: what does that say about the state of media today?

It can be a few reasons, but TMZ just may have better access to information in and around LA than the "real" outlets do.

It may (or may not) also mean TMZ is quicker to report with less confirmation than the others.

[Bob Juch]

Once again, TMZ had the best early reporting of this story.
Essay question: what does that say about the state of media today?

It can be a few reasons, but TMZ just may have better access to information in and around LA than the "real" outlets do.

It may (or may not) also mean TMZ is quicker to report with less confirmation than the others.

It's probably due to TMZ paying for new tips.

[Estonut]

Once again, TMZ had the best early reporting of this story.
Essay question: what does that say about the state of media today?

In a perfect world, it would mean that the real press was too busy working on real stories of national and international importance to devote inordinate resources to covering the illness of an actress who hasn't been relevant in over 30 years.

But, we know better.

And I don't mean to be spiteful to Fisher, who seems like a decent person and who I hope recovers.

You don't mean to be spiteful? You just can't help being an asshole?

This is a beloved actress who has, literally, hundreds of various credits since her Star Wars days. WTF have you done in the last 30 years?

[silverscreenselect]

This is a beloved actress who has, literally, hundreds of various credits since her Star Wars days. WTF have you done in the last 30 years?

Nothing, but if I got sick, you wouldn't have dozens of news services breathlessly reporting every development in my condition. We post dozens of obituary notices of actors with comparable acting resumes to Fisher's on the Bored each year, and in a lot of them there's a comment to the effect that the actor had been reported in poor health for some time. But those illnesses don't get reported (nor should they) as Fisher's was. Fisher is "beloved" because Star Wars is beloved and not because of anything in particular she's ever done other than appear in those movies. Yes, her substance problems and the way she dealt with them were newsworthy 25 years ago but that's Hollywood ancient history as well.

And please name me one memorable non-Star Wars role she's had.

The point is that real news agencies should not be covering the state of her health as if it's a major event. If Angela Merkel or Theresa May had a similar episode, you wouldn't see nearly this much attention in the U.S. press, and their health is far more important as far as world events are concerned than Carrie Fisher's is.

Of course far fewer people in this country know who May or Merkel are than Fisher, and that's a big part of our current problem, the same mindset that helped elect a reality television personality as our President.

Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas to everyone.

[elwoodblues]

And please name me one memorable non-Star Wars role she's had.

Are you kidding? She was the Mystery Lady in The Blues Brothers.

[SportsFan68]

And please name me one memorable non-Star Wars role she's had.

Are you kidding? She was the Mystery Lady in The Blues Brothers.

Elwood beat me to it.

[ghostjmf]

What I'm most impressed by in a negative way is that they didn't seem to have a defibrillator on the plane or if they did they didn't use it.

What's most important to me if I ever have a heart attack or stroke is that oxygen gets to my *brain*, so I hope they were doing the kind of CPR that involves breathing into your mouth. In the US they've cut that out in the training "as people think its icky". Yeah, icky & if you don't have a plastic squeegy-bag system to do it with like they do in hospitals, the only way to get oxygen to your brain when your heart isn't beating.

[Ritterskoop]

The most recent time we had Red Cross training, they said there are two levels: the regular kind with the breathing and the community-level kind where you just do chest compressions.

The two reasons they said for the easier level -- which did not include ick factor but that doesn't mean it's not true -- are that it takes two people to do it very well, but also, if you clear the airway first with your fingers, a good chest compression will push air in and out of the lungs anyway. Getting the heart to beat is most important in those first few seconds.

I think every U.S. airplane has a defibrillator. That doesn't mean it was deployed. There are many safety issues with those things -- they lost half a dozen firefighters when they first came out, because not everyone understood that "CLEAR!!!" means don't be touching the body.

[BackInTex]

they lost half a dozen firefighters when they first came out, because not everyone understood that "CLEAR!!!" means don't be touching the body.

I learned that from watching Emergency! back in the 70's.

[mrkelley23]

Many people also don't understand that a defibrillator is not useful when someone's heart has stopped. It's for when the heart is beating too rapidly (fibrillating), in order to shock it back into a normal rhythm. Frankenstein movies aside, you can't jump start a heart with electricity.

[BackInTex]

Many people also don't understand that a defibrillator is not useful when someone's heart has stopped. It's for when the heart is beating too rapidly (fibrillating), in order to shock it back into a normal rhythm. Frankenstein movies aside, you can't jump start a heart with electricity.

That I didn't learn from Emergency! Thanks.

[mrkelley23]

Many people also don't understand that a defibrillator is not useful when someone's heart has stopped. It's for when the heart is beating too rapidly (fibrillating), in order to shock it back into a normal rhythm. Frankenstein movies aside, you can't jump start a heart with electricity.

That I didn't learn from Emergency! Thanks.

Having a son in medical school (yes, I'm chest-beating, but so what?) has made me aware of a lot of the laughably bad medicine on TV and in movies. This one just, well, I was going to say shocked me.

[littlebeast13]

Frankenstein movies aside, you can't jump start a heart with electricity.

I have it on good authority that you can kick start a heart with 80's hair metal...

lb13

[Pastor Fireball]

This is a beloved actress who has, literally, hundreds of various credits since her Star Wars days. WTF have you done in the last 30 years?

Nothing, but if I got sick, you wouldn't have dozens of news services breathlessly reporting every development in my condition. We post dozens of obituary notices of actors with comparable acting resumes to Fisher's on the Bored each year, and in a lot of them there's a comment to the effect that the actor had been reported in poor health for some time. But those illnesses don't get reported (nor should they) as Fisher's was. Fisher is "beloved" because Star Wars is beloved and not because of anything in particular she's ever done other than appear in those movies. Yes, her substance problems and the way she dealt with them were newsworthy 25 years ago but that's Hollywood ancient history as well.

And please name me one memorable non-Star Wars role she's had.

The point is that real news agencies should not be covering the state of her health as if it's a major event. If Angela Merkel or Theresa May had a similar episode, you wouldn't see nearly this much attention in the U.S. press, and their health is far more important as far as world events are concerned than Carrie Fisher's is.

Of course far fewer people in this country know who May or Merkel are than Fisher, and that's a big part of our current problem, the same mindset that helped elect a reality television personality as our President.

Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas to everyone.

This. Exactly.

The complicity of the mainstream media is directly responsible for electing a leaky whoopee cushion filled with expired cottage cheese. The media have spent over 30 years crafting the image of Drumpf as this "great businessman" and "great builder", all while sweeping the broken promises, the bankruptcies, the tax dodging, the fraud cases, and the sexual assaults under the rug. Hell, the media have spent the past 20 years practically begging Drumpf to run for president. If the media had done their job on day one, Drumpf wouldn't even have been a national celebrity, much less the 2016 Republican nominee or the president-elect. He would still be some real estate dude known only within the NYC metropolitan area. But no, the media care more about the ratings and the money than they do about fulfilling a public service. In a short fifteen years, our country has gone from "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" to "GE College Bowl" then, in January 2017, to "The Running Man".

On a related note, all of this laziness and fluffing by the mainstream media has led to the message being controlled lately by fake media "sources" and slanderous conspiracy theorists, such as InfoWhores founder and sandpaper buttplug Alex Jones. Not content with destroying Christianity and America, the trolls decided a couple of days ago to destroy America's favorite game show. The latest tinfoil asshattery from InfoWhores and their ilk: Recent "Jeopardy!" champion Cindy Stowell faked
her death and that several episodes of "Jeopardy!" were scripted in order to generate empathy for cancer patients... you know, because caring for other people is something that only cucks would do. Cucks like... oh, I don't know... Jesus?! Classy.

If you need further proof of the devolution of the American media, just go back about a decade. Remember Anna Nicole Smith? A washed-up fashion model who married a rich geezer and fought over his inheritance money... and the media covered her life and death as if she was f**king Queen Elizabeth. Oh, and does the name Falcon Heene ring any bells for anybody?

Spoiler

He was the subject of the Balloon Boy hoax in 2009.

(I put up the spoiler space to see if you can guess the story without looking it up.) The entire American media fell for that story--hook, line, and sinker. And what's the connection between Anna Nicole Smith and the Heene family? You guessed it! Reality TV. Anna Nicole mumbled and stumbled her way through three seasons of her own E! reality series, while Falcon's dad was peddling his own reality series concept.

*Elton John singing* It's the cirrrrrrrrrcle of life!

[triviawayne]

and 2016 claims another one

[SportsFan68]

What I was afraid of was that she would start 2017 off on the wrong foot. This is just as bad.