A New York City television weatherman is off-air to recover from a brain injury. WCBS-TV’s Lonnie Quinn, who serves as the lead weather anchor for CBS, announced he’s taking a break to recover from a concussion.
In addition to doing the weather for the New York City CBS station, he also appeared on CBS This Morning Saturday and was heard on WCBS-AM 880 doing weather there.
A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury, is a head injury that disrupts how the brain normally functions, often caused by a blow or jolt to the head or body.
During the March 14th broadcast of WCBS-TV’s evening newscast, anchor Kristine Johnson announced that Quinn, 61, “suffered a concussion” and initially thought he was “doing OK,” which he then revealed was not the case.
As Quinn explained, he recently “took a wallop on my head,” prompting a visit to the hospital and symptoms that he only discovered later on.
“The big concern in the medical community, they want to see if there’s a brain bleed because you can be dead in the morning if you don’t treat that,” Quinn said, confirming that he had a “negative” cat scan. “So I was free to go home. And I got on with my life, as we all do when we bang our heads, right?”
During a recent 11 pm newscast though, Quinn said he lost all vision out of his left eye. “There was no way I could go on. And then just as quickly as it began, it went away. It lasted maybe 15 minutes,” Quinn said.
“When you bang your head, your brain recovers nicely, but it only recovers while the body is sleeping,” he said.
To recover, Quinn is taking at least a 4 week break from working, explaining he will be using this time to rest, perform physical rehab, and undergo cognitive therapy. He said his doctors expect him to make a “100% recovery.”
