New Delhi:

Parts of India are being scorched by a heat wave, with maximum temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Celsius to 46 degrees Celsius in many areas. Recently, during the sweltering heat, a TV anchor suffered a sudden drop in blood pressure and fainted while reading heat wave news on live broadcast. Lopamudra Sinha, an anchor at Doordarshan’s Kolkata unit, slurred her words while reciting the message before she passed out. “The teleprompter disappeared and everything went black… I collapsed in my chair,” she said in a video shared on her Facebook page.

Ms Sinha said she collapsed “due to the intense heat and sudden drop in blood pressure”. The anchor also said that the temperature in the studio was extremely high due to a malfunction in the cooling system.

She said she felt sick and thirsty before Thursday morning’s broadcast. “I never bring a water bottle. Whether it is fifteen minutes or half an hour of live broadcast, I have been in the industry for 21 years and I have never felt the need to drink water during the live broadcast. However, even for 15 minutes, I feel thirsty.” When the broadcast ended When the TV showed an image instead of my face, I pointed to the floor manager and asked for a bottle of water,” she said in Bengali.

Ms. Sinha further said that she did not get a chance to drink water as only general stories were played without any bytes. “Towards the end of (the announcement), a byte came through and I took the opportunity to drink some water.”

After drinking water, she somehow finished two stories while two others were still waiting, and she fainted: “While reading a heat wave story, my speech started to become slurred. I was trying to finish my “

Drinking enough fluids is one of the most important things you can do to prevent heat stroke, even indoors.

When she fainted and had water thrown on her face, some men were seen rushing to her aid.

Ms Sinha also apologized to her channel for the incident and thanked producers for managing the broadcast after she collapsed.

“I never thought something like this would happen,” she said.

She also urged viewers to take care of themselves in the hot weather.

The ongoing heat wave affecting parts of Gangetic states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal is the second heat wave this month. The first spell scorched parts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

On Saturday, the maximum temperature was seven to eight degrees above normal at some places. Midnapur and Bankura in West Bengal recorded 44.5 degrees Celsius and 44.6 degrees Celsius respectively.

The heat wave threshold is reached when the maximum temperature at a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in plains, 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas, and 30 degrees Celsius in hilly areas, and deviates from normal values ​​by at least 4.5 degrees. If the deviation from normal temperature exceeds 6.4, a severe heat wave is declared.