The newsroom at a New York City television station is mourning the death of a 49-year-old reporter who suffered a catastrophic brain aneurysm after covering a fire and reporting live from the scene.
WABC Eyewitness News reporter Lisa Colagrossi collapsed suddenly Thursday morning while returning from a breaking-news assignment that took her to Queens to report on a four-alarm house fire.
The New York Daily News said Colagrossi was placed on life support at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan and never regained consciousness.
Her family was at her bedside when doctors broke the sad news that chances of a recovery were unlikely. She was pronounced dead Friday.
Her tragic death left the newsroom in shock.
“Lisa Colagrossi embodied the Eyewitness News spirit—a straightforward reporter who told the truth, empathetic to the everyday citizens of the New York area, and demanding of those in power,” WABC-TV president and general manager Dave Davis, said in a statement.
A friend told the News that Colagrossi was in the news van after finishing her live shot when she said, “Oh my God, something is wrong.”
Her cameraman flagged down an ambulance and she was taken to the hospital.
Colagrossi joined Eyewitness News the Sunday after the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center. She covered many major New York stories, including Hurricane Sandy. She came to New York from Orlando where she was an Emmy award-winning anchor at WKMG. She was from Cleveland and also worked at a station there.
“Lisa will be terribly missed,” Channel 7 news director Camille Edwards said. “Her bright smile and big blue eyes lit up our newsroom. She was a reporter with two wonderful qualities: grace and grit.”
Survivors include her husband and two sons, 11 and 14.
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