Bill Ritter, an anchor for New York’s ABC 7, apologized on-air for mistakenly saying a recovered coronavirus patient had died.
Ritter was highlighting the story of a local 26-year-old, Jack Allard, who had spent five weeks in the hospital and been in a medically-induced coma. After telling the story of the star athlete’s battle with the coronavirus, Ritter then declared New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had announced the young man’s death Monday.
But when ABC 7 producers rolled the clip, Murphy was not saying Allard had died. In fact, the governor was relaying a happy story about medical personnel clapping as Allard walked out of a local hospital.
“I feel horrible. Jack is very much alive. Jack, we love you,” Bill Ritter said as soon as the clip of Murphy’s comments concluded. He pointed to a story on Allard that had been done by ABC 7 during his hospital stay, adding that it brought Allard and the community closer.
“Again: Jack is alive and back home. He has come home, not in the figurative sense, but in the quite literal sense. My deepest apologies for that; I was just… misread everything and I apologize but he is alive and we are grateful for that,” Ritter finished up.
Watch the whole thing yourself here:
I pulled a clean copy of that ABC7 story. “I feel horrible.” pic.twitter.com/PwiqsM7Pob
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) April 21, 2020