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A bad accident on the Rosie show

alledanalledan Member Posts: 19,541
edited March 2002 in General Discussion
Talk Show TragedyMusic Director John McDaniel Crushed When Rosie's Chair Collapses on Top of Him He was Reaching Under the Chair To Retrieve a Dime Just as she sat down;Could Anything Have Been Done to Prevent This Tragedy? Tragedy struck on the set of the Rosie O'donnell show on Thursday, as Rosie's chair collapsed, crushing music director John McDaniel. The accident happened during a break, when McDaniel reached underneath Rosie's chair to retrieve a dime he had dropped. As he did, Rosie sat down and the chair gave way. Doug Dumbar, a stagehand, witnessed the tragedy and told me that he thinks John may have temporarily lost his mind. "John dropped a dime and it rolled under Rosie's chair. Now I always new he was a cheap *, but never in my wildest dreams did I believe he'd take a chance like that over a dime. You'd have to be crazy to reach your hand under there, with her sittin' in that chair. It was a damn deathtrap." Paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes but McDaniel's trip to the hospital was delayed when the ambulance had to stop for fuel. Doctors aren't sure whether the time that elapsed, while the driver was filling the tank, did any extra harm to John, but a hospital spokesman told us that more than likely it didn't make any difference. "His head was basically flattened, so I don't think an extra five minutes here or there would have mattered much." The accident raises the obvious question of whether it could have been avoided or not. Chief Engineer, Rob Ramrod, said he'd expressed concern months ago over the lack of reinforcement on Rosie's chair. "I told everybody that something like this was going to happen, but nobody would listen. I even tried to get them to put a safety fence around her desk. They said it wouldn't look right to the television audience. You can't put that kind of weight on a non-reinforced chair day in day out, without a tragedy occurring. Now look what you got -- a guy with a squashed head." It is still unclear at this time whether or not John will be able to make much of a recovery. Most seem to think that it is just too early to speculate. The hospital spokesman did, however, say that John's music directing days appear over. "I'll put it this way, John learning how to play chopsticks again would be about the best case scenario." As for Rosie, she appeared shaken up over the incident, but she assured everyone that she wouldn't miss a meal over it. She also calmed many of her audience members' fears when she announced that the free cake and cookie feed that had been scheduled for after the show would go on as planned. [This message has been edited by alledan (edited 03-06-2002).]

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