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Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher Live Tweets Major Heart Attack, Thankfully Is Okay

by Colby Hall | 10:33 am, September 6th, 2010

» 51 comments

First the good news: Mediaite’s White House and Political Reporter Tommy Christopher is in stable condition after recovering from emergency surgery last night, brought about from a major heart attack he suffered yesterday around 5:00 PM. In Tommy’s inimitable style, he reported on his heart attack via his own Twitter feed, while being rushed to a New Jersey hospital in the back of an ambulance, writing “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!”

The outpouring of Twitter love and support that followed revealed just how much Tommy’s friends and fans truly care about him, and while there is more surgery to come, the worst appears to be behind him. White House press corp peers Jake Tapper and Ed Henry both expressed their concern and support, as did a myriad of other online friends and cohorts of Christopher like Meghan McCain and Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey.

Already some are wondering if Tommy’s live tweeting of his own heart attack is a Social Media first. Writing for WiredUpdate, Joe Brooks reports:

White House corespondent Tommy Christopher with Mediaite.com may have made Social Network history as being the first person ever to update his or her Twitter page while having a heart attack. This claim is unverified and likely inaccurate, but nonetheless, it takes a courageous reporter to inform the public even in personal trying times.

Approximately at 6pm on Sunday afternoon Christopher wrote, “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!” Presumably a few minutes later the paramedics arrived to tell Christopher he will be stable after his crisis.

An hour later Christopher joked about needing to own a cardiac cat, referencing a viral video in which a cat is trying to revive his dead feline friend. He also updated his followers about the pain he was feeling, “even after the morphine.”

It seems that the heart attack Tommy suffered was in fact, very serious, and if not for early intervention, it would likely have been fatal. He has by-pass surgery scheduled for later in the week. When reached by phone, Tommy first lamented that he would be missing a bunch of great news events in the coming week, but was quickly given a new assignment by his editor: a thorough investigation into convalescing and repairing from a major heart attack. Christopher did insist that Mediaite report on the live-tweeting of his heart attack, adding “dude, just make it funny.” (Editors note – its hard to make fun of something as serious as, well.. a heart attack.)

Side note, if there is anything one can do to support Tommy, please follow him on Twitter.

Ed Henry, Jake Tapper, Joe Brooks, Mediaite, Tommy Christopher, White House Press Corps, Wired Update

sarainitaly

I saw this on twitter this morning. Scary! Glad to hear he is on the road to recovery. I can’t believe he was tweeting during it…although, it may have made it less scary.

Sending good thoughts.

(is Tommy a type 1 or type 2 diabetic?)
kenm

I might hate Tommy’s politics but I truly hope he comes out of this ok. However, looking at his picture above, it’s pretty obvious that Tommy needs to lay off the double-bacon cheeseburgers.
Greg

Get well Tommy… You are in my thoughts…
Big Eddie

Good luck , kid . Pay attention to your docs .
tatboy

Good luck Tommy. Try and cut down on the smokes. Your a little to young to have this going on man… take it easy.
BatBoy

Tommy…don’t just cut down on smoking…QUIT smoking.

Don’t worry about Mediaite. It will be there when you get back.

I have told you before to get out of that Hell Hole in Washington…I say it again. Time to recover, move out to the the high country…learn to enjoy the clean air, the blue skies, the wide open spaces, where life is not on the fast track. Out here you can hear the coyotes screaming in the night, the hawks floating on the air currents above by day. Where the only airliner you see is at 30,000 feet and then you only see their contrails.

It truly is the place where the deer and the antelope play…along with some Elk, Bear and a moose or two!

Who knows…you may find out we are pretty nice people after all.

Good luck!
timzank

Like kenm, I abhore a lot of Tommy’s political & social agenda, but I sure hope he comes through ok. As Big Eddie says, pay attention to your (good) Doc’s (while you still have them) and get well fast, after all, when Obamacare kicks in you won’t be so lucky..

Get well Tommy!
niniqw12

My boyfriend a black man.i met him via
— BlackwhiteCupid * C 0 M — It gives you a chance to make your life better and open opportunities for you to meet the attractive interracial singles and treat you like a Queen. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends.
TfT

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery Tommy.
tjl

Thoughts are with you, TC. Get well soon!
BruceGoose

niniqw12 said:
My boyfriend a black man.i met him via
— BlackwhiteCupid * C 0 M — It gives you a chance to make your life better and open opportunities for you to meet the attractive interracial singles and treat you like a Queen. Maybe you wanna check it out or tell your friends.

Hey Tommy Christopher, hurry up and get better so you can check into this for us! Our thoughts are with you man.
FearMonger

Get Well Tommy. I sure hope all your Dr.s are libs!
libra blue

“Side note, if there is anything one can do to support Tommy, please follow him on Twitter”.

This makes me a little suspicious. Not ready to believe the “heart attack” tweeting just yet.
Puter Boi

T.C.
Hurry back….I need to yell at you some more….

Get well!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykRZbOb1c5c&p=EC2C447C2DAF675F&playnext=1&index=19
zombietimeshare

Let me guess, based on his previous writings, he’s going to blame Bush.
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

Listening to Gibbs will cause stress. Don’t let his lies get to you.
PureFreedom

Dont like your views… but get well soon so we all can get back to calling you names!!
Our thoughts will be with you.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

gordonbloyershow says: “Listening to Gibbs will cause stress. Don’t let his lies get to you.”

Reading the comments from reactionary blow hards will cause stress. Get well soon Tommy!
Patrick Henry

Tommy, get well soon! and relax!
AngelPeters

Best to you, Tommy. Do what the doctors tell you. Get strong quick.
Pablo

When you feel the need to tweet your myocardial infarction, you’re spending too much time on the intertubes. I’m not even going to touch blogging about a tweet like that.

Get well fast, Tommy.
Phocus2

Best wishes for a complete recovery so we can continue to disagree.
Calvin

Get well soon, Tommy. Don’t forget to make sure you’ve still got your tonsils.

http://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/5450922283
puck30

Get well soon Tommy, you will be in our prayers.
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

GBR, are you still here after I proved what a liar you are. What happend to that Beck lie about the Washington Monument? I notice none ot other left-wing loonies jump on that with you. I guess they were smarter than you?
Next time read your souce before you make up stuff. LOL.

Also don’t bother Tommy with your nonsense even he didn’t fall for it.
Morgan

Wishing you well Tommy. We’ll pick up where we left off later.
axel360

No matter how much conservatives here might hate Tommy’s politics, we cant hate the man. Get well soon
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Tommy. You’re a hopeless, infuriatingly failed liberal, but you’re also clearly a good guy who makes a valuable contribution to public discourse. I want you back and at 110% by the day after election day so I can say “I told you so” with a clear conscience.
kit9

Oh give me a break, Mediaite. NOBODY stops to effing tweet if they’re really having a ‘major’ heart attack. I can’t believe anybody here is actually buying this.
lazzzlo

Get well soon.
Corvax

Boy I wish I was so cool as to “tweet” my own heart attack…
Rachel Sklar

So nice to see everyone chiming in for Tommy! Well, almost everyone. It wouldn’t be Mediaite if there wasn’t a little healthy (and sometimes unhealthy) disagreement in these parts. @LibraBlue sometimes a joke about tweeting is just a joke about tweeting.
koko001

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Rescuedog

Yowza! Best of luck with the surgery and feel better soon. Take care of yourself.
Some_Dude

Good luck and best wishes Tommy
libra blue

@Rachel Sklar, “sometimes a joke about tweeting is just a joke about tweeting”.

And sometimes it ain’t.

I don’t wish any ill will towards anyone, not even Tommy, but I am just not that gullible. If news bloggers are not masquerading as real commentors to encourage hits on their websites (and according to TV Newser some of you are) they are pulling stunts to get people to follow them on Twitter.

If I don’t trust dishonest cable news channels that have the audacity to call themselves “the most trusted name in news” why should I trust some news blogger?
Some_Dude

You show such integrity and compassion, libra blue. Stay classy.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

gordonbloyershow says: “GBR, are you still here after I proved what a liar you are. What happend to that Beck lie about the Washington Monument?”

Nice try. It was stopped by the Know Nothing Party years BEFORE the Civil War. YOu have an intimacy with that ilk, the Know Nothings. (You must; you support Glenn Beck who’s a certified liar and hypocrite.)

You haven’t proven shitola, Gordon. Keep up the ad homenim attacks though; they inspire me to continue this work on America’s most talented CON man.
WideAwakeNow

How scary.. ..LOL that you tweeted your heart attack!! :O Mr. Christopher….. Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.
http://none pyrope

May God be with you during your time of need and heal your body in a quick and full recovery. I know we will likely never meet but I want you to know that our prayers and thoughts are with you.
C.Moore

tomcable said:
We all hope Tommy gets better, but I’m sorry…I fail to see what’s so heroic about tweeting during a heart attack. It only shows the Tommy some of us know personally: An attention-seeking, insecure writer desperate for acceptance from his peers. Couldn’t you see his hero Olbermann doing the same thing? This act would have been heroic if Tommy warned against the dangers of his chain-smoking, which likely led to this episode. He has been a heavy smoker for years and arrgant about it in the process (as if it makes him Bernstein). Tweeting during a heart attack? Nothing more than another “look at me” moment. Let’s call this for what it is…

Did you know that there’s a new method calling “posting death online’? this whole thing reminded of an article i read about people constantly uploading videos of people actually dying on the internet. videos showing people at their final minutes i bet wanting to be with their families side, instead being a subject of some weird people watching? that’s was this reminded me.
http://lauriebethsgrotto.wordpress.com Laurie Beth

We love you, buddy! Get well soon.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-M-Chick/507482075 Daniel M. Chick

Why in the fuck would anyone live-tweet a massive heart attack? This reeks of stupidity.
Bunny

Tommy, I don’t know how old you are, but you appear to be very young to have had this happen. Having experienced it once, I know you never want to experience it again. Please heed any lifestyle changes your docs recommend. I know from experience with several health issues that it’s a pain in the ass to make those adjustments, but you get used to it quickly and the payoff is well worth it.

May you eventually be the oldest, most prolific tweeter in all of twitterdom! Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery!
Helix

Get well soon, Tommy. We want you in good health and able to report on Sarah Palin’s second inauguration……and other future events!!!
http://SailRabbits.com Magister

@TommyXthoper: Been away from my desk all weekend, so I missed the excitement, but it’s good to know that you’ll be okay. Perhaps, you’ll use this down town to ponder the state of American politics or to refamiliarize yourself with the cable networks, but maybe for your health, you should simply put Ellen on permanent loop and just enjoy the dance.

BTW) TwitPics of pretty nurses are always welcome. Feel better, soon.
xanxna010

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lonestar77

Prayers are with you, Tommy.
Michael_T

Get well Tommy.

Hope you will share your experiences with your health insurance company (good or bad) when you return.

I have a 66-year-old friend who just spent 5 weeks in the hospital, which is putting a major dent in her retirement savings. It’s all very sad … but even more maddening.
Cecelia

Get well soon, Tommy!

All the best!
TFitz

After your heart gets bypassed does that make you a Republican?
Just wondering…
Get well, the sooner the better!
Your Friend,
TFitz