Part of reporter's arm amputated more than a week after freak accident

May 31, 2000
Web posted at: 3:39 a.m. EDT (0739 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A Los Angeles television reporter who was critically injured last week when an electrical jolt shot through her news van was in critical but stable condition late Tuesday after having part of her left arm amputated.

According to a hospital spokesman, doctors amputated Adrienne Alpert's arm at the elbow on Tuesday in surgery that lasted nearly two hours. Last Friday she had a finger and toe amputated.

Doctors at Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital will likely have to amputate part of Alpert's right foot on Friday, the spokesman said.

Alpert, a general assignment reporter for KABC, suffered third-degree burns over 25 percent of her body in an accident on Monday, May 22. She was tossed from her news van, which was parked near high voltage power lines, when an electrical current jolted the van and set its antenna on fire.

The accident occurred as a number of news organizations were covering a planned seatbelt safety checkpoint in Hollywood.

Alpert has worked for four years as a general assignment reporter for KABC and before that worked for 19 years as an anchor and reporter for KGTV in San Diego.

Los Angeles TV reporter 'progressing slowly' after power-line accident
May 23, 2000
High voltage jolts news van, seriously injures reporter
May 22, 2000

Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center
  •  Grossman Burn Center
Los Angeles Fire Department

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