TV News Reporter Leaves Hospital

As she was released from the hospital Wednesday, TV news reporter Adrienne Alpert said she hopes to return to work as soon as possible despite being burned so severely in a May news van explosion that parts of her left arm and right leg had to be amputated.

“From the knees up and the elbows in, I’m the same person,” Alpert said in a news conference attended by reporters and cameramen she has worked alongside for years. “I’m hoping to be standing on the other side of these cameras one of these days.”

For the veteran TV reporter, the event was a chance to thank viewers who sent her thousands of letters and to see old friends.

“Boy, is it good to see you guys,” she said outside Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, where she has been a patient since the May 22 accident. She suffered fourth-degree burns when the microwave antenna from a KABC-TV broadcast van grazed or came near a 34,500-volt power line.

“It was an accident. It could have happened to any of us,” Alpert said. “I hope what happened to me stops it from happening again.”

Alpert’s co-workers are awaiting her eventual return, said Arnold Kleiner, president and general manager of KABC-TV.

“We are looking forward to the day when she is back at work reporting ‘Eyewitness News’ for KABC,” Kleiner said.

Alpert will spend at least the next three months in a Northridge rehabilitation center, where she will be fitted with prostheses and undergo intensive physical therapy.

“I’m wanting for nothing except for a few limbs, which I’m going to get now,” Alpert said. “I’m going to live my life the best I can.”

She acknowledged she was “scared to death” to leave the Grossman Burn Center, crediting doctors there with saving her life.

A. Richard Grossman, the center’s founder and medical director, said Alpert’s positive attitude helped her recovery.

“It’s the spirit of Adrienne, her family and friends that have done it,” Grossman said.

Alpert’s husband, Barry Paulk, and their 7-year-old son, Michael, brought her dinner every night. While she is eager to return to her job, she said it was her role as a mother that inspired her recovery.

“I never gave up,” Alpert said. “I have a little boy at home.”

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Bill Jensen, a Glendale firefighter who nearly died four years ago after suffering severe burns battling a wildfire, returned to the burn center Wednesday to wish Alpert well. Alpert covered news conferences held at the center when Jensen was the patient.

“We’ve become good friends,” Jensen said. “The relationship between burn survivors goes way beyond the hospital. You make a whole group of friends for life.”

KCBS reporter Mark Coogan, who worked with Alpert for several years at KABC and has known her for 18 years, said the accident had a dramatic effect on news van safety.

“In this business, you drive as fast as you can and hope you don’t get a ticket,” he said. “You put up the mast as fast as you can. It’s scary because you think of all the reckless stuff you’ve done near power lines. You look at Adrienne and say, that could be me. Since May 22, everyone has been a whole lot more careful.”