Rosie O’Donnell recently described a health incident, and has people talking.
In general, Rosie O’Donnell’s take-no-prisoners attitude means that she’s not afraid to call out beloved Oscar winners and treasured talk show hosts alike.
Sometimes, she turns that scrutinizing gaze upon herself.
Rosie recently detailed a health crisis that she witnessed, pondering that person’s peril– and her own response in the moment.
The health crisis that Rosie O’Donnell witnessed was not her own
Recently, Rosie O’Donnell attended a New York Rangers game, which research tells us is a hockey team. She was with her son, Blake O’Donnell, and his new wife, Teresa Garofalow Westervelt.
During the game, a fellow spectator went through what appeared to be a dire health incident.
“Two rows ahead of us, all of a sudden, in the second quarter, the people around this guy get up and start screaming, ‘Medic! Medic! Medic!’” the comedian shared on her TikTok account, as you can watch below.
Continuing her TikTok video, “The guy had just slumped over, and they couldn’t wake him up.”
Rosie O’Donnell interjected during her recollection of the person’s health even that she is “not good in times of crisis like this.” She added that she becomes “very panicked and very loud.”
She then continued: “They were screaming [for] medics. So I get up because the aisle to the left of us was empty, so I could go right down the aisle. And I went to grab the security guy and the people who work there, and I’m screaming, ‘Call 911, we need a medic …’ But loud. And my voice is loud to begin with.”
Rosie O’Donnell’s harrowing tale continues
“This woman runs over, must have been an EMT person, and pretty much jumps over the two rows that were the row in between us and then where the man was sitting, and starts to help him,” Rosie O’Donnell narrated.
“And soon — you know, not soon enough for me — but soon the police were there, and EMT was there,” she described. “And they got him up, and they carried him out and up.”
Rosie then reflected: “How horrible to have a medical emergency in the middle of a crowded stadium and then get put in an ambulance in New York City, where there’s always traffic, you know?”
“Sometimes I so annoy myself,” Rosie O’Donnell admitted when it comes to her “fight or flight” reaction to situations with any level of urgency. “It annoyed my son, too, because he’s like, ‘Mom, you didn’t have to do that.’”
She recalled admitting: “I’m like, ‘I know. I didn’t have to, but I felt like I had to,’ because to sit there in my panic and do nothing was not an option.
“But I’m learning how to deal with that. I’m learning how to deal with that fight or flight response,” Rosie affirmed. “I think I do much better in my normal life and relationships, but I don’t do it better when there’s like a catastrophe emergency.”
Everyone has their own response to an emergency
“I have emergency, catastrophe panic — even anticipatory emergency panic. Like before [Hurricane] Milton, I was a mess,” Rosie O’Donnell described. “You know, all these hurricanes, all this tragedy, the wars. I don’t have a calm way to deal with it or to accept it. My body and my brain just goes, boom.”
Some people are in crisis mode at all times, to the point where an actual emergency feels almost like a relief — like they’ve been training for it all along. Others can fly into a panic over someone else’s situation. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s how heroism takes place.
Rosie O’Donnell also affirmed: “I pray that guy was okay. I don’t know what happened to him.” We, too, hope that he is okay.