Doc: US Rep. Tubbs Jones in critical condition after aneurysm RAW STORY

Published: Wednesday August 20, 2008





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Paper, Dem official initially wrongly reported lawmaker's death

Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress, was hospitalized Wednesday after suffering an aneurysm, her spokeswoman said.



There was confusion as to Tubbs Jones' condition Wednesday afternoon, with her hometown newspaper reporting that she had passed away followed by hospital officials saying she was still alive but in critical condition.



Doctors at Huron Hospital near Cleveland determined that Tubbs Jones has "very limited brain function," Dr. Gus Kious said during a news conference televised on CNN around 2:30 p.m. "She remains in critical condition at present."



Around 1 p.m. Wednesday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an anonymously sourced report that Tubbs Jones had died after being removed from life support.



A Democratic official in Washington also told reporters that Tubbs Jones died, resulting in this Associated Press NewsAlert. It was unclear where the Democratic official got his or her information, but AP killed the alert of her death when a doctor said she was in critical condition.



That post apparently became the basis for subsequent reports of her death. It was unclear whether Tubbs Jones was still connected to life support.



Tubbs Jones, 58, had the aneurysm while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday, spokeswoman Nicole Williams said. The congresswoman's condition had been stabilized at a hospital in East Cleveland, her spokeswoman Nicole Williams said at the time.



According to a statement from police, the lawmaker had been driving erratically and her vehicle crossed from the northbound lanes across the southbound lanes.



An officer pulled a cruiser across the roadway to warn oncoming traffic. The officer reached her vehicle and found Tubbs Jones in medical distress, the statement said.



Tubbs Jones, first elected in 1998, was one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's biggest boosters during the primaries and was to be a superdelegate at next week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.



She went to Congress from the heavily Democratic 11th District around Cleveland.



With wire services.



