NORFOLK, Va. — On Friday, June 13, WTKR News 3 anchor Blaine Stewart suffered a massive heart attack after attending a Nationals game in Washington with friends. It nearly took his life.
In the following days and weeks, the WTKR family awaited eagerly for updates about his condition and progress. With every milestone, we rejoiced.
But his absence was felt every day in our newsroom and in the homes of countless News 3 viewers — viewers who left thousands comments across social media, sent in handwritten letters, and called our tip line to pass along well wishes.
For those who have missed his warm greetings, graceful storytelling, and tack-sharp wit, we are thrilled to report joyous news: Blaine will soon make his return to the anchor desk.
To help him prepare — and, perhaps, shake off some dust — Blaine came to the station on Thursday for the first time in nearly three months to talk with his co-anchor and friend Erin Miller about his road to recovery.
You may watch the full video from their conversation above and read the transcript below. The transcript has been lightly edited for content and readability.
Part 1: The day everything changed
Erin Miller: A lot of people have been so worried about you. From the day you were off air, we started getting questions and comments: “Where’s Blaine? How’s he doing? He’s never gone for longer than two weeks.” I know, obviously, people are really curious about what happened, but they’re also really worried about you too.
Blaine Stewart: First off, it’s so great to be back. Being in a hospital bed, being at home for weeks and months, this place is one of the few things that kept me going, knowing that I can come back to my family here at Channel 3, it meant the world.
I know I was very worried about you and so was everybody else, but for everybody that’s not on social media or hasn’t been able to keep up with the information that you’ve shared, take me back to June 13 from what you can remember. What happened, where were you, what was going on that day?
Well, when you say “remember,” that's key, because I remember nothing about that day. This short-term memory loss is in full effect. What I am told is that I was with some friends and we were in D.C. to go to a baseball game. As we walked out of the hotel, I started feeling terrible and I said, “Hey, I don't know what's wrong. I feel really bad. We've got to get back into the hotel.” When we got back into the hotel lobby, I'm told that I collapsed. There were two Army medics – talk about how things work out – who were there and immediately started working on me. And it was pretty obvious to them that I was having a heart attack. And so they got me to the hospital and, well, it's a little blurry for me, but that's kind of how it went.
What do you remember before the incident? What's your last memory from that day? Was it that day or was it prior to?
That's one of the things I'm still struggling with is memory. I don't remember much of the beginning of the year, much less what happened that day. And that's one of the struggles that I've had is kind of being told all these things. [If someone asks me] “In April, you remember we did this?” [I have] no clue. And that's something that is kind of tough to take.
Especially coming back to a place where everybody remembers you from that day in June. And so for us, everything is fresh. And so having that response might feel a little overwhelming, I can imagine. How have you been able to cope with that?
Yeah, that's one of the things, I just say, “Just think that I don't know and just tell me, and I won't be offended if I knew.”
Going back to that day, what is the first thing you remember after the incident?
It was about, I think, two or three weeks after, I just remember waking up in a hospital bed in D.C. And it took me a while to figure out, where am I? What's going on here? Thankfully, I had so many people who I love visit me in the hospital and they were taking care of me. So that's how I got up to speed.
Was there anything that happened during the incident that is even a memory at all, like that feels like a dream or anything? Or is it just a total blip?
At this point, it's a total blank. And part of me wants it to stay that way because it doesn't seem like it was a good part of my life. But part of me, maybe it's the journalist thing, I want to know everything. Tell me everything. Do you have pictures of this?
I was in the hospital with you and I was taking videos. You asked us to document the moment, and I was taking a vertical video. And you said, “What are you using this for?” And I was like, “I don't know, just to like, keep.” You said, “Well, if you're planning on using this in a news report, you better turn it horizontally.”
Even coming out of a coma, you know, perfection.
Did you expect anything like this to happen? Were you feeling bad leading up to it that day?
Yeah, I'm always tired... When you do our schedule, that's rough. From what I'm told, there was nothing like that that sort of stuck out as being something that would be concerning.
Family history?
Now, that's where it gets a bit messy. The family on my mother's side, a lot of heart issues. My grandmother had her first heart attack in her early 30s. My grandfather died of a heart attack in his early 50s. And knowing that for years, I've just been wondering, is it going to happen to me? When is my heart attack going to happen? And I'll be honest, I have not been, you know, a health enthusiast. I’ll work out some, I’ll try to eat a salad, but I have not been known for being someone who is being as healthy as I should, to say it gently. And so I think I could have done more to sort of, maybe prevent this. I mean, 48, having a heart attack. That's a lot to swallow.
Yeah. I mean, you're young, 48. And you I had talked about that as well, talked about your family history, and I think that's maybe what caused a little bit of apprehension. I don't want to speak for you, but sometimes it can be looked at as, the more you know, the more you can do about it. But I also understand that the more you know, the scarier it is. And sometimes it feels easier to push the can down the road.
Exactly. And I would say it's not a good suggestion, but that's exactly how I have sort of been in life is, I'm just going to hide, don’t tell me, I'll deal with that later. And, well, later is here.
Thankfully, though, you had your best friends with you. Carrie and Owen and Brendan were right there beside you. The medics were in the right place at the right time. They were able to get you in the ambulance to the hospital. From what I understand, they said that you had to be shocked a couple of times too with a defibrillator?
Yeah.
So that's scary too. Your body took a lot of trauma on the way to the hospital.
That's what I hear. I mean, I'll say this: If the people I was with – Brendan, Carrie, Owen – if they weren't there for me, I don't know that I'd be sitting here today. Because I'm told it was a pretty big heart attack. If I was at home hanging out on the couch alone, this might have been completely different.
That's one of the first things I thought about too is, thank goodness you weren't at home. Because you do live alone, and I think that is a reality for a lot of our viewers. A lot of people that are going to be watching this and are looking forward to hearing from you, too [maybe thinking], “Oh no, could this be me?” And it could be any of us.
The biggest thing I've learned from this is, do something. Don't just sit there and think, “Oh well, I'll be fine today,” because I found out the hard way, you never really know that that's going to be the case. I am so fortunate that I am sitting here today and, you know, not six feet under. Every day, I wake up and say, “Wow, I'm alive. I’ll take that today.” I'm not the kind of guy who thinks things like that. I mean, I’m kind of a curmudgeon. And it's different now. I am so grateful to be alive.
I’m so grateful you're alive.
Part 2: The diagnosis and road ahead
Blaine, you had your heart attack back in June. You were in Washington, D.C. You were going to a Nationals game with your best friends that night. You were going to go to Maryland the next day to go see the O's play. What do you remember, if anything at all, from being in the hospital?
One of my first memories of all of this was probably the last week I was in D.C. I just remember waking up and thinking, what the heck just happened?
Was that jarring?
I think because mentally, in addition to the heart attack, I also had some brain injuries involved in that. And so I wasn't really 100% right up there. And so I'm just thinking, “Well, I guess I'm sitting in a hospital.” The first couple of days, I wasn't really sure what was going on.
From what I was told, you were without oxygen for a total of 30 minutes from that first incident.
Yeah.
And the doctors believe, from what you told me, that there were several [heart attacks]. You had at least five heart attacks before the big heart attack. So, on top of all of that and the major heart attack, being down for 30 minutes, that does a lot. So that was a little bit of brain damage, the doctor said, right?
Yeah, that's something they're still working on today. I go to therapy four days a week working on brain stuff, working on getting my physical strength back as well. So it's been a long road so far, and it won't end anytime soon.
Yeah, not going to go into any bodybuilding competitions yet.
Not yet. Maybe next year.
Yeah, maybe we’ll eye 2026. You had so many visitors though in D.C. I mean, Laila flew in from California that night, she slept in your room with you. Your mom and your brother from Montana. All of your best friends from Norfolk. The team here, Jessica and me. I mean, the list can go on, truly, about the amount of people that came to visit you. And I know you know that. I know you don't remember it, but what does that mean to you after you saw the pictures and you heard the stories?
That's what kept me going. And I fully believe that seeing people I love, having them in the room with me, on the phone with me, even just seeing pictures of them. I will tell you, that is what kept me going, knowing that I would get to see them again. I sit and think at home now about, I could very well not be here right now. And that is kind of jarring to think about. And so the fact that I've been given another chance, been through all of that, I'm not taking that for granted.
I think the nurses got tired of us calling the station, because of how many people would call the nurses station to put us on speaker to talk to you. There was music being played, Jessica was praying over you.
That’s what I’m told.
There was so much that was happening. I remember grabbing your hand and I was like, “You hate being touched and hugged, but I'm holding your hand, so just suck it up.”
You know what? I'll deal with it.
But I mean, you and I, that's our relationship. We joke, we make light of things. But it was serious, right?From the doctor’s perspective, from your mom's perspective, how did they break that news to you? And at what point did you realize, “Oh, gosh, this was the most severe heart attack I could have had.”
Part of it, I don't think it's even been sunk in yet. It's still hitting me every day. You know, I stop and think, “Oh yeah, that happened.” So I think that's going to be a long-term recovery, just mentally.
On top of just the normal recovery that you have to go through. I saw some statistic online from the American Heart Association about the type of heart attack that you had. It said something along the lines of, there's a 12% survival rate if you have this heart attack and you're not in a medical facility. I mean, thank goodness that there were the medics there, but what's your reaction to hearing that?
Well, I mean, it's horrible that it happened. But the way it happened, in a strange way, I'm grateful, just in the fact that I was with people. And we were in the lobby of our hotel and there happened to be two Army medics there. What are the odds of that? So they started working on me right away, even before the ambulance came. I would love to be able to meet those two because they saved my life. I think if I would not have been under their care for that 15 or 20 minutes, I might not be sitting here today.
Thank God they were there.
Part 3: The mental and physical recovery
Blaine, I'm so grateful for this conversation to be able to sit down with you in this candid way, and for you to be able to share what you've been through.
Well, I'm glad that I'm here. So it works out.
Yeah. We're both on the same page there. You had a massive heart attack in June. You were in two separate hospitals, one in Washington because that's where it happened. And then you were brought back to one here in Norfolk, closer to home. You were poked, you were prodded, you had operations. I know that was a lot for you to experience and I know that it's a lot for you right now, but it seemed like once you got back here, back home, your recovery hit a new gear. Tell me what it was like when you were in Norfolk and you're familiarized, you can see a familiar skyline. What was that like for you?
I remember even on the ambulance ride from D.C. back to Norfolk, I was like, I can't wait to be in Norfolk. And I wasn't going home, I was going to Sentara Norfolk General – which was also great, by the way, that team that took care of me. Ten stars. But it just felt good to be back in the city. Even though I was in a hospital bed, I had a great view of downtown. Being in the city has helped me.
It does seem like your recovery amplified and you were starting to get stronger, because then you started going through physical therapy and mental therapy, some brain cognition work. Talk to me about what they made you do while you were in the hospital.
Yeah, we did a lot of that. I mean, I had to almost learn how to walk again. You know, I wasn't walking when I first got to Norfolk. I walked down the hospital hallway and, like, people started clapping. [I thought], “What? I can't walk right now?” So that was a long road. And I've done recovery therapy, physical therapy for three days a week now ever since. And I’m just about back to where I want to be.
In the rehab place, we played Wii.
We did play Wii.
While I'm sure it was exhausting, do you think that's also played a role in where you're at right now?
Absolutely. I mean, from the team at Sentara Norfolk General to my mom who has been with me ever since this happened. I mean, every little bit has been a step forward. The one thing I learned was, someone told me: Just keep moving, try a little bit more every day, and before you know it, you'll be there.
It's five minutes on the bike to six minutes on the bike. Are you still having to bike?
Yes, I'm down to two therapies a week now. But yeah, I do the exercise bike, I'm doing treadmill stuff.
Was it hard for you emotionally when there were big strides that probably felt small? Like when you walked down the hallway and people were clapping for you and you’re like, I know how to walk, why is everyone clapping? As such an independent person, was that difficult for you?
Yeah it is. It's hard for me to give up control. It's hard for me to not be able to do everything. So when it hits you as you're trying to walk down a hall, maybe like 20 steps, that someone thinks that's a great accomplishment for you, you do think, “Oh, man, I'm kind of messed up right now.”
Got a long way to go.
Then you look down at the hospital gown and you realize, okay, this happened. Thankfully, kind of early on, someone told me, your job is to get better. Don't worry about Channel 3, don’t worry about the radio station, don't worry about anything else with your life. Your job is to get better. So that's what I tried to focus on.
How did you stay positive?
Sometimes I didn't. There have been nights where I've cried myself to sleep. The emotional part has been kind of rough at times. It makes you realize: okay, one day, you're going to go, so what are you doing now to make the best use of the time that you have? And that's something I'm still struggling to figure out. But I just want to know, okay, why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing?
Well, I think, you know, your calling is here and doing what you do. I'm sorry about the emotional piece. I'm sorry about the physical piece of it, too, but I know sometimes the emotional pieces hurt so much deeper and can't be seen. And that's harder to be acknowledged.
It's been tough, I'll be honest. It gets better every day, I think because I'm doing more things. What I've been saying a million times in all of it is, I just want it to be normal. I want to get back to normal. I want to go back to work. I want to drive my car, which almost. We're almost there. But that's sort of been the struggling thing for me. But when I get to do more things like that, when I get to, you know, just be who I was three months ago, that's all I want. Not that I remember three months ago.
I want to give a quick shout out to your mom too, just because she's been instrumental. The fact that she came here and has been with you every day and is staying with you, and I just think that she deserves a moment. A big clap to Susan, because she's wonderful.
I will say, that woman, she's always been there for me since day one. And having mom with me now I think is why I've done so well. She's the best.
And we know she'll be watching this, because she always does. She always watches. So many people have been waiting for this moment to see you and to hear from you. You are 48 years old. You have a family history of cardiac disease. You suffered a massive, massive heart attack in June, and now you are sitting here with a smile on your face. You are sharing your story in your own words. I mean, just incredible. Has that sunk in and how do you feel about that?
No, it is not sinking in at all yet. I mean, I know what happened, I swallowed the first, sort of layer of feelings and emotions. I think it's starting to hit me more now. I mean, sometimes I'll sit at home on the couch and think, “You weren’t almost here anymore.” I mean, no one ever thinks about death and when that might happen, but, you know, I’m in my 40s. That's still kind of young.
You’re young!
Yeah, we'll go with that.
What changes are you going to make to your life now, if any?
I think there are a few changes that I've already started to make. One is the physical stuff. I've lost 45 pounds so far, which is not a bad thing, especially for the suit shops out there, because I have to buy new clothes. I'm doing more working out with my physical therapy. And emotionally, I think that's the biggest thing for me is just, it’s hard to say it but, like, I'm trying to love life. That sounds so cliché.
Love that!
This is a gift. And as I have learned, tomorrow is not always going to come. And there was a chance a few months ago that it wasn't going to happen. So I just wake up every day. I'm very thankful to be here and to be with some amazing people in my life. Brendan, Carrie, Owen, Janelle, Laila, I mean, I could sit here all day and name people. You. I'm lucky to be here and I'm lucky to have people close to me who look out for me and take care of me. When I opened my eyes the first time in the hospital, I saw like five people waiting for me. This is not the way to do it, but this is certainly a great reminder that you are loved, and I feel it.
You are so loved.
