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Thursday, March 31, 2011

WTOP News Anchor Faces Brain Surgery

UPDATE 4/6/11:

"No Complications" With Hillary Howard's Brain Surgery - Former Channel 9/ WUSA reporter Dave Statter posted this on Facebook Tuesday afternoon about his wife, Hillary Howard: "She looks good but is still quite groggy. There were no complications and we had a very positive report from the surgeon, Dr. Michael Lim. Thanks for all of your prayers, support and messages." Hillary, an afternoon drive anchor on all-news WTOP, underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor this morning at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore... (Hat Tip to DCRTV)

DCRTV reports WTOP-FM afternoon news anchor Hillary Howard will be taking a leave from her duties and faces brain surgery.

According to DCRTA Howard posted this on her Facebook page:


"I'm calling the six-weeks beginning Wednesday, March 30th my surgical sabbatical. It'll mark the end of an interesting story that began last November when I fell down the stairs, passed out with flourish in our kitchen and was rushed to the hospital to find out why. It turns out the 'why' was simple. I hit my head during the fall. But, as serendipity would have it, the standard CT scan found something else. There's a tumor on my brain called a meningioma. And I consider this good news. It's almost certainly benign. It's not big and I hope it'll be easy to excise. Meningiomas are pretty common and grow in the protective layer around the brain. Mine is in the right parietal lobe near the top of my head... My pre-op is April 4th at Hopkins. Surgery is April 5th."

Howard, who is married to former Channel 9/WUSA reporter Dave Statter, is a DC radio and TV veteran who has worked at many stations.

According to the WTOP website, Hillary Howard is an award winning Radio and TV reporter who has worked in Washington for more than 20-years.

Originally a radio newsperson in suburban New York, Hillary jumped to television as a weathercaster and reporter in the Catskills. She was a weekend weather forecaster at WAVY-TV in Norfolk, Va., and again at WTTG until taking over the weekend anchor slot. At WUSA she was the morning weather forecaster from 2000 to 2004.

Before her Regional Murrow, SPJ and AP awards at WTOP she won a handful of Emmys for writing, reporting and even weather casting in DC. A story on a local environmental crisis landed her a finalist spot in the NY Film and TV festivals. She was also honored with a national Imagen Award for a story impacting the Hispanic community.

Read more here.

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