Horrible news from Washington- Stephanie Tubbs Jones died

NoH8

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones Passes Away

By Tim Grieve

Aug 20, 2008

(The Politico) Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) has died in a Cleveland hospital.

Tubbs Jones, 58, was hospitalized Tuesday night after police pulled over her car and found her unconscious behind the wheel.

A Huron Hospital spokeswoman said Tubbs Jones had suffered an aneurysm that caused her to lose consciousness.

As news of Tubbs Jones' hospitalization - and several premature reports of her death - spread across Capitol Hill Wednesday, the congresswoman's staffers gathered in a closed-door meeting.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he and his wife would be leaving Washington to offer "comfort and support" to Tubbs Jones' family.

Police pulled over Tubbs Jones's car in Cleveland around 9 p.m. Tuesday after noticing that it was moving erratically. According to local news reports, the car started rolling again as an officer approached the door. Once the car stopped in a grassy field, police discovered the congresswoman -- unconscious but breathing - in the driver's seat.

The daughter of an airport skycap, Tubbs Jones attended law school at Case Western University and served as a judge and a prosecutor before being elected to Congress in 1998.

She was the first black woman to represent Ohio in the House and served, since 2007, as the chairwoman of the House Ethics Committee.

A strong supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tubbs Jones endorsed Barack Obama in June and was scheduled to attend next week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

NoH8

This is just so sad. Even though she was a Hillary supporter at first, I really, really liked and respected her.

AnnNYC

Googles news at the moment has OLDER stories saying she passed away (47 minutes ago, Bloomberg) and UPDATES saying she remains in critical condition (19 minutes ago, Associated Press).

Beesie

Yup, the latest news has her in critical condition and says that there were erroneous earlier reports that she had died.

What does her political affiliation and who she supported have to do with any of this?  Isn't it sad and unfortunate regardless?

Anonymous

I think "clinically" she is dead.  The doctor said she had little brain function. She's on a respirator.  I'm sure her family is trying to decide what to do next.  Also, perhaps she wanted organs donated.  I'm sounding all morbid, but I do believe she's only living because she's on life support.

I feel so badly for her and her whole family.

Shirley

anneshirley

I've been thinking of her all day; the last I heard she was still alive, but unfortunately her family may need to take her off life support at some point.  My sister-in-law died in the same way; she had a horrible headache at her sister's wedding and collapsed shortly afterwards.  She was on life support for five days but she would never have recovered.  The most painful part was taking her off life support, so my heart goes out to her family.  

I didn't know Representative Jones until the Democratic primary but she was a great supporter of Hillary's and has been an excellent congresswoman.  I hope the news we're hearing is incorrect and that she can recover. 

Just read a minute ago that she died at 6:12 p.m., Ohio time.  Very, very sad. 

abbadoodles

She had a lovely way about her.

AnnNYC

Tina, she certainly did have a lovely way.  Such a sad loss.  She was only 58 -- very scary to me.

(slightly OT: I guess I'm STILL more scared of stroke/aneurysm/heart disease than I am of BC -- since cardiovascular things run in my family, and I always figured that would be what got me)

anneshirley

Ann, Me too.  Everyone in my family (very large) with one exception died from heart problems, some of them quite young, including both grandfathers and one grandmother, and my own father. My mother also died of heart disease, but at the wonderful age of 89.  Both brothers had by-passes in their 50's, everyone has high BP, so I just assumed I wouldn't live to be 70, and rarely thought of cancer, beyond skin problems.  And I still think I'll die of something related to heart disease and not cancer.  Just hope I make it past 70. 

Nothing much one can do about an aneurysm, as I gather that most people are born with them, although Joe Biden is a good example of someone who survived an aneurysm, two I believe.  I wonder if an MRI of the brain would tell if we had an issue.  I had one two years ago and there was no mention of anything beyond some vessel problems that are common as one gets older, particularly someone with high BP.

I guess the only comfort we can find for Congresswoman Jones was that she probably didn't suffer.