NBC News correspondent David Bloom is
shown in this undated handout photo.
Bloom, who has been reporting on the war
from the Iraqi desert, died from a
pulmonary embolism, Sunday, April 6,
2003, the network announced. Bloom was
the anchor of the weekend Today show
and had been traveling with U.S. troops
for several weeks in Iraq. He was 39.
(AP Photo/NBC News, HO) |
NEW YORK - NBC News correspondent David
Bloom, one of the most recognizable reporters covering the war from the
Iraqi desert, collapsed Sunday and died from a blood clot, the network
said.
The 39-year-old co-anchor of the weekend
"Today" show was traveling with troops about 25 miles south of Baghdad
when he suddenly collapsed, said Allison Gollust, a spokeswoman for NBC
News.
He was airlifted to a nearby field medical
unit, where he was pronounced dead from a pulmonary embolism, Gollust said.
She said his death was not combat related.
Bloom, a native of Edina, Minn., lived
in the New York area with his wife, Melanie, and three daughters. He had
been on assignment in Iraq for several weeks, reporting from the middle
of desert sand storms and while columns of military vehicles rumbled toward
Baghdad.
"You couldn't keep him away from a story,"
Tim Russert, the network's Washington bureau chief, said Sunday. "Whenever
something was breaking, he wanted to be there."
Bloom had been the co-anchor of the weekend
"Today" show since March 2000. On Sunday, his co-anchor Soledad O'Brien
described him as "a dedicated, tenacious and talented reporter."
"He died doing what he loved, and doing
what he did best," she said. |