Miles O’Brien on Life After Losing a Limb

June 14, 2014 7:56 AM

Life, After. When I tripped, I reached reflexively to break my very real fall with my completely imaginary left hand. My fall was instead broken by my nose, and my nose was broken by my fall. (previously)
posted by Memo (14 comments total)

I'm so glad he has resurfaced. Could never understand why CNN booted him but it looks as if he's had the last laugh. More power to him.
posted by etaoin at 8:16 AM on June 14, 2014

His reaction did strike me as a kind of denial when it first happened. Though, really, what are you going to do?

I wonder if the Pelican case in the background of the picture on the second page is just an odd coincidence.
posted by zsazsa at 8:28 AM on June 14, 2014

I hope I'm not the only one that initially clicked thinking about a certain beloved transporter-chief-turned-chief-engineer...
continues reading
posted by moink at 8:34 AM on June 14, 2014 [21 favorites]

About the denial: he strikes me as the type of person who would embrace any new challenge. And figuring out how to live with one hand is certainly a challenge.

But after all the figuring-out is done, and you are left to just deal with your new limitations, forever and ever... that must be hard.
posted by mantecol at 8:56 AM on June 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

I knew it wasn't Chief O'Brien, because losing an arm wouldn't even be the worst thing to happen to him this week.


Best of luck to Miles in his recovery and his career.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:01 AM on June 14, 2014 [7 favorites]

Reporter Miles O'Brien is Soledad O'Brien's husband; he was often featured on CNN as a science correspondent. This often involved covering NASA events with models of the space shuttles and various satellites as visual aids, while providing mission details in layperson's terms.

Damned if he didn't look like a little kid celebrating their birthday when he did that!
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:41 AM on June 14, 2014

I found the last bit very poignant where he talked about feeling loved and helped in a way he had never appreciated before.
posted by colie at 10:52 AM on June 14, 2014

Reporter Miles O'Brien is Soledad O'Brien's husband

No, this is incorrect. O'Brien is her birth name as well (she is married to an investment banker).

Miles is currently in a relationship with Xeni Jardin [e.g., e.g.].
posted by dhartung at 10:59 AM on June 14, 2014 [8 favorites]

So good to see him back in the saddle. I hope he continues to thrive.
posted by arcticseal at 11:47 AM on June 14, 2014

Around 2002 the Space Shuttle program was on a roll. The ISS was finally getting built, and at a rapid pace. The Challenger accident was in the distant past and NASA had even brought back Barbara Morgan, backup to Christa McAuliffe for the Teacher in Space project that was put to rest after that accident. Budget woes, on the other hand, continued. Delays and technical problems meant that NASA had to keep going back to congress to ask for more money. NASA's previous administrator had just been fired and replaced with a bean counter specifically to get NASA's budget under control. I don't mean to imply any causation, but in that context high level NASA managers had been quietly thinking about flying a journalist on the Shuttle. It certainly would have been newsworthy. Agreements were made and that journalist was going to be Miles O'Brien. Had the Columbia accident not happened he would have flown maybe one or two years later in the 2004-2005 timeframe. Instead he did good work reporting with insight on the Columbia accident and subsequent investigation. He's a good guy and the fact that CNN let him go speaks more about CNN's decline as a news organization than his ability as a reporter. I really hope he has a long, productive, and happy life ahead of him.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 12:24 PM on June 14, 2014 [7 favorites]

Miles is currently in a relationship with Xeni Jardin

Now there's a couple who have endured their share of bad luck.
posted by acb at 4:08 PM on June 14, 2014

Keiko's gonna be pissed.
posted by dr_dank at 5:57 PM on June 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

He's a good guy and the fact that CNN let him go speaks more about CNN's decline as a news organization than his ability as a reporter.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Miles O’Brien slam CNN as the ‘Wal-Mart of journalism’
posted by homunculus at 11:11 PM on June 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Now there's a couple who have endured their share of bad luck."

...and far more than their share of good. Lots of people would give their right eye for their luck, connections, and opportunities. I doubt that either of them consider themselves particularly unlucky or unhappy with their lot in life.
posted by markkraft at 9:00 AM on June 15, 2014 [1 favorite]