Tracy Morgan Collapses at Sundance
The 30 Rock star attempts to debunk rumors he was drinking.
| Posted Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, at 11:38 AM
Photograph by Theo Wargo/Getty Images.
Tracy Morgan collapsed at an awards show at the Sundance Film Festival and was hospitalized in Utah on Sunday evening.
Rumors quickly began circulating that the 30 Rock star was drinking heavily prior to his collapse, but both Morgan's people and a spokesperson for the hospital he was taken to have stressed that neither alcohol nor drugs were involved, according to ABC News.
His publicist released this statement: "From a combination of exhaustion and altitude, Tracy is seeking medical attention … He is with his fiance and grateful to the Park City Medical Center for their care. Any reports of Tracy consuming alcohol are 100-percent false."
That conflicts with what unnamed sources told The Hollywood Reporter. According to them, Morgan was "out of control," and "extremely inebriated, yelling and falling onto the ground" prior to his collapse only moments after being honored at the Creative Coalition Spotlight Awards.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, mild to moderate altitude sickness (or more specifically, acute mountain sickness) has symptoms similar to a hangover: dizziness, loss of appetite, and headaches. It can also cause difficulty sleeping and fatigue, while more severe cases might have symptoms of "decreased consciousness," confusion and an inability to walk in a straight line.
A 2008 Slate Explainer explains that while contrary to popular wisdom alcohol does not metabolize differently or otherwise have a more intense effect at high altitudes, it might moderately exacerbate the symptoms of altitude sickness for those who already have them.
