‘He brings it full circle’
Woodruffs speak on dealing with brain injuryBy Amanda Clegg, aclegg@altoonamirror.com
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Journalists Bob and Lee Woodruff know life is unpredictable.
After Bob, an "ABC World News Tonight" anchor, suffered a traumatic brain injury while on assignment in Iraq in 2006, he and his freelance writer wife founded the Bob Woodruff Foundation to help families suffering through what they survived.
"We've lived a life of miracles in so many ways," Bob Woodruff said during a news conference held at the Kazmaier Family Building Thursday afternoon.
The couple, married 21 years, spoke at the Devorris Downtown Center as part of Penn State Altoona's Speaker Series Thursday evening.
"He brings it full circle," Penn State Altoona student Kate Labriola said of Woodruff bringing attention to the suffering of those with brain injuries.
Their book, "In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love, Courage and Healing," about the family's recovery was on shelves in 2007.
"I don't even know to this day why I survived this," he said.
But those he and his wife are helping might.
"My heart goes out to everyone in the military," Lee Woodruff said.
Although she can relate to what the significant others of military personnel go through, she can't count herself among them.
"I am in awe of what they do," she said. "I can't put myself completely in their shoes."
Telling their four kids of different maturity levels what was happening with their father was the most difficult, she said. She said she wanted to convey hope but not go too far.
Bob Woodruff was not expected to live after he was injured when a roadside bomb exploded. In fact, he was tagged as such, he said.
A piece of paper with the word "expected" written across it was laid on his chest as a note to medical personnel that this patient was expected to die, he said.
Doctors who knew what to do to a traumatized brain after performing so many surgeries on wounded military with similar injuries removed 16 centimeters of Woodruff's skull so his brain could swell without restraint, he said.
Woodruff has since returned to ABC, reporting with the "Bob Woodruff Reports" unit, and is also the anchor of a weekly news program on Planet Green, part of the Discovery Channel family.
Hundreds of thousands of troops are returning home with brain injuries, Lee Woodruff said.
There are "so many decisions" military families face with "so few resources," she said.
The Woodruffs want to get other suffering families to where they are now, and Lee Woodruff told the audience to live in the moment twice in the upcoming week.
"We're here. We're present," she said of what she thought during one of her moments. "We made it."
Mirror Staff Writer Amanda Clegg is at 949-7030.
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gordon65
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11-13-09 5:48 PM
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hey tarbaby...Bob Woodruff was injured reporting on the war with very little protection!!! He is not a trained soldier instead he was over there reporting the facts (often times unfavorable to the conservatives)! he is NOT asking for your sympathy but sharing a story & helping others. He is a REAL reporter NOT someone who sits on his butt all day and "express opinions as a voice for the opposition & provide an entertain service"!!! Sound familiar???? REAL reporters are few & far between & when one is imjured (almost fatally)he should be revered and honored. If he gets a Pulitzer,so be it..he deserves it!!!!
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