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When Lee Woodruff found out that her husband, ABC News Anchor Bob Woodruff, was severely injured while embedded with the military in Iraq, a roller coaster 5-year-long recovery began it’s sometimes ugly ascent.
The newsman suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) when an explosive device detonated near a tank he was in.
According to a medic following the case, “When the bomb exploded, hundreds of pieces of rock and shrapnel embedded into Bob’s face, neck, and back.” Subsequently, his skull was shattered.
Physicians and specialists wondered if he would ever walk or talk again. It was a question if he would even regain minimal mental function. After 36 days in a coma, he woke up to motor and cognitive functions that were severely limited. He was unable to identify easy words.
But this news anchor was determined to recover. And though the 5-year recovery was long and arduous and sometimes seemed unattainable, he persevered.
Today, apart from lasting and mild aphasia, the loss of previous language ability, he has recovered and is again a father and husband – and even a journalist back at ABC News.
According to Lee, her husband recovered beautifully, but so many others don’t have the chance to. Many times, this is because they lack the long-term financial and emotional support necessary for such an intense recovery process.
Because of their journey, the Woodruff family decided it was important for them to “give something back – to make something positive come out of something so negative. Goodness and healing need to emerge from such a devastating event.”
The family founded the Bob Woodruff Foundation in Manassas, Virginia. The foundation is a national nonprofit organization that is striving to reach service members, support personnel, veterans and their families with monetary support to help them recover from TBIs… brain injury.
A source reveals that foundations like the Woodruff’s have plenty of possibly patients to support.
According to a U.S. Department of Defense’s report, more than 19% of returning service members have experienced a TBI (that equates to roughly 380,000 men and women). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms have been self-reported at 90 and 180 day post-deployment checkups at a rate of 9%. More than 27% report depression symptoms at those same checkups. Hospitals in Queens and Staten island have studied these facts.
New York Brain Injury Law Offices continuously help service men and women, and civilians alike, in obtaining support and/or compensation from responsible parties. When injured on the job, insurance companies can be persuaded, or forced by judgment, to pay you fairly. Seek the competent aid of a New York Brain Injury Attorney today.