Journalist Bob Woodruff had reached the top of his profession when his life changed in an instant.Several weeks after he was named as co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, Woodruff and his cameraman were gravely injured by a roadside bomb while reporting in Iraq.
Thirteen months after the attack, he and his wife, Lee Woodruff, have written In an Instant, a book about his experiences in Iraq and how the couple recovered together.
The narration switches between Woodruff and his wife, who flew to Germany after his injury. Woodruff spent 35 days in a coma.
“It was like being on the other side of the moon, to see my husband’s face,” says Lee Woodruff.
Despite the crushing injury and months of uncertainty and physical therapy, Woodruff’s outlook remains positive.
“He is basically a happy person,” Lee Woodruff says of her husband. “I’ve never heard a moment of bitterness come out of his mouth.”
The Woodruffs spoke with Renee Montaigne about what life is like after the injury, shifting their priorities and how the experience has changed them.
To hear the interview with the Woodruffs, link to National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7618702
My friend Mike has been diagnosed with severe PTSD as a result of his service in the war on terror. We will report on whatever Mike wants to discuss in a day or two but I’ll just give my own impressions. Mike loves his country. He volunteered to join the Army and he volunteered to serve in the war. He had no idea what he would suffer through in combat.
Our stories on PTSD are all here on this site. Word search PTSD.
–John E. Carey
March 1, 2007 at 8:21 am |
I DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY OR RATHER I CAN’T SAY. (MY MIND IS MESSED UP RIGHT NOW) THE PTSD IS BACK WORSE THAN EVER THANKS TO THE CITY ATTORNEY THAT DECIDED I WAS NOT DISABLED EVEN THOUGH THE VA, THE SSA, THE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISION, THE DEPT OF VOC REHAB ETC. ETC. ETC. ALL RATE ME AS 100% PERMANENTLY AND TOTALLY, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY COMBAT DISABLED. AW HELL BACK TO BEING HOUSEBOUND, FLASHBACKS, ONLY WORSE THIS TIME DUE TO AGE ETC. THANKS TO HER AND THE OTHER COWARDS i LOST MY HOME, BUSINESS, FIANCE, FAMILY, CREDIT, ETC. ETC. MY LIFE IS SHORTENED AND WHAT IS LEFT IS OF POOR QUALITY. ALMOST LOST MY LEGS .
AN OLD TIRED NAM VET WHO HAS BEEN ABONDONED AND LEFT BEHIND. GOOD LUCK TO YOU AND ALL THE YOUNGSTERS WHO ARE GOING TO HAVE TO KNOW PTSD INTIMATELY.
March 2, 2007 at 12:38 am |
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March 2, 2007 at 10:53 am |
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March 5, 2007 at 7:19 pm |
My heart breaks for the many servicemen and women who are serving our country in such dangerous places as Iran and Afghanistan. Many of them have already been killed and others are returning home so maimed and in such pain – that life will never be the same. Please – if only the Government would get more solidly behind these service people and give them and their families the support they so much need. Thank you all for your dedication and service to our great countries – Canada and the United States of America.
March 21, 2007 at 6:34 am |
[...] http://johnib.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/war-changing-lives-in-an-instant-bob-woodruff-and-mike-who-ha… [...]
March 25, 2007 at 3:38 pm |
I’m a retired (1999) Army colonel who went through the Army’s disability evaluation system (DES) in 1998 and was found fit for duty. I retired for longevity out of concern for my health. I unsuccessfully appealed to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records twice after I was awarded VA disability compensation and Social Security disability insurance from the first day of my retirement for the ailments the Army determined didn’t make me unfit for duty. I then fought the decisions in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims where the judge ruled the Army denied me my due process rights and remanded my case to the Secretary of the Army. Only after an alternative dispute resolution judge advised the government lawyer that it would be wise for the government to settle my case did the government agree to a Settlement Agreement. I know the sytem well becasue I represented myself.
Deficiencies in outpatient care and physical facilities can be corrected rather quickly by adding medical and administrative personnel and fixing the living areas. Reforming an archaic, unfair disability evaluation process, however, requires drastic changes. When a solider is unlawfully denied disability retirement with intentionally erroneous application of the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities, arbitrary findings that a condition existed prior to service or that it doesn’t contribute to unfitness, or that a soldier is fit for duty when he or she isn’t, that soldier, and his or her family, suffers for life. VA disability compensation cannot take the place of disability retirement with lifetime health care for a spouse and up to adulthood for children, access to the survivor benefit plan, commissary, legal services, PX and other such benefits.
Medical Evaluation Boards are staffed with doctors who are not board certified or trained to perform impairment examinations and write their concomitant reports. Interns are authorized to write the Narrative Summary (NARSUM), the most important medical evaluation document in determining fitness.
A Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) is staffed by officers qualified as disability evaluators after 5-days training and physicians who might not be specialized in the ailments under evaluation. I’d bet none is member of the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians. It takes years to train disaiblity evaluators at the VA and Social Security. PEB members have no published job requirements by military occupational specialty and rank, the statutory and regulatory standard for determining fitness for duty.
Congress, DoD, and the services can investigate and promulgate all the rules they want but unless the attitude of those administering the system change our warriors wil lbe denied their lawful benefits. Let me provide a few examples of this longstanding problem. A Colonel Babbitt, president of a 2005 PEB, accused a soldier of malingering and lying. He should have been fired on the spot. Instead, he continued to wreak havoc on our warriors. In 1998 Colonel Grubb, the president of my PEB, violated my due process rights by denying me a formal PEB and rendering a final decision without even reading my appeal statement. When he realized that error, he wrote the PEB liaison officer, a staff sergeant at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and e-mail in which he asserted: “This case is closed.” Upon retiring, he was hired as a Department of the Army civilian disability evaluator. That attitude permeates even the Army lawyers defeding indefensible actions. After the governement settled the case with me, the Army lawyer had the gall to tell me: “You got more [in the Settlement Agreement] than you ever deserved!” With such competence and compassion our warriors don’t stand a chance.
In disability hearings by the Social Security Administration, written medical reports cannot be considered substantial evidence unless the writer is board certified in the specialty and subject to cross examination, according to the Supreme Court. Our soldiers don’t have the rights of those whose rights they’re defending.
April 13, 2007 at 9:12 pm |
Please join for discussions on topics about The Virtual Reality.
Technology development of The Virtual Reality and its perspectives.
Gnolet.com
January 15, 2010 at 5:04 am |
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October 29, 2010 at 8:15 pm |
physical therapy is an interesting branch of medicine coz it deals with rapid healing of the body-,.
November 17, 2010 at 7:31 pm |
i am interersted to get a physical therapy course because it seems like a good job ;”"
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May 3, 2012 at 3:46 am |
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