Bob Woodruff Predicts Road Will Be Long, But Hopeful, For Rep. Giffords

Bob Woodruff, the veteran reporter for ABC News and traumatic brain injury survivor, has a hot wife, a point Imus normally raises each time Woodruff appears on this program. Today, however, the I-Man behaved himself, focusing instead on Woodruff’s touching description of his own recovery, and what might lie ahead for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head outside a Tucson, Arizona supermarket last Saturday, where six people were also killed.
 
In some ways, Woodruff’s experience is very similar to that of Giffords: both were hit on the left side of their brains; both had craniotomies, where a portion of the skull is removed to allow the brain to swell; and both received treatment in under 40 minutes.
 
“But being shot by a bullet and that piercing through the skull is different than an explosion of an IED, where the brain is shaken around,” Woodruff said, referring to the blast in Iraq in 2006 that landed him in a coma for 36 days.
 
“I remember when the bomb went off, and crawling into the tank, I was out for about a minute,” he said. Woodruff woke up, asked his cameraman if they were still alive, was told yes, and conked back out. “I literally don’t have any memories from that time when I was unconscious, and then I woke up, and of course I saw my wife Lee inside the room.”
 
As with Giffords, who was one of 14 people wounded in the incident, Woodruff was placed in a medically induced coma, which he said helps facilitate recovery and reduce pain. But once awake, Woodruff became all too aware of the struggle to rehabilitate his mind and body.
 
“Certainly, in those first moments when you do get up, you get huge pain, but you know that suddenly you’re alive,” he said. “You probably won’t remember exactly what happened to you. She might remember when this gunfire went off, but probably will not remember anything after that.”
 
Though the circumstances surrounding their injuries were different, Woodruff suspected Giffords would feel as he did those first moments in the ICU. “You just can’t thank God enough for the fact that you’re alive,” he said. “And then the frustration really kicks in, and you realize that you’re not going to be, probably, exactly the way you were before.”
 
He stressed the important role rehabilitation played in his rebound, but noted that fierce determination was, and still is, key. “I think it all depends if you’re on the rise instead of the fall,” Woodruff said. He explained, “As long as you’re getting better, you keep thinking and assuming that you will continue to go up.”
 
In Imus’s view, Woodruff sounds better every time they talk, though he pointed out, “You sounded fine the first time!”  Speaking of fine, and obviously unable to control himself, Imus wished his guest well, and said, “Say hi to that fine wife of yours.”
 
-Julie Kanfer