You may have seen a couple of weeks ago the interview between former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards and reporter Bob Woodruff. All the resulting media coverage focused on Edwards 'declarations'. However, there is something much more remarkable that surfaced at that interview: Bob Woodruff's spectacular recovery.
This is the same reporter who has been a severe traumatic brain injury, if a road was detonated in an instant - Bob and Lee Woodruffbomb beside hisVehicle on January 29, 2006, when it was a new development in Iraq.
Today I am lucky to interview Lee Woodruff, wife of Bob, and pillar throughout his recovery. Bob Lee and co-author of the book in a fantastic immediate trip to a family of love and healing.
Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Lee, thank you for your time. I was amazed reading your book, where your journey, and then Bob interview John Edwards was the best display I can imagine his recovery. CanPlease provide a brief for us what Bob and has gone through since January 2006?
Lee Woodruff (LW): As you know, Bob suffered a life-threatening brain injuries in Iraq. E 'was immediately under military assistance and has undergone a series of operations for head injuries, with a joint Army and Air Force neurosurgical team in Iraq, the U. S. Army Medical Command hospital in Germany, and at Bethesda Naval Hospital, back here in the United States.
During this period, extends around the 4Months, spent 37 days in a coma, and his skull had to be surgically reconstructed. The cognitive rehabilitation began, closer to a medical center at home.
AF: Can you please explain what cognitive rehabilitation Bob is gone, however, both formally, with a therapist, and informally, on their own?
LW: The first thing I would say that rehabilitation is a long process. The doctors have told me that Bob, despite the seriousness of his injuries, had a better chance of recovering otherVictims because the reserve of neurons and connections he had built thanks to an intellectually stimulating and varied life, including living in China for several years and traveling to dozens of countries, such as the admission of a lawyer and worked as a journalist and his general curiosity and the pleasure of learning. It seems that research increasingly shows that people who are mentally active throughout life, through their work, or doing puzzles, Sudoku puzzles ... are, of course, at some point, betterprepared to deal with problems such as TBI.
However, the restoration of a long process. Bob had six months of cognitive therapy focused on language and the areas of structured languages, because it was part of the brain were damaged the most. The therapist identified the main tasks for him to work so hard, but familiar, usually asking Bob, for example, read the New York Times, then try to remember what you read, and write a short essay on his thoughts andImpressions.
Since then he has in a sense, he used his work in Iraq and back in the documentary and other projects at ABC as his informal but very effective way to optimize, so updated. I am surprised to observe in real time, as now, as you get better and better. To retrieve an example for his motivation: he has seen recently in the Chinese language, if the work he has contributed.
AF: In the book, Bob says that when he said in a word, what he has experienced duringMost of the rest, would be the word "slow". His brain was slow to process new information to remember the words. What progress has lived?
LW: A lot. Not exactly on the same level it was before the injury, but is once again an extraordinary journalist, father and husband. And I see progress every month, so hopefully that will continue to always do better and better.
Bob tells me that sometimes is not the man I married. And then, as I mentioned the book, I have to laugh and answer: "I'm not. They are big, wiser and more wrinkled." I learned to trust him. Especially at the beginning it was not always easy to fully accept and follow its decision, but I'm little by little, he was perfectly capable, his new role as man and father, and our respective roles, RI - seen family. It 'wonderful to see what happens. It 'was a miracle.
AF: Bob has a very lucky survivors were traumatic> Brain damage. There are more than a million cases a year of TBI. Many of them are military related (a recent RAND study estimates that more than 300,000 service members in the United States have suffered a head injury occur during the contracts in Iraq or Afghanistan), but also in civilian life, particularly road accidents or sport shock. What we now know how to prevent and treat TBI?
LW: The Iraq War is literally rewriting the book to see how researchers and physicians, and the fight againstIssue. Most of the progress made in the military, but I hope that the transfer of benefits for the civilian population, too. From a preventive point of view, the military has been strengthened to improve the body armor of soldiers, and now I can see why wearing seat belts while driving and bicycle helmets, as we can make a big difference.
From the restore point of view, there is an optimism and hope a lot more than it did a few years ago about how many patients with head injury may improve when theWay through an environment, physical and cognitive therapy. The army has acknowledged the problem of so-called "Walking Wounded" and devotes significant resources to analyzing best options and deal with it. When we spoke earlier, the Army recently announced that from now on a cognitive screening of soldiers before you get on the pitch to get used to, so if there are problems that screening can serve as a good basis for the functions Compareto.
But improvements in the area just begun. We need to see progress.
AF: You can now tell us more about the Bob Woodruff Foundation for Traumatic Brain Injury? What are your priorities be?
LW: Bob and I devote much time to find the awareness of the problem and the need to design and implement good solutions for cognitive care. Our foundation supports community, grass-roots approaches to helping TBI survivors and their families. Givenenormous scale of the problem between the soldiers and the fact that Bob survived thanks to the excellent care received by the military on the road, we focus first of helping military victims.
For example, we recently funded four scholarships for TBI research, and bought 300 mattresses for a small non-profit organization that helps patients and their spouses, their lives once they leave military bases, many of which can not afford to move all their belongings, includingBeds and mattresses, from the basics.
And there are many other things to do. For example, while many more soldiers are getting better care, which is not always the case, National Guard reservists who, while monitoring their own branch of the armed forces for their progress, which often goes unnoticed at a greater risk of living with TBI since they do not report on the basis whenever you return.
It is also clear that the military) are (as well as insurance companies increasinglywilling to pay for long-term costs of care.
AF: What are some specific ways people can support the work of his foundation?
LW: You can visit our new website to learn Bob Woodruff Foundation (http://remind.org/), on the problems and to donate funds, no matter how big or small.
But probably the most important thing anyone can do is to identify who made the sacrifice of soldiers, and find ways to actively look for them and help them in their communities.The soldiers and their families, often grown in a culture of self-confidence, which does not ask for help so that each of us must take the initiative to find out how we can help. Ask yourself, how can I help the TBI survivors in my neighborhood? Perhaps giving them a job or offer them assistance or training, so they can be safe? How can I help their spouses and families to achieve healthy environment and happy? Perhaps giving them free movie tickets? A massage?
AF: Lee, thank you forthese proposals. Is there anything you'd like to add that you know know them all?
LW: I would say never give up. We have seen how Bob has recovered, which I think is a miracle. Let's just do our best to help everyone out there.
Copyright (c) 2008 Sharp Brains
