Posted on 02/26/2007 1:07:21 PM PST by truthandlife
econds after the roadside bomb that tore off part of his skull, Bob Woodruff said he had a brief out-of-body experience before losing consciousness for more than a month.
The former ABC anchor answered questions publicly Monday for the first time since the roadside bomb nearly killed him in Iraq on Jan. 29, ABC News is airing a prime-time special about Woodruff's recovery and the plight of other brain-injured Iraq veterans 10 p.m. EST Tuesday.
Some small pockmarks on the left side of his face and neck were the only signs of his injury visible during a meeting with reporters on Monday. Woodruff would occasionally struggle for a word while answering questions and said that while he wasn't 100 percent recovered, he was somewhere in the 90s.
He was standing with his head and upper body outside of a moving tank while on a reporting trip to Iraq when the bomb went off.
"When it actually exploded, I don't remember that," he said. "But I do remember immediately at that moment that I saw my body floating below me and a kind of whiteness."
He briefly lost consciousness, fell back into the tank and woke up to see cameraman Doug Vogt across from him. Woodruff remembered spitting up blood.
"I looked up at Doug and I saw his eyes big and afraid and just asking him if we were still alive and that's the last thing I remember," Woodruff said.
He was in a coma for 36 days. He woke up and vaguely remembered there was a bombing.
Woodruff will be interviewed by ABC's Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" Tuesday, and Oprah Winfrey later in the day. He and wife Lee wrote a book about their ordeal that will also be released Tuesday.
He described the long road back trying to put his memory together. The special shows Woodruff, during his recovery, looking at a picture of scissors and being unable to come up with the word.
"I couldn't remember my two young daughters _ not their names but their existence," Woodruff said. He has twin 6-year-old daughters, along with a son who's 15 and a daughter who's 13.
Woodruff hedged when asked if he would want to go back and report in Iraq before ABC News President David Westin cut him off.
"I will not send him," Westin said. "It just would not make sense. He's more vulnerable than he was before. It would be the height of recklessness, from my point of view, to allow Bob Woodruff to go back to Iraq."
You are too nice to him. LOL
Yes, I am reading a lot of totally weird reactions on this thread.
I'm a little puzzled by it.
Come on, we're talking about a pinko here.
When God decides to call you, I am sorry to tell you this but you pretty much don't have a choice, and besides it really shows how great he is the worse you are when he does.
Wow. I thought it was Alan Colmes.
"I can understand your point but after an injury like that, he probably doesn't remember."
I understand but at this point in time, don't you think he should have tried to find out who helped him. I would think so, even if not to thank them, it would probably improve the story he is selling.
God was watching over him.
Satan appears as an angel of light. Even in an NDE, the enemy can deceive.
"Thanks were formally relayed to all the military medical servicemen and women who helped him in his recovery when he left the hospital last year"
Well i didn't get that memo so he should probably mention it a few more times.
How many military resources did we waste treating a journalist?
Wow! When I saw that picture of him just two days out of his coma, I didn't realize his skull was that badly damaged.
Looking at the latest photos, it is great to see him in much better condition.
The really great thing about our military is that they believe in saving lives. Especially the lives of Americans. They may not agree with them, and they may not even like them. But, they will put their lives on the line to save them. They believe in the rights we have in this country;freedom of the press being one of them. Our military should be proud of saving him and I am sure they are. I guess that you think that they should go ahead and let the people they don't agree with die???
According to his wife he has been back to Iraq to visit the soldiers with whom he was traveling at the time of his injury. That information was on Wikipedia.
Perhaps his worldview has changed and would not tote the Party line for ABCDisney News.
If those people give aid and comfort to those who would kill the soldiers, yeah.
It's posts like yours that does that to me. Your post is also a reason I don't tell folks about FreeRepublic anymore.
"Did he become a Christian through this experience?"
It is more likely that he came back as Peter Jennings.
I suppose that you believe that a medic or soldier is able to determine in a split second whether an injured person is "worthy" of saving. If you had ever worked in emergency services, you would know that isn't possible, and that everyone that can be saved, is saved. They may face consequences later, but that is not the function of military medics.
Fortunately for this country, our soldiers are not like you. They recognize that Bob Woodruff was excercizing his freedom. That freedom and its protection came at the cost of thousands of soldiers lives and they believe in it strongly. I am proud of our soldiers. They produce medical miracles every day in Iraq and are saving many soldiers and Iraqi citizens because of innovative procedures and unbelievable skill. They did their job well in this case.
I think I heard Oprah is going to do a taped interview with him on TODAY's show..
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