Woodruff’s long road back

Bob Woodruff has come a long way—but not all the way, says Jeff Seidel in the Detroit Free Press. On Jan. 29, 2006, the ABC News anchorman was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, suffering grievous injuries to his head. He disappeared from public view for almost a year, while his injuries slowly healed. Today, his handsome, square-jawed face still bears scars, he has a plate in his skull, and he continues to struggle with the after-effects of the trauma to his brain. At times, he seems like his old self—confident, bright, coherent. “Every day I see some improvements,” he says. “I can’t tell you what a miracle it is. A year ago, I could not understand your question whatsoever. My ability to respond to it was nonexistent.” But other times, even if he knows what he wants to say, he just can’t get the words out. “Some of it is . . . is . . . opening up awake-ness,” he says, pausing and groping before finishing, “ah, awareness of traumatic brain injury.” He’s gone back to work at ABC as a roving correspondent, but doctors have told him he may never be 100 percent. “I’ve learned to fake it. As the words start to come back, I can now speak in a different way than I did before.” But he’s becoming doubtful he’ll ever get his old job back. “When I listen to so many of the other anchors, they have to come up with all the words. That is maybe why I will not become an anchor again.”

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