Bob Woodruff After Traumatic Brain Injury
ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff talks about his recovery from a traumatic brain injury he received in Iraq.
An article for WebMed By Denise Mann and Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Every so often, ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff feels a rock “emerge” from his face “like a zit,” he says. But it’s not a pimple; it’s a not-so-subtle reminder of what he has been through over the past four years.

On Jan. 29, 2006, a mere 27 days after he was tapped to succeed Peter Jennings as the co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight, Woodruff was nearly killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle while on assignment near Taji, Iraq.

The details of the attack are still murky, but an improvised explosive device (IED) waylaid his convoy. Woodruff was wearing body armor and was in a tank, but his head, neck, and shoulders were exposed during the blast. The blast knocked Woodruff unconscious as rocks and metal pierced his face, jaw, and neck. Woodruff’s cameraman, Doug Vogt, and an Iraqi soldier were also hurt.

“How I survived, we still don’t know to this day,” Woodruff said in a speech this month in San Diego at the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery’s annual meeting. The audience included the surgeon who rebuilt his face after the attack.
The journey back was not easy. Immediately after the attack, Woodruff was placed in a medically induced coma for 36 days so his brain could rest and heal.

Upon waking up, “I could not remember my family members’ names,” Woodruff recalls. “I remembered [my wife] Lee and two of my kids. I could not remember my twins’ names. I did not even remember having twins.”

After that came multiple surgeries — about nine, Woodruff estimates. His operations included the removal of part of his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain. Before going to Iraq, “I never had surgery other than dental surgery and a lot of stitches as a result of being raised with brothers,” he tells WebMD.

Woodruff’s physical skills came back relatively quickly, but it took an intense cognitive rehabilitation program to regain some of the skills he had lost and relearn everything — including the names of his then 5-year-old twins. “It took long-term rehabilitation to be able to live again and be back in their lives,” Woodruff says.

Woodruff also suffered from aphasia, the inability to find words. Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more brain areas that handle language. “I couldn’t come up with words and I didn’t have a lot of synonyms,” he says. “It was hugely frustrating.” Read More

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