Woodruff and his wife tell his — and their family's — story of healing

ABC News' Bob Woodruff, the newsman who in one awful moment became a news story, brings his powerful tale of survival and love to Seattle this evening.

His memoir, "In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing" (Random House, $29.95), written with wife Lee, arrives at a watershed moment. The U.S. war in Iraq is grinding into its fifth year. The public is also reeling from news reports about poor medical treatment being given to wounded soldiers and Marines, particularly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. In the midst of such public disenchantment, Woodruff's survival story comforts. It's also gratifying to watch his recent news reports, including his own prime-time special, in which he spotlights the issue of traumatic brain injuries among those in the armed forces.

"I was able to go in for private help," he said, contrasting his own recovery with that of many others. Woodruff spoke last week in a telephone interview from Los Angeles as part of his West Coast book tour.

"First of all, the medical aspects have been remarkable. But it's all about the rehabilitation down the road. I believe that so many families ought to have the choice to go to a private hospital if that's better than the VA or another hospital the military's made available.

"Would I have been treated significantly different if I had been at Walter Reed? I don't know that. I just think people should have the right to choose which place to go."

You might recall how this story began. The strapping Woodruff, who had just been appointed evening-news anchor, was riding with his news crew in a tank in Iraq when an IED (improvised explosive device) exploded, shattering his skull, shearing his jawbone, dislodging an eye. It was Jan. 29, 2006. Woodruff lay in a coma for 36 days.

What happened next is the extraordinary part: his journey from near-death to just-about-complete recovery. Yes, his vision has been permanently altered and he can't always remember his words. But Woodruff's back reporting for ABC News.

That journey, and the exceptional way Lee and their four children coped throughout, form one of the narratives in the memoir. A second engrossing story line is Woodruff's climb from corporate-attorney-turned-journalist to the pinnacle in broadcasting when he and Elizabeth Vargas took over "World News Tonight" following Peter Jennings' death.

All sorts of themes thread their way through this frank, inspiring book: courage in the face of adversity; the pursuit of career at the expense of family; the bravery of foreign correspondents; the fortitude of female friendship. (Years before the accident, the Woodruffs became good friends with NBC News anchor David Bloom and wife Melanie. Lee Woodruff helped comfort Melanie Bloom when her husband died from an embolism while reporting in Iraq. Three years later, the roles were eerily reversed.)

The IED, a 155-millimeter shell packed with rocks and stones, was set on a road as the tank rolled by in Taji, Iraq. The angle of the blast meant most of the shrapnel flew over the crew's heads, saving the men's lives. But more than a hundred rocks blasted into Woodruff's face. A giant rock slammed into cameraman Doug Vogt's helmet, shattering his skull. And an Iraqi soldier riding at the front of the tank lost one of his hands.

In the middle of the Iraqi desert, a military surgical team cut through Woodruff's head to relieve rapid swelling in his brain. In the book, the couple notes how this likely saved Woodruff's life. Vogt also survived and is doing well.

The story moves from Northern Iraq to Germany to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the doctors tell Lee Woodruff the blast, on her husband's left side, injured the speech and language area of his brain. Waking up: "Hey sweetie. Where have you been?" Recalling his two older children but not his twins. Relearning words. Walking the ward and feeling guilty for being in better physical shape than those other soldiers and for always having family at his side.

"I've got various guilt," Woodruff said. "I have guilt that some of those were injured worse than me. That some died when I didn't. And my kids: that they lived through this not knowing what would happen to me. It makes me feel guilty they had to go through this."

That ill-fated Iraq trip was Woodruff's seventh to the country. Does he regret going?

"No. I don't," he said. "When the war began I never really thought too much about the possibility I would be badly injured. There are so many soldiers and Marines going ... we need journalists to go."

In alternating chapters in the book, the couple chronicles their romance and how Bob Woodruff's attorney job took them to Beijing in 1988. When the student demonstrations began, Woodruff, fascinated by how U.S. news crews covered the story, was hired as an interpreter/local guide for CBS. Helping document the Tiananmen Square protests forever changed him and when he returned to San Francisco, he gave up his $130,000 lawyer's salary for a $12,000 TV reporter's job.

Eleven years later he was appointed ABC News' Saturday-night anchor. Then at the age of 44, in December 2005, he ascended to help fill the vacancy left by Jennings' death.

"What I've always loved to do is journalism," he said. On whether he'll ever be an anchor again, he replied, "I'll figure that out as time goes by."

In the meantime there are stories to report. "This one is completely a nonpolitical issue. Whether you're for or against the war, everyone in this country believes we need to treat these soldiers and Marines better than we have so far."

Woodruff used to report from all the world's hot spots and he misses that. The war between Israel and Lebanon, for example. The time he watched colleague Diane Sawyer report from North Korea.

He does plan to work from overseas again except for going to Iraq as long as the war rages on. "There's only one law my wife has handed down. She's finally decided that's something I shouldn't do."

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com