Journalist Bob Woodruff's Family is Inspired to Help Veterans

Steve Adubato goes one-on-one with the Co-Founder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Lee Woodruff, about her husband’s horrific traumatic brain injury and how Bob’s recovery inspired his family to give back to injured veterans.

1/24/17 #2008

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. Welcome to the Tisch WNET Studio in the heart of New York City. It is our honor and our pleasure, for the first time, not for the last. Don't be startled! Not the last. I was startled. I see the chemistry already. You feel it? Yeah, no I f... it's... it's... it's a little tense. That doesn't last with me. You know, in a good way. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We are joined by Lee Woodruff who is the... is cofounder of the Bob Woodruff Foundation. How you doing? I'm great I have to say. Yeah. Lots of irons in the fire, but this is an exciting time. The Bob Woodruff Foundation is a powerful and important one. Explain it. We have a story. We were walking, sort of in the boots of military families, when Bob was injured. But we... 2006? 2006. Right. Yes. In January. Bob got the same care, and the same incredible attention that all of our service members do when they are in the acute care stage. But then it was after that that our journeys differed, because Bob, with ABC and Disney we were given everything for him to recover. And we were acutely aware that those who had served, and volunteered to serve, which is such an incredible point to remember, were not necessarily when they came home. So we decided that if Bob recovered, we would create this foundation. We would use our story, and all the attention that we were getting from his documentary, our book, what have you, to turn it back on the people that needed it the most. So we started this foundation. We had no idea what we were doing at all. [laughter] No idea? But it's so interesting. I mean back when it happened, that little... more than ten years ago? Ten... yeah, coming up on eleven. Yeah. So when it happens, Bob's working for ABC, literally right across the street from where we are. Yeah. Yeah. At public television. At WNET here. And he is one of the most recognized journalists in the country. And he's in the war zone. And this happens. Now you are in Disney at the time? I am. I have four children, so they were young. Ages? Five, five, twelve, and fourteen at the time. We were shooting a TV pilot down there, and... Cause you're a journalist? I am. Yeah. And it was our wakeup call at 7 o'clock. Only it wasn't the wakeup call. It was right at 7. It was David Westin, the president of ABC News, who was telling me that Bob had... his convoy had come under attack, and he... they believe he'd taken shrapnel to the brain. He was going into surgery..."