Bob Woodruff: The Exception to the Rule

Posted on | March 12, 2007 | Comments Off on Bob Woodruff: The Exception to the Rule

Back in April 2006, I did a Health Politics program titled “The True Cost of the War in Iraq.” In the wake of Bob Woodruff’s ABC Special “To Iraq and Back;” plus the release of his and his wife Lee’s book, “In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing;” and especially following the release of the ever-expanding Washington Post investigative reports on the failures in continuity of care for injured soldiers within the Walter Reed Army Hospital Medical System — it is worth re-reading the HP program now, one year later.

As the Woodruff’s have said, they had the means (with the support of ABC) to opt out of the military system and seek the best care available in the United States. Even with this support, the extent of Bob’s recovery is seen by all those involved with his care as nothing short of miraculous. What is increasingly clear though, is, if he had been an 18 year old from Mississippi, who had signed up with the local National Guard so he could afford college, and gone off to Iraq, been injured, and saved by rapid on-site care and transport out within 24 hours, he would likely have faced a very different future than does Bob Woodruff. The soldier’s future, which has become part of America’s long-term legacy, is apparently the rule. Bob Woodruff’s is the exception.