CBS' Kimberly Dozier Leaves Hospital

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/03/iraq/main1861268.shtml



CBS' Kimberly Dozier Leaves Hospital
Correspondent Injured In Iraq Will Continue Rehab On An Outpatient Basis

Aug. 3, 2006

(CBS/AP) CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, critically wounded in Iraq May 29, was released from Kernan Hospital Wednesday, and will continue her rehabilitation on an outpatient basis.

Dozier was reporting a story on May 29 while embedded with the 4th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in Baghdad when an explosion killed her camera crew — Britons Paul Douglas and James Brolan — as well as a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi translator.


CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier takes a few steps before departing Kernan Hospital outside Baltimore, Md. on August 2, 2006. (CBS)

Dozier was treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, and on June 7, was transported to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where she underwent intensive physical therapy. On July 17, she was moved to Kernan Hospital, a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility that is part of the University of Maryland hospital system.

“Folks, I’m leaving hospitals behind, ahead of the deadline, or at least ahead of schedule. I’ve had a couple setbacks, and I still face a couple minor surgeries, but overall, the prognosis is far better than the docs had hoped just after I’d reached Germany. The teams at Balad, Landstuhl, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. worked overtime – something like a dozen surgeries at least, including one that lasted 11 hours," Dozier said in a written statement.

"Just a few weeks later, I'm up on crutches and can even manage with a cane. It's not pretty, but I'm walking on my own – and that, I also owe, to some hard-driving therapists at Kernan Hospital in Maryland, who kept saying, 'Now try this...'"

The next step, Dozier says, is continued outpatient rehabilitation "to get my body used to being in motion full-time."