May 29, 2007 6:00 am US/Eastern
Kimberly Dozier Is A Walking Miracle
by Sally Thorner
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Over the past year, Kimberly Dozier has had more than 20 surgeries and countless hours of rehabilitation. (File)
CBS
She was nearly killed by a car bomb in Iraq, but today CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier is a walking miracle.
"Being able to walk is fantastic," she told
WJZ's Sally Thorner.
Last Memorial Day, while on patrol with U.S. troops, a 500 pound car bomb exploded. Dozier's cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolin were killed. Dozier had no heartbeat and was rushed to a field hospital in Baghdad.
"It always comes back. It comes back that I'm here and they're not," Dozier said.
Dozier, who graduated from St. Timothy's in Baltimore County, returned to Maryland for the painstaking recovery process. Over the past year, she's had more than 20 surgeries and countless hours of rehabilitation.
"Between the physiotherapy at Kernan (Hospital) that got me on my feet so much faster than anyone anticipated, and then the doctors at Shock Trauma, I was in the best possible place to recover," Dozier said.
While the physical wounds are healing, the emotional ones run deep. Dozier said she was given a specific piece of advice by one of her therapists.
"The same advice they give the soldiers after any bad incident. Talk it out. Do not bottle it up, just talk it out. Then, all of the problems you hear about that can develop, post traumatic stress disorder and various versions of that, acute stress, it doesn't develop," Dozier said.
Dozier told
WJZ being near friends and family in Baltimore during her recovery has been a blessing. But she yearns to return to work in the Middle East one day.
"I love that sense of being able to cross the divide, get the story, and then come back with it."
When asked what she doesn't miss, Dozier replied, "The one thing I don't miss in Baghdad, the explosions. And that's the only place on the planet where every 15 minutes or so, you hear an explosion ring out across the city. And you think to yourself, who did that just kill?"
Dozier's new mission is to help soldiers who do survive with unusual injuries. She recently testified before Congress to get more funding for medical research.
"The great thing about the past four years is that surgeons have been able to make some incredible medical advances and many more soldiers are surviving horrible injuries," she said. "The hard thing is that means that as they survive, they are developing new maladies, new disorders, that the medical community either has never seen before or only seen in small cases. And they never put a large focused effort into figuring out how to fix them."
Dozier also said she understands the American public's frustration with the conflict in Iraq.
"You gotta remember the troops are actually going back again and again and they're living it. You all think you're tired and want to change the channel, how do you think they feel?," said Dozier.
With the help of those soldiers, Dozier survived and she knows she's one of the lucky ones.
"Every time I ever felt sorry for myself during rehab, especially in the military settings, I would turn and see someone who had a limb amputated and say to myself, 'I've got nothing to be sorry about'."
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Read Kimberly Dozier's Personal Thank You To WJZ Viewers
Slideshow: Click Here To View Photos From Kimberly Dozier's Journey
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