Summit, NJ – New York Times Best-Selling author and CBS “This Morning” contributor, Lee Woodruff, is this year’s keynote speaker at the annual Caregivers Symposium at Overlook Medical Center on Saturday, June 7 from 10:00am to 12:30pm in the Bouras Auditorium. The program is hosted by the Thomas Glasser Caregivers Center at Overlook Medical Center and is free and open to the public. Caregivers and their family members are encouraged to attend.
In January 2006, the Woodruffs seemed to have it all – a happy marriage and four beautiful children. Lee was a public relations executive and Bob had just been named co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight.” Then, while Bob was embedded with the military in Iraq, an improvised explosive device went off near the tank he was riding in. He and his cameraman were hit, and Bob suffered a traumatic brain injury that nearly killed him.
As co-author of the New York Times best-selling In an Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing, Lee Woodruff garnered critical acclaim for the compelling and humorous chronicle of her family’s journey to recovery following her husband’s bomb injury in Iraq. Appearing on national television and as keynote speakers since the February 2007 publication of their book, the couple has helped put a face on the serious issue of traumatic brain injury among returning Iraq war veterans, as well as the millions of Americans who live with this often invisible, but life-changing affliction.
In an Instant is the frank and compelling account of how Bob and Lee’s lives came together, were blown apart, and then were miraculously put together again – and how they persevered, with grit but also with humor, through intense trauma and fear.
Woodruff is a contributing reporter for “CBS This Morning.” Her best-selling book Perfectly Imperfect – A Life in Progress, was followed by her first novel “Those We Love Most,” which became a New York Times Best-Seller and won the Washington Irving Book Award for fiction. A freelance writer, Woodruff has penned numerous personal articles about her family and parenting that have run in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and Parade. In addition to freelance writing, Woodruff ran her own public relations and marketing consulting business for 16 years. Before that, she was senior vice president of public relations firm Porter Novelli. Woodruff is a trustee and alumnus of Colgate University and an avid lover of the Adirondack region. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband and four children.
The Thomas Glasser Caregivers Center at Overlook Medical Center was designed to help caregivers effectively manage the stress and special needs associated with caring for a critically, chronically, or terminally ill loved one. The Caregivers Center provides social support services, dedicated space for rest, therapeutic services and resource referrals. The Center is designed to provide a refuge of quiet respite for caregivers, away from alarms, bright lights and hectic pace of the clinical care setting. But, not too far away from the patient so that family members can easily return to the bedside if their presence is required.
Registration for the Caregivers Symposium and Lee Woodruff book signing is required, by calling 908-522-6348. Overlook Medical Center is located at 99 Beauvoir Avenue, Summit. Parking in the West Garage and valet parking is available.
About Overlook Medical Center
Overlook Medical Center, located in Summit, NJ, is part of Atlantic Health System, one of the largest non-profit health care systems in New Jersey and includes Chilton Medical Center, Goryeb Children’s Hospital, Morristown Medical Center, and Newton Medical Center. Accredited by The Joint Commission, Overlook Medical Center is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a “Best Regional Hospital” for Neurology & Neurosurgery, Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Pulmonology, and Urology. Overlook Medical Center is verified as a Level IV Epilepsy Center. Atlantic Neuroscience Institute treats more stroke and aneurysm patients than any other hospital in northern New Jersey and a recipient of the Get With the Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award, placing its stroke program in the top five percent in the country by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. The Atlantic Health System elite group of hospitals is on the forefront of medicine and continually set standards for quality health care in the New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area.