Dozier Still Critical, But Responsive
The family of CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier is by her side at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the U.S. military hospital in Germany where she is being treated.
Dozier was seriously wounded Monday by a car bomb in Iraq. CBS cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan were killed in the blast.
Dozier was under heavy sedation when her parents, siblings and boyfriend arrived, hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw said. Still, Dozier reacted to the arrival of her boyfriend, Shaw added.
"She was aware of his presence. She is still very seriously injured, but she's stable and she responds to stimuli," Shaw said.
Dozier is in critical but stable condition and, according to a statement from CBS, is "resting comfortably today after receiving further treatment for injuries to her head and legs." "We are encouraged by reports from Dozier's doctors about the outcome of her recent surgeries," the statement continued.
Dozier had a very good night, CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports. She remains in intensive care on a ventilator, a routine measure, Shaw said.
MacVicar reports that when Dozier's boyfriend Pete arrived, "Kimberly turned her head towards him. He was able to take one of her hands, feel her squeeze his hand back."
It is expected that in the next couple of days Dozier will be stable and she will be transported to an appropriate medical facility in the United States, MacVicar reports.
"On the ventilator, it's easier for her to get the oxygen level she needs," she added, noting she could not speculate on when Dozier may be able to go home, but said patients usually stay at Landstuhl for an average of three to four days before being flown to the United States for further care.
"She has to be stable enough to sustain the flight," she said.
At a media briefing in Germany on Tuesday, Col. W. Bryan Gamble said Dozier was moving her toes on the flight to Landstuhl and "was responsive, opening her eyes to commands."The Latest On Dozier's Condition
Read Dozier's 2005 Article On Covering War Zones
Kate Rydell, a CBS News producer in Baghdad, said she told Dozier they were on their way to Germany.
"She blinked her eyes and nodded her head very slightly and then I knew that she received what I told her and there was something going on inside, which I took to be a very good sign," Rydell said.
The three journalists, who were embedded with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, were doing a Memorial Day story about what life is like for the troops in Baghdad when an explosives-packed car blew up nearby.
Dozier, Douglas and Brolan had been riding in an armored Humvee. But at the time of the blast in the Karada section of Baghdad, they were outside on the street, accompanying troops who had stopped to inspect a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi Army. They were wearing helmets, flak jackets and protective eyeglasses when the bomb went off.
Douglas, 48, and Brolan, 42, died at the scene of the explosion, which also killed a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded six U.S. soldiers.
Dozier, 39, was flown to the closest U.S. military hospital, which was about a mile away, where she underwent two operations.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that at one point Dozier's pulse stopped.
"She didn't have a heartbeat. She was as sick as you get," a doctor told Palmer.
"Her blood pressure dropped to a point where we could barely see what it was anymore, we could barely assess it. Basically, it means that she was going down ... But we were able to get her back by giving her fluids and medications," said Capt. Tiffany Fasco.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that doctors in Iraq were able to remove shrapnel from Dozier's head, but her more serious injuries are to her lower body. Doctors have said that they are cautiously optimistic about her prognosis.
The attack was among a wave of car and roadside bombs that left about three dozen people dead before noon Monday, including one explosion that killed 10 people on a bus. Nearly all the attacks occurred in Baghdad.
Douglas, who was British, leaves a wife, Linda; two daughters, Kelly, 29, and Joanne, 26; and three grandchildren. Brolan, who was also British, leaves a wife, Geraldine; and two children, Sam, 18, and Agatha, 12. The bodies of Douglas and Brolan are being flown to Kuwait, where they will be met by their families, Martin reports.
Douglas had worked for CBS News in many countries since the early 1990s, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rwanda and Bosnia
Brolan was a freelancer who had worked with CBS News in Baghdad and Afghanistan during the past year. He was part of the CBS News team that had received a 2006 Overseas Press Club Award for its reporting on the Pakistan earthquake.
Dozier has been a CBS News correspondent reporting from Iraq for the past three years. Her previous assignments include the post of London bureau chief and chief European correspondent for CBS Radio News from 1996-2002, and chief correspondent for WCBS-TV's Middle East bureau. She has won three American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Gracie Awards for her radio reports on Mideast violence, Kosovo and the Afghan war.
An average of six news teams a day go out on patrol with the 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad, like the CBS journalists, Martin says.
Scores of journalists — nearly 75 percent of them Iraqis — have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the government of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.