Injured CBS Journalist Communicating With Family

BERLIN – A CBS correspondent seriously injured by a car bomb in Iraq was able to start communicating with her family and doctors Thursday, and started by asking what happened to her crew, a network spokeswoman said.

Kimberly Dozier's two British colleagues — cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan — were both killed in the attack Monday, along with a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi translator. Dozier was given the bad news, CBS spokeswoman Kelli Edwards said.

"Her first question was 'what crew?' — meaning what happened to the crew, and her family and doctors agreed that if she asked she should be told what happened," Edwards said in a telephone interview from New York.

She declined to say how Dozier reacted to the news, saying CBS wished to protect her privacy in "what was obviously a very emotional moment."

Dozier, an American, was flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on Tuesday after sustaining head and lower-body injuries in the Memorial Day blast in Iraq.

Though under less heavy sedation that she has been since the attack, Dozier, 39, had to write her questions on a piece of paper because she is still on a ventilator to help her breathe, Edwards said.

Her condition is still critical but stable.

The coffins with the bodies of Douglas and Brolan were flown from Kuwait to London's Heathrow Airport, where a ceremony was held Thursday afternoon with their families.

Brolan's wife, Geri, described her husband as "always happy, never down or angry."

"I don't think he would have done anything differently," she said. "He was very proud of what he did."

Dozier's family and boyfriend arrived Wednesday to be with her as she is treated in Germany and she responded immediately to seeing them, according to the hospital. The hospital would not give details of her treatment Thursday, saying CBS had asked to handle all further media inquiries.

The hospital has not given a timeline for Dozier's treatment, but patients injured in Iraq are commonly stabilized at Landstuhl, in southern Germany, for three to four days before being transferred to the U.S. for further treatment.

The CBS Web site reported that it was "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."

Dozier had been traveling in a U.S. military convoy in Iraq working on a story about Memorial Day — a U.S. holiday commemorating members of the armed forces killed in war — when a car bomb exploded.

The three journalists — all embedded with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division — had been in an armored Humvee, according to the CBS Web site.

But at the time of the blast they were outside on the street, accompanying troops who had stopped to inspect a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi Army. The site said they were wearing helmets, flak jackets and protective eyeglasses.