Bloom’s widow spreads the word

Three years after NBC correspondent David Bloom died of a pulmonary embolism, his widow, Melanie Bloom, is still working to promote awareness about deep-vein thrombosis, the condition that led to his death.

Bloom collapsed and died during the 2003 invasion of Iraq after he spent several days traveling in a cramped U.S. military tank, causing a blood clot that eventually moved into his lung.

“I thought it must be some rare freak occurrence, and what I learned was more people die from this in America than AIDS and breast cancer combined,” Melanie Bloom said. This week, she helped launch a monthlong awareness campaign by appearing in a public service announcement for the Coalition to Prevent DVT.

Meanwhile, she’s been in constant touch with her friend Lee Woodruff, whose husband, ABC anchor Bob Woodruff, is still recovering from injuries he sustained during a roadside bombing in Iraq in January. It was Lee Woodruff who comforted Bloom when she first learned the news of her husband’s death. “We have led kind of parallel lives,” Bloom said.

-- Matea Gold