Catherine Herridge, senior investigative correspondent for CBS Information, was working at Fox Information when she gave start to her youngest son, Peter, in December 2005. Inside weeks he was recognized with biliary atresia, a blockage within the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder, a uncommon type of liver illness solely seen in infants. Peter’s solely likelihood of survival was an organ transplant.
When Herridge went to her boss, the late Roger Ailes, who was chief government of Fox Information on the time, to tell him of the scenario, his first query was: “The place can I purchase a liver?”
“I informed him it simply doesn’t work that means,” Herridge recalled throughout a current interview from her CBS Information workplace in Washington. She defined she was ready for the Memorial Day vacation weekend, when organs develop into extra obtainable because of the sometimes excessive variety of motorcar crash victims.
Nothing turned up, nevertheless, and in June 2006, Herridge grew to become a donor herself. She gave 20% of her liver to Peter when he was 6 months outdated. It took two years for her to really feel like herself once more following the operation when she returned to overlaying intelligence and homeland safety.
Now 16, Peter has grown to five toes 10 and gained a eager curiosity in skateboarding and ladies. He has his first part-time job, bagging groceries at an Military base grocery store in Maryland.
Nonetheless, Peter requires rigorous medical administration and monitoring of his drugs as he enters maturity. He wants month-to-month bloodwork and occasional biopsies. He makes annual visits to UPMC Youngsters’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, the place the surgical procedure was carried out.
The vigilance required in elevating a toddler who's immunosuppressed has permeated Herridge’s work and intensified her dedication to holding the U.S. navy accountable in her nationwide safety reporting. Two of her investigative tales revealed the plight of navy veterans denied medical advantages from the federal government and delivered policy-changing leads to 2021.
“After coming via the transplant and COVID,” Herridge mentioned, “there's not an individual or an establishment that I'd not tackle for Peter, and that has carried over into my reporting.”
Herridge and her husband, retired Lt. Col. John Hayes, are decided to let Peter have an energetic life, regardless that any infectious sickness poses a probably deadly menace. “Because the transplant, all of us take off our sneakers once we stroll within the door and wash our arms,” she mentioned. “I do know it sounds loopy, but it surely does extra to chop down on an infection than virtually anything. My job is to maintain him as wholesome as potential for so long as potential as a result of he’s in all probability going to wish a second transplant sooner or later.”
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, her nervousness intensified. “After Peter almost died as a child and had a transplant, we decided that we have been going to let him stay freely,” Herridge mentioned. “He was not going to be put into some bubble. And that was actually examined by COVID.”
Herridge’s hardest determination was permitting Peter to return to public college in Washington, D.C., final September at a time when his immunosuppression degree was at its highest for the reason that transplant.
“I wrestled with it,” Herridge mentioned. “I lay in mattress at evening pondering, ‘God, is that this going to be the factor that takes him out?’”
Peter contracted the virus inside three weeks of returning to the classroom. He suffered delicate signs and recovered. For a relieved Herridge, each triumph is adopted by reflection.
“Whenever you stroll with dying with somebody that you simply love and also you come via it, you see a sweetness in life afterwards that you'd by no means admire,” Herridge mentioned. “And also you see a readability of function that you'd by no means have realized.”
Born and raised in Toronto, Herridge, 57, began her profession at ABC Information in London after graduating from Harvard and Columbia Journalism College. She spent almost 22 years at Fox Information, the place she was a revered correspondent delivering straight-ahead accounts and investigative tales in a assured, no-nonsense model from the Pentagon, the Division of Justice and conflict zones within the Center East and Europe. Whereas on the community, she received the Tex McCrary Award for Journalism introduced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
As Fox Information leaned extra into right-leaning opinion in prime time, the place Herridge typically appeared, she believed her work was not having the type of affect she wished. Her frustration led to her be a part of CBS in October 2019, the place she is now a fixture on “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Night Information With Norah O’Donnell.”
“We did loads of nice reporting at Fox Information,” mentioned Herridge. “However you need to be generally known as somebody who's a newsmaker, not a fact-checker. The information house was getting smaller and smaller, and I used to be getting exhausted by it.”
Herridge’s determination to make a profession transfer whereas in her mid-50s, an age when on-air alternatives for girls in TV diminish, felt like a threat.
These considerations fell away when Herridge met with Susan Zirinsky, then president of CBS Information, who acknowledged her many years of expertise as a plus, particularly when overlaying the Pentagon. Correspondents on the beat embrace CNN’s Barbara Starr and CBS’ David Martin, each of their 70s, whereas ABC’s Martha Raddatz is 69. All have had prolonged tenures.
“Within the nationwide safety house, it actually can take not less than a decade to construct a fame and begin to make contacts,” Herridge mentioned. “You must construct relationships of belief.”
Herridge acknowledged how she additionally needed to win the belief of a few of her colleagues at CBS Information, who have been cautious of getting a Fox Information veteran of their ranks. “I believe you have been at all times combating the bias towards Fox as a information group,” mentioned Herridge.
Any questions on Herridge’s objectivity seemingly pale when her questions irritated then-President Trump in an interview carried out through the 2020 presidential marketing campaign. CBS Information insiders now say they watch her with the anticipation of seeing a report that would make a distinction within the lives of these she is overlaying.
“She has a mind that bores on the flawed particulars in one thing that everybody accepts and drives by,” mentioned Zirinsky, who at present oversees a documentary manufacturing unit at CBS Information. “It’s one thing not everyone possesses, however she’s like a feminine AWAC aircraft,” referring to the airborne warning and management system. “She’s an incredible synthesizer of information and she or he has a coronary heart.”
After arriving at CBS, Herridge put a highlight on a rising variety of U.S. navy troops who suffered critical illnesses linked to a poisonous base in Uzbekistan the place they served between 2001 and 2005. Her reporting is credited for bringing consideration to the problem and led to an government order from Trump throughout his final day in workplace that offered beforehand denied medical take care of the affected troops.
When Herridge realized of the order, she positioned a name to one of many veterans as soon as stationed on the Karshi-Khanabad base, generally known as K2, who served as a supply for the story.
“He mentioned, ‘I've to drag over to the facet of the highway as a result of I’m crying so onerous I can’t see what I’m doing,’” Herridge recalled. “And I cried with him.”
Herridge additionally uncovered the extent of the accidents suffered by U.S. troops from Iran’s January 2020 ballistic missile strike on the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, in retaliation for the killing of Qassem Suleimani, a high Iranian navy official. The U.S. authorities performed down the severity of the assault’s affect so tensions with Iran didn't escalate. Trump described the accidents as “complications.”
However in consequence, troops who suffered mind accidents have been denied Purple Hearts and the medical advantages that include them. Herridge’s reviews prompted the Military’s Human Assets Command to approve the awards in December 2021.
“I believe we have been very near a battle with Iran than the general public ever acknowledged,” Herridge mentioned. “However that ought to have by no means prevented the final administration from recognizing the accidents of those troopers. It shouldn't have gone on for 2 years.”
Again at house, Herridge is getting Peter prepared for particular training instruction to make up for the college time misplaced through the pandemic. It has offered a perspective on what many dad and mom coped with through the pandemic.
“COVID was crushing for these kids,” she mentioned. “And Peter wants extra assist at this time than he did two years in the past. My publicity to the general public college system, particular training, the paperwork — fairly quickly I’m going to need to flip my investigative lens on that.”
Herridge’s sons Peter and James, a 17-year-old highschool junior, have heard it earlier than. As she put it, “My youngsters at all times say, ‘Don’t make mama mad — she’ll examine you.’”
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