‘I’ve got one leg, I’ve got no feet, I see through one eye’: Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall returns to live TV ten months after he was ambushed in Ukraine – with rousing message to ‘never give up’
A Fox News reporter has returned to the air 10 months after narrowly surviving an attack in Ukraine that killed two colleagues.
Benjamin Hall, 40, suffered devastating injuries when his team came under a Russian barrage of shells outside Kyiv on March 14.
Veteran Fox cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, a 55-year-old Irishman, and local Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, were killed.
On Thursday, Hall, a British-born father of three young daughters, made his first live television appearance since he was evacuated from Ukraine, and told his Fox News colleagues he felt ‘more confident than I ever have.’
Hall urged others in similar situations to ‘never give up’ and said adversity could be overcome ‘no matter how painful something is.’
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Benjamin Hall, 40, appeared on live television on Thursday for the first time since his March injury
Hall was badly injured, revealing on Twitter that he ‘lost sight in one eye, half a leg on one side and a foot on the other’
He has now written a book about his experiences, Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home.
Hall’s book is published on March 23
‘I think that when you’ve gone through something like I’ve gone through, the highs, the lows, you have to have a target, you have to get something to fight for,’ said Hall.
‘And this is it, trying to get back, trying to speak to you, trying to be on air and trying to tell people the stories, so perhaps it can help them.
‘I’ve got one leg, I’ve got no feet, I see through one eye, one workable hand. I was burned all over, and I feel strong, I feel more confident than I ever have.’
Hall said that the thought of his daughters kept him going.
‘When you have to know there’s good on the other side, that if you work hard, if you dedicate yourself to getting somewhere and you don’t stop trying to achieve that, you will get that and no matter how painful something is, no matter how hard it is,’ he said.
‘If you really want to and you have the support to do it, you can get there, never give up. Never assume it’s all over. It’s inside you and it’s always good on the other side.’
Hall has three daughters with his wife Alicia Meller, an Australian fashion businesswoman
Hall is pictured on his wedding day in 2015 alongside wife Alicia Meller
Hall together with his wife and three daughters are pictured on a family vacation
Irish cameraman Pierre Zakrewski died along with producer Oleksandra Kurshynova in the attack. They were both working with Hall
He added: ‘I think that you learn a lot going through things like this. And I’m surrounded by so many wonderful people that that’s why I’m here today and I looking forward to everything that comes ahead.’
Hall was evacuated to Poland, and spent months in recovery at Brooke Army Medical Center outside of San Antonio, Texas.
He has tweeted that he lost half a leg, his foot on the other leg, and that his hearing was ‘pretty blown.’
According to HarperCollins, Hall will write about his prior experiences in Syria and Afghanistan among other countries, his decision for ‘one last’ return to a war zone when he agreed to report from Ukraine and the extraordinary efforts to save his life.
