Jessica took awful beating

New York Daily News ^ | 4/05/03 | OWEN MORITZ

[kattracks]

Pfc. Jessica Lynch was beaten more severely than first reports indicated, doctors said yesterday.

Besides two broken legs and a broken arm, the 19-year-old Army truck driver suffered fractures to her right foot, right ankle and a disk in her spine, and had a gash on her head.

Lynch underwent spinal surgery Thursday to repair the fractured disk that had been pressing painfully on a nerve, doctors at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany reported yesterday.

"The prognosis for her recovery is excellent," said Col. David Rubenstein, the medical center commander.

Officials have refused to say why so many of Lynch's bones were broken, but it's likely she was tortured. An Iraqi man who told the Americans where to find her urged the troops to hurry, saying she was being tortured. He later described a scene where the helpless woman was being slapped by a black-clad member of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's thuggish Fedayeen.

Despite her ordeal, Lynch was in good spirits, asking for turkey, a pair of glasses and a newspaper from her hometown of Palestine, W.Va.

"Her emotional state is extremely good - she's jovial, she's talking with staff," Rubenstein said. He said she was particularly cheered by the pink casts she requested.

She will need "extensive rehabilitative services," he continued, but was expected to recover completely.

She's "a daughter any parent would be proud of," he added.

A friend from her unit is with her and has spoken by telephone with her family, Rubenstein said.

The military also accommodated a request from Lynch, who was being fed intravenously, for solid foods. From her list of favorites, cooks in the hospital kitchen delivered an order of turkey, apple sauce and steamed carrots.

The private has no television in her hospital room, on Rubenstein's orders. And Lynch's father back in the U.S. confirmed that doctors have asked him not to discuss her ordeal with her.

"We will answer her questions when she asks them," Rubenstein said.

Nine of 11 bodies discovered in the raid that freed Lynch are believed to be those of American soldiers. Those bodies were transported yesterday to Dover, Del.

With News Wire Services

[patriciaruth]

For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 4: 1-3

[DoughtyOne]

The only good part of this is that we will find out who did it.  And when we do that person will be skinned alive and hung by his family jewels to rot.

Chemical Ali, we're coming for you.  There isn't a rock big enough, there isn't a cave deep enough, there isn't a bunker strong enough to protect your ass.

[Ruth A.]

I'm not trying to cause trouble, I am just confused. What was the point of the earlier press conference that minimized her wounds? Any woman that has endured this deserves to be called PFC Lynch rather than being referred to as "Jessica" in the headlines. Yes, she's 19, but these past two weeks have caused her to mature rapidly.

[bybybill]

We don`t need to know what happened to her, lets just let her heal

[Iwo Jima]

Pfc Lynch has by all accounts performed her duties as a soldier bravely and honorably. As the doctor is quoted to have said, any parent would be proud to have a daughter like that.

But I am wondering (and hoping) that the article is wrong about the doctors determining that she received her injuries through being beaten. Her injuries seem more consistent with a really bad car wreck (like being runover by a tank).

We will just have to wait and see what she has to say either directly or through spokesmen. It's important to know how ALL of our POWs were treated and IMHO especially our female soldiers. As you said, those who tortured or mistreated our troops will need to be dealt with.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm leaning toward her leg and arm injuries being torture. I am also leaning toward her spine injuries as being torture. She was shot twice, which might be the causes for some of the fractures.

The man who told us where she was saw her slapped. Thank God that man took action.

You may be right about the injuries. I can only go with my own gutt feelings on it.

[Iwo Jima]

I thought that they had corrected the earlier reports of gunshot wounds and stab wounds, stating that she had not been shot or stabbed. Am I wrong? This is such a big story, that the reports are coming in fast and furious and often wrong.

[guitfiddlist]

I hope they "neutralized" that black-clad Fedayeen colonel during the raid...with extreme prejudice.

[MadIvan]

I told Happygal last night, if Jessica was tortured, the Allies will be far more angry and determined. If she was sexually molested, I said, there will be a blood rage that will utterly destroy everything and anything to do with the former Iraqi government.

Regards, Ivan

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

you would think the now gang would be thrilled if ever there was a woman to honor and ask your daughters to look up to as a role model its private lynch yet they are silent. she must be to pro george bush for them

[DoughtyOne]

Her father talked to the doctor and she had indeed been shot twice. They surmise the bullets were small caliber, possible handgun or small rifle wounds. I don't really know if they made bone contact. I'm not sure of the status on the stab wound issue right now. As you say, this has gone back and forth. She had two broken legs, one broken arm, spinal injuries, two gunshot wounds and had been beaten. She also has a wound to the head, although that may have been from being struck with an object of some kind.

[SSN558]

If it is true, and there has been plenty of disinformation out there.....Jessica Lynch has one more act of bravery to complete. Testifying at a war crimes trial.

[patriciaruth]

"family jewels?"

Common, have the balls to say balls if you're gonna use white-out

[DoughtyOne]

Nah I'll get some grandmas checking them out.

[patriciaruth]

A cousin said that the doctors initially told her mother that they had found two exit and two entrance wounds consistent with small-calibre, low velocity rounds, plus some shrapnel. Thus the initial report.

Then we had the report where the doctors said she hadn't been shot or stabbed.

Then I just heard them say again in a news report that she had been shot.

I don't think they want to push her right now to remember precisely what happened.

When someone comes in as messed up as she was, I guess the doctors have trouble sorting it all out. From personal experience I can tell you that some docs aren't meticulous in their initial history and examination. And then the docs that come after just read the initial report and repeat it as though it were gospel. That was why I used to try really hard to have as precise a history and physical as I could when I was practicing, as you don't want to come back in three days later with an accident victim and find you overlooked a major or even minor injury, or a major clue about the underlying etiology.

[American in Israel]

Before the Intifadda I was warned that if I get in a traffic accident in the Palestinian areas to flee the scene till I get to an Israeli checkpoint or Police station to turn myself in. The Palestinians Police regularly break your arms to make you more easy to handle. I would not be shocked that she was tortured in this way.

[Iwo Jima]

I would find it pretty unusual if a doctor couldn't tell if someone had a gunshot wound or not. If they can't tell that by now, it's time to get a new doctor. How would they know what needs to be treated? If there is an entrance wound with no exit, then there is a bullet in there somewhere, right? How would they know whether or not is was causing problems, such as bleeding, nerve impingement, etc.

It's not (just) a matter of history, it's also the physical examination. They have taken her to surgery several times. You know that they have done lots of x-rays, CT scans, MRIs. How could they not know if she had been shot?

I'm thinking that there was no gunshot wounds or stab wounds, that that is just a rumor that got started the way that rumors do. Even reporting that the doctors say that she was not shot doesn't seem to phase a good juicy rumor like this.

I just wish that we could get basic facts straight.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Pfc. Jessica Lynch...

Is my American hero.

God bless her and her family, now and always.

[ArneFufkin]

D1, I want any post-conflict War Crime trials to be held under the evidentiary rules, juries or judges and sentencing guidlines and timing as chosen by the citizens of those Iraqi communities where these alleged crimes against humanity took place.

Let the Shi'tes of Basrah and Baghdad, the Kurds of Mosul and Kirkuk, and the Generals of the American Armed forces have first crack at the fedayeen butchers, based on the volume of alleged monstrosity. The idea is get these guys fairly tried, sentenced by those who have been victimized by their crimes, and their sentences quickly and fairly executed.

The Brits are going to be a problem here. As soon as Basrah is rescued, they need to turn over their POWs for a vetting by the locals. They can't allow any of these guys, in their custody, to face a death sentence. It's against their national law. That's your European sensibility right there.

If I were the most heinous hit man for Uday, I'd be searching day and night looking for a British division to offer myself up for surrender. All those guys should. There's no capital punishment in the UK, and they've extended that to military tribunals that any of the accused war criminals in their custody might face. They'll get three squares in a British jail, representation by some Marxist amnesty rights shyster, and I'll bet that they garner an outpouring of Muslim support during the trial, and even if found guilty, they'll live despite their hellish brutality.

I love the Brits, but they are so constrained by their political considerations, they are paralyzed. They've been mucking around outside Basra for two weeks now. We're finally sending our Special Ops guys in to target bad guy buildings and create some lethal havoc for the fedayeen scumbags. Al Basra should be under Coalition control by now, but the Brits CANNOT afford a single civilian casualty because of the Marxists and backstabbers back home. The BBC's campaign of sabotauge and enemy propaganda is disgraceful ... they are poised to nail a civilian death on their boys, and they have played last weekends death of the 10 civilians who ran the American road block as an example of the more primitive and inhumane way WE are conducting our affairs as opposed to the Brits. They're playing soccer with the locals. What a mess for Tony Blair, and a typical multi-national command headache for Tommy Franks.