Posted on 04/05/2003 1:18:38 AM PST by 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
WRONG!!!
In the Afghan Campaign, one of the Pilots of a SPECTRE A-130 Bad A** Gunship was a FEMALE!
General Dostum of The Northern Alliance picked up his Cell 'Phone (primative as dirt Afghanistan, yet it has cellphones!) and called his 'enemy' counterpart and said, in effect, that "BUSH has so little respect for you Taliban that he sends WOMEN to shoot you from the sky".
It is said that was a Psyops thing in its own category!!
I think you tried to use sarcasm in a feeble attempt to challenge what I wrote. Weak.
My wife and family come first. I love her dearly and respect her. I don't respect the women of this country who, through voting in socialism, took us away from our Republic's founding principles.
I consider myself a lucky guy to have found her. Everyday I make sure she knows that I appreciate her.
Her family, and the families of all the men and women over there right now need to see our full support... If they wanted to see our troops picked on they would go to DU. When they come here, they do not need to see the debate about whether *some* of our soldiers are worthy of their roles or a danger to their units. Our military thinks otherwise. Our military has valued them enough to give them a job in the best fighting force in the world. Please support them while they do it.
There was a live feed one of the first two or three nights of the War, there was some resistance the Royal Marines encountered somewhere. The "Breaking News" cutaway shows six or seven RMs all on their stomachs, rifle at ready.
For the next hour and a half, we saw four tanks rumble into position. We saw a half dozen interviews with the senior officer. The tanks moved forward. The tanks moved back. The tanks were ready to fire. The tanks didn't fire. The building remained a threat. The tanks moved away. A helicopter hovered in the distance. It flew away. Everyone remained in prone position.
Until the air strike was ordered. Everyone bailed out to secure spots behind the camera. The camera was left unattended, broadcasting a piece of land 70 degrees right of the building that was going to blow. An F/A-18 came by, fired a bomb, nobody saw it or heard it, but it blew up the building allright.
The Royal Marines all returned to their prone battle positions for no reason whatsoever, unless staging a scene for the BBC crew who was late arriving.
Then there was the soccer game. All the photo ops. The officer hinting the Marines were trigger happy at the check point, a British spokesman talking about wearing berets instead of warlike helmets like the USMC guys do.
I just hope that the PR guys don't get final authority over the military guys. The BBC is seriously loaded for a torrent of outrage over collateral carnage, however. They are spring loaded to spew bile all over this operation.
The bottom line is that doctors don't go blabbing about a patient's medical condition to the general public.
The latest Government crusade in medicine is "Patient Privacy". On 14 April 2003, all medical offices and hospitals in the U.S. will have to be in full compliance with a Federal law that goes by the abbreviation HIPAA that essentially treats patient medical information with only a little less security than our nuclear weapons secrets at Los Alamos.
The joke around our hospital is that we can no longer greet anyone at the hospital with "How are you?" for fear that a HIPAA violation complaint will be filed.
Yeah. That's what the CIA keeps telling me every time I try to volunteer my mother-in-law for Special Ops missions.....
Henny Youngman
Thank you. One day Private Lynch will tell her story, and it will be her story that will do more to show other women what the risks of a soldier are, regardless of their role. It isn't up to anybody in this country to decide, for the qualified, what they should do or what they should aspire to because of their race, gender or religion. That is the basis of our freedom. For those who don't believe women should be in combat, you have that freedom to decide this for yourself. Private Lynch will tell a story that will speak more to the hearts of all women than any male who seeks to define her role.
As for their press or their leader's comments, I don't necessarily approve. I've heard a comment or two that I didn't like, but hey, I'm never going to like everything.
When in a military theater of battle, military leaders from both sides should only provide possitive comments. I think these guys should moderate their tone.
Too fat
Too tall
Too short
Too old
Too reckless
Too hesitant
Too quiet
Female
Gay
Skinhead
Muslim
Diabetic
Distrusted
This is life and death. Military personnel serve at the pleasure of their superiors. Their deployment does not require an arbitration panel.
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