Ex-POW Lynch Making Progress

Her family surrounds her once again. So does the small menagerie of stuffed animals -- a couple of bears, a white rabbit -- she props up on her bed. She had her first solid meal and sat up in a chair for four hours.

Jessica Lynch, the U.S. Army private snatched from Iraqi hands in a dramatic rescue mission, is slowly making progress after days spent in captivity and hours spent in surgery, her family said Tuesday.

But her relatives and doctors are still treading softly when it comes to details of her ordeal in southern Iraq. Lynch now knows that several members of her unit were killed in an ambush, but those around her have spared her much news of the war, her brother said.

“She is aware of the fate of the other members of the 507,” said Gregory Lynch Jr., referring to his sister’s maintenance company, which came under fire outside Nasiriyah. “She’s real concerned for them, but you know, she’s not in a state where she really wants to talk much about that....

Since her arrival Thursday, the wounded former prisoner of war has undergone about 10 hours of surgery on a broken back and fractured limbs that may have been hit by gunfire. Doctors discovered two possible bullet wounds, but “we have not found a bullet or any metallic fragments,” said Marie Shaw, a hospital spokeswoman.

Exactly what happened to Lynch in the March 23 firefight outside Nasiriyah and during her imprisonment afterward remains unclear. The supply clerk was rescued April 1 in a nighttime raid. Neither the military nor Lynch’s family has offered a full account, and it is possible that Lynch herself, who is 19, may not remember, Shaw said.

“Some people talk immediately when they come back, and some people keep it inside. We don’t know what Jessica has been through,” Shaw said. “It just takes time.”

Shaw said she does not know whether the Army has debriefed Lynch yet.

The hospital team working with Lynch includes military intelligence officials, a chaplain and a psychologist, whom Lynch sees daily.

“When she’s ready to tell us something, she will,” said Lynch’s father, Gregory.

“She’s still concerned about the family members of the others,” added Gregory Lynch Jr., 21, who is also an Army private. “That is very typical of her.”

During their 15-minute news conference, the family spoke of an emotional reunion with Lynch on Sunday morning, shortly after a private plane offered by the Heinz Corp. flew her parents, brother, sister and cousin from their home in Palestine, W.Va., to Germany.

Chats on the phone with his sister had not prepared Gregory for the moment he saw her.

“I had shed a few tears before, but it hit me hard when I walked in that room,” he said.

“We said, ‘Hi, baby, how’re ya doin’?’ ” recalled Lynch’s father, who had braced himself for the worst. “She said, ‘Fine.’ ”

Col. David Rubenstein, head of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, said Lynch had begun occupational and physical therapy. She sat up in a chair for four hours Monday and then again for some time Tuesday.

If doctors judge her ready to make the flight back to the U.S., she could be transferred this weekend to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for further treatment.

Because of the extent of Lynch’s injuries -- which include fractures to her right arm, upper and lower left leg, right ankle and lower spine -- her stay here has exceeded the three or four days most casualties spend before returning home. A friend has been by Lynch’s side continuously for days, the family said.

On Monday, Lynch ate her first solid meal since arriving, a helping of her favorite foods: turkey with gravy, carrots and French fries. Before that, she had eaten only applesauce -- another favorite -- and fruit juice.

Shaw said flowers and e-mails have poured in since Landstuhl’s most famous patient arrived.

Lynch’s family, too, came bearing gifts and necessities, such as “basic hair stuff,” her brother said. “What girls want.”