Summary

TAPE: EF03/0321 IN_TIME: 01:13:56 DURATION: 2:35 SOURCES: APTN/DoD RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: Landstuhl - 8 April 2003/Recent SHOTLIST: APTN Material Landstuhl, Germany - 8 April 2003 1 Family and soldier walk from building to podium outside 2 SOUNDBITE (English) US Army Colonel David Rubenstein, Landstuhl Medical Center commander: Private Lynch is doing well and is in excellent spirits She got out of bed yesterday and was able to sit in a chair for four hours She is back sitting in a chair this morning Jessica has started receiving physical and occupational therapy, and has had a little bit of solid food Though Landstuhl's outstanding medical, nursing and support staff is very pleased with her progress, no precise date has been set yet for her return to the United States 3 SOUNDBITE (English) Greg Lynch, father: Her spirits was real high, and we was really glad to see her condition because we was kind of figuring a lot worse, but it worked out really good for us 4 SOUNDBITE (English) Deadra Lynch, mother: The same, she looked real good, real cheerful It was better than I expected, yes 5 SOUNDBITE (English) Greg Lynch Junior, brother: She is aware that the fate of the other members of the 507th and the PoWs She's real concerned for them but you know she's not in the state where she really wants to talk much about that She's more concerned, she's looking out for others and not for herself You would think that she would be owing herself trying to get better, but still she's still concerned about the family members of the others That is very typical of her character and I'm very surprised, she's still trying hard to get herself on her feet but still she's more concerned for others 6 Family and military walk from podium to building APTN 7 Still photograph of Jessica Lynch Department of Defence Material Nasiriyah, Iraq - Recent Night vision shots: 8 Mid shot of Lynch being carried on stretcher down stairs of Iraqi hospital 8 Mid shot of Saddam Hussein portrait and interior of hospital 9 Various of US troops carrying Lynch on stretcher STORYLINE: The family of Private Jessica Lynch, the young US soldier rescued from an Iraqi hospital, is doing better than expected her family said on Tuesday Lynch's parents and brother spoke at a news conference at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, a US military hospital near the Ramstein airbase Lynch's brother, Greg Lynch Junior, who is also a private soldier in the US Army, said his sister was concerned for the families of other personnel in her unit who had been killed or remained captive Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old Army supply clerk from Palestine, West Virginia, was captured on 23 March after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy took a wrong near Nasiriyah and ran into an Iraqi ambush She was rescued on 1 April from a hospital in the southern Iraqi city by US commandos and airlifted to Germany Lynch was aware that members of her unit were killed, the family said, though it was unclear whether she had asked or had been told by military officials Doctors have said Lynch is in stable condition in intensive care, where she was being treated for a head wound, an injury to her spine and fractures to her right arm, both legs, and her right foot and ankle She underwent back surgery Thursday to correct a slipped vertebra that was putting pressure on her spinal cord Since then, she has undergone several more surgeries to stabilize the fractures