Grand Forks soldier wounded in Iraq is back in the U.S.
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - A soldier from this city who was wounded by a roadside
bomb in Iraq is now at a Maryland hospital, facing a number of surgeries.
Marine Lance Cpl. Ben Lunak, 21, was wounded last weekend when the Humvee in
which he was riding drove over a roadside bomb, said his father, Duane. Ben
Lunak had been stationed near Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
Duane Lunak said his son arrived at the National Naval Medical Center in
Bethesda, Md., on Tuesday, in an induced coma. He has a broken pelvic bone,
compound fractures in his right leg and injuries to his stomach, and had
surgery Wednesday to remove his spleen.
"He knows we're here," Duane Lunak said from the hospital. "That's the
important thing, he knows we're here."
The family initially was told that Ben Lunak's right leg might have to be
amputated from the knee down.
"They might be able to save his leg now," Duane Lunak said.
"I don't know how to describe it," he said. "It's up one minute, down the
next. I guess I am just trying to be strong for him."