Pittsfield soldier has skin graft

PITTSFIELD – The wife and mother of Spc. Craig Ardry, who was injured during an insurgent ambush in Iraq earlier this month, are expected to leave this morning for Texas where Ardry is recovering.

Ardry, a Pittsfield resident, underwent skin-graft surgery on an arm and leg Thursday morning at the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio less than a day after he arrived from Germany, family members were told.

Doctors have to complete skin work on Ardry’s injured leg before they can fully address the injury to the leg, Ardry’s mother-in-law, Georgie Farrin, said Thursday.

Ardry suffered burns and other injuries April 20 outside the northern Iraq city of Mosul after a bomb in the road exploded, damaging the lead Humvee that Ardry was driving. The bomb injured four members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine Army National Guard, one of them fatally.

Early this morning, Ardry’s wife, Nanette, and his mother, Carol Wyman, are expected to fly out to Texas to be with Ardry, who Farrin said is improving. He remains on a respirator, although Farrin said her son-in-law’s lungs are apparently fine. The respirator is a health precaution for Ardry while he undergoes surgery, she said.

More than one skin-graft operation may be necessary, Farrin said, because doctors reported that sometimes skin grafts don’t always take the first time.

Family members had hoped that Ardry was going to be flown to the Texas Army hospital that specializes in burn victims earlier in the week, but they said the flight from Germany had been held up as military officials waited so burn victims from more recent incidents could be flown out.