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FCHS grad recuperating from Iraq wound at Army hospital in D.C.

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizen.com

A local soldier is back stateside recovering from injuries he received when he was shot by a sniper while on patrol more than a week ago.

Sgt. Ryan Coffield of Fayetteville, a 2002 graduate of Fayette County High School, is now at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C. This week he faces surgery to repair shattered vertebrae in his neck to keep the bone fragments from causing further damage to his spinal cord, said his mother, Dee Coffield of Fayetteville.

Those bone fragments could be causing pressure on the spinal cord, which might explain Sgt. Coffield’s inability to move his left arm. Sometime after the surgery Sgt. Coffield will begin a rehabilitation program.

Sgt. Coffield’s wife, Sandra, joined him Saturday. She is pregnant with the couple’s first child, a boy due in late December.

Doctors have said Sgt. Coffield was fortunate to have survived because of the path the bullet took, severing a crucial artery in the neck area.

“He definitely had his guardian angel looking out for him,” Dee Coffield said. Two unnamed sergeants, in particular, are credited with helping save Sgt. Coffield’s life that day.

While in intensive care, Sgt. Coffield shared a room with another soldier whose injuries were more extensive, and Coffield has tried to encourage him, Dee Coffield said. She added that there are many other soldiers at the hospital who are in bad shape, and she is asking local residents to pray for all injured soldiers and their families.

Sgt. Coffield said he was able to “hang on” through the injury due to thoughts of “being able to see my son’s eyes open for the first time,” his mother related.

Cards and letters can be sent to the following address: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Sgt. Ryan Coffield, Ward 57/Room 5711, 6900 Georgia Ave. NW, Washington D.C., 20307-5001.