Gaylord grad seriously hurt in Iraq

January 25, 2005
Gaylord grad seriously hurt in Iraq
Army Pfc. Derrick Harden is out of coma

Derrick Harden, 19, was hurt by a land mine. JOHANNESBURG - A local family is in the nation's capital, at the bedside of their son who was critically wounded in Iraq.
Army Pfc. Derrick Harden, 19, a 2003 graduate of Gaylord High School, was badly hurt last week when the Humvee his unit traveled in drove over a land mine while responding to another bomb explosion in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
The blast broke Harden's arms and legs, and shrapnel caused serious injury to his face in several places. His right leg was amputated below the knee.
Deb Murray, Harden's mother, said her son awoke Monday from a weeklong coma and is breathing without assistance in the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

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