Hostage Hamill in good health after ordeal

American hostage Thomas Hamill, who was shot in the arm when he was abducted in Iraq, was treated for the wound and regularly received food during his three weeks in captivity.

Hamill, who escaped his captors on Sunday in a daring run to freedom, has lost a few pounds but feels “in generally good health,” said Major Kerry Jepsen, a surgeon treating Hamill at a military hospital in Germany.

“He feels very lucky to have gotten away,” Jepsen said at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre. “He’s looking forward to meeting his family and getting back home.”

Hamill, a 33-year-old truck driver prised open the door of a shack where he was being held and ran half a mile to a US military convoy passing by near the town of Balad north of Baghdad.

Hamill was shot in the arm when his convoy was ambushed. He recalls receiving medication for the wound and being put under anaesthesia after being captured, though it’s unclear whether he was taken to a clinic or a doctor came to him, Jepsen said.

The captors initially “left him with some water and a couple packages of cookies,” Jepsen said.

They frequently moved him from place to place, guarding him in cramped, mosquito-infested rooms where he had to sleep on the floor and had to stay inside during daylight hours, Jepsen said.

On the day he got free, Hamill recognised the rumble of US military vehicles’ diesel engines nearby and decided to make a run for it despite the fact a guard had been outside earlier.

“He just said, ‘This is my opportunity and I’m going to make it. He’s going to have to shoot me or take me out,”’ Jepsen said.

Military doctors have said Hamill, from Mississippi, is in good shape and would likely return home this week. His wife, Kellie was expected to join him at Landstuhl tomorrow.