Pfc. Ernest Sutphin, 21, a native of Parkersburg, W.Va., was injured March 11 near Hawija when the Humvee he and six other soldiers were riding in accidentally slid into a canal during a reconnaissance patrol, said Maj. Neal O’Brien of Task Force Danger public affairs in Tikrit, Iraq.

O’Brien said a media report that a bomb damaged the Humvee and that two soldiers were killed during the incident was incorrect. Sutphin and one other soldier were flown to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for treatment, O’Brien said.

An aunt of Sutphin’s, Faye Pennell, said Sutphin was taken off life support at the Landstuhl hospital yesterday and died.

Sutphin’s family in North Carolina said today they still aren’t sure how he was injured.

There has been so much miscommunication, says Sutphin’s aunt, Tanya Pennell, of Gibsonville, N.C.

Sutphin’s mother, Jackie Piggott of McCleansville, N.C., told her family that the Army had told her Sutphin had a bruised lung and a concussion and was sitting up, eating and off the ventilator, Tanya Pennell said today. However, Tanya Pennell said, when Piggott and her former husband, Timmy Holmes, flew to Germany on Monday to be with their son they found him on life support.

"We’re feeling a lot of anger," Tanya Pennell said. "Knowing the actual truth of what happened would make things a little easier. How many injured Ernie Sutphins did they have? It just seems like they didn’t want to tell us what happened."

The family had hoped that one of Sutphin’s kidneys could be used to help his grandmother, Judy Sutphin, who has been suffering with kidney problems since 1989. However, the family learned yesterday that Ernest Sutphin’s kidney was too badly damaged to be used for transplant, Tanya Pennell said.

Sutphin graduated from Parkersburg High School in Parkersburg, W. Va., in 2001.

Karen DuVall, secretary to Parkersburg High Principal Ralph Board, said Sutphin was active in raising money for "Operation Smile," a program that helps correct physical facial flaws of children, and the school’s "T-Club," a support group. "He was an above-average student and always very happy," DuVall said.