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TUPPER LAKE - A Tupper Lake soldier lost her leg this week while doing a patrol in Afghanistan.

Bergan Flannigan, who was three days away from coming home for a two-week break with her family, was doing a routine check of a motorcycle with a trailer behind it, and as she was walking away, someone detonated a bomb, said Amy Arsenault, Flannigan's mother. Luckily, she had a couple of medics with her.

"They saved her life," Arsenault said.

Flannigan, 24, who has been overseas since July 28, had her right leg amputated up to the knee, and had another surgery to do some skin grafting and replace several injured veins with ones from her amputated leg. Arsenault said that once Flannigan recovers, doctors expect her to have full use of her left leg.

Her only other injury is some shrapnel in her face that is pretty minor, her mother said.

Arsenault was at work when Flannigan's husband Tom called her at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to tell her about the explosion. He was crying and so distraught that she thought her daughter had died.

"He was beside himself," Arsenault said.

Flannigan's husband, who is also serving in Afghanistan, has been with Flannigan since shortly after the explosion, and he has been keeping his mother-in-law and the rest of the family updated.

He has a cell phone there that he uses often, as his wife also does. She would normally call her mother every day, or at least every other day, and if she couldn't do that she would at least send a Facebook message, Arsenault said.

But since Flannigan got injured, Arsenault hasn't been able to talk to her. She said she thinks the doctors have kept her mostly unconscious since the explosion.

"I don't believe she knows the extent of anything yet - they need to stabilize her more," Arsenault said. "That will be the hard part."

Flannigan is at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and soon the military plans to transport her to Germany and from there to Washington, D.C., where she will go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Arsenault said, which she said could be as soon as Sunday. She said the Army believes the recovery process has to be based around her loved ones being with her, so it tries to quickly bring injured soldiers back stateside.

Hopefully, most of the family will be able to meet Flannigan in Washington when she flies in, Arsenault said. Her twin sister, Bethany Arsenault, lives at home and will likely be there, but brother Tim Arsenault, who lives on Long Island, just tore his Achilles tendon and is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, and sister Brooke Gabriels, who lives in New Paltz, has a newborn and another young child at home. They might not be able to make it right away, but she expects they'll head down at some point while Flannigan is there, Arsenault said.

Arsenault said she thinks her daughter will have to stay at the Washington hospital for a couple of months for rehabilitation, and the Army is in the process of changing her husband's orders so he can stay in the country and be with his wife.

People are surprised when Arsenault tells them how helpful the Army has been, she said.

"They really have been nothing but accommodating since it happened, so that's good," Arsenault said.

Flannigan was the only soldier injured in the attack, besides a few scratches and bruises, Arsenault said.

Arsenault is still unclear on the details and said she isn't sure whether or not it was a suicide attack. She said she doesn't know what happened to whoever detonated the bomb, and she believes the patrol Flannigan was doing was a typical roadside stop.

Arsenault said she doesn't have any feelings of anger because she is so relieved her daughter is alive.

"The good news is she lived," Arsenault said. "It's not an ending; it's a beginning."

She is staying positive because she has to, she said, "otherwise I'd fall apart."

Arsenault said her daughter is strong and will overcome the loss of her leg - she's always been an active woman and will get a "bionic leg" that will let her be active once again.

Everyone in Tupper Lake has been very helpful and kind since word spread about the incident, said Arsenault, a teacher assistant at L.P. Quinn Elementary School.

"The outpouring of support from the community is overwhelming," she said. "I'm just so blessed to live in a community with so many caring people."

According to a Wall Street Journal story published in December that chronicled the relationships of the three married couples in their company, Flannigan walked the streets of Kandahar frequently but worried more about her husband's safety than her own.

Both are first lieutenants in the 293rd Military Police Company, based in Fort Stewart, Ga.

According to the article, Flannigan wanted to join the military ever since she was a little girl.

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Contact Jessica Collier at 891-2600 ext. 25 or jcollier@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.