'These runners just finished and now they don't have legs': Witnesses recount war zone at end of Boston Marathon as bombs left race course littered with limbs of 25-30 people- Unimaginable horror as victims with missing limbs are transported away
- Surgeons battling wounds usually only seen in combat
- Doctor who ran to the scene: 'It was like a war zone'
- Massachusetts General Hospital: 'Several amputations' performed
- Ten of the victims are feared to have lost limbs
- Two brothers each lost a leg, from the knee down in the blast
By Lydia Warren, Annette Witheridge and Michael Zennie 15 April 2013
dailymail.co.uk
Witnesses have described how twin bomb blasts turned the 26th mile of the Boston Marathon into a war zone, littering the final stretch of the race with disembodied limbs, wounded runners who lost their legs, and a lone shoe with flesh still in it.
Surgeons spoke about operating theaters that looked like battlefield hospitals as 140 injured victims poured into the city's hospital's - many with wounds only seen in combat.
Reports suggest that the small, homemade explosives were packed with ball bearings that tore off feet, ankles, calves and entire legs and they exploded just outside the crowded finish line.
So far ten of the victims are feared to have lost limbs in the worst terror blast in the worst terror atrocity on US soil since 9/11 - two brothers lost a leg each in the blast.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
 Pained:Surgeons spoke about operating theaters that looked like battlefield hospitals as 140 injured victims poured into the city's hospital's - many with wounds only seen in combat
 A woman on the ground is covered in dirt and blood and looks on in shock as she is surrounded by a scene of carnage
 Helping out: An injured person is helped on the sidewalk by bystanders in the moments after the explosion
'These runners just finished and they don’t have legs now,' 35-year-old Roupen Bastajian, a Rhode Island state trooper and former Marine, told the New York Times. 'So many of them. There are so many people without legs. It’s all blood. There’s blood everywhere. You got bones, fragments. It’s disgusting.'
Mr Bastajian, who was also running in the marathon, said if he had not beaten his 2011 pace in the race, he, too, might have been one of the victims.
Doctors treating victims at hospitals across the city said many of the injuries had been caused by 'small metal debris', but could not confirm if they were ball bearings, which would point towards the type of device used.
Peter Fagenholz, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, said 29 patients were being treated there, eight of whom were in a critical condition.
He said many of the injuries were to the lower limbs and that 'several' amputations had been carried out.
'It's just depressing that it's intentional. I can't say I've ever seen this volume of patients come this quickly with this type of injury,' he told the Daily Telegraph after having already carried out six operations.
'It's a lot of small metal debris. We can't say if they were placed there intentionally or were just part of the blast.'
 Reports suggest that the small, homemade explosives were packed with ball bearings that tore off feet, ankles, calves and entire legs and they exploded just outside the crowded finish line
Rushed away: Medical staff respond to the scene and transport injured spectators to hospitals
 Emergency response: Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston on Monday afternoon. Police and fire services swarmed the scene
Dr Michael Epstein, who works in the emergency department at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said at least 21 victims were in their care.
The injuries ranged from eardrum damage to those with life-threatening injuries, with some suffering 'extensive damage', he added.
Brigham and Women's treated 31 patients, many of whom had orthopaedic wounds.
A spokesman told the Daily Telegraph the victims were tested for background radiation but no contamination was found.
Bloody aftermath of Boston bombings WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
Even seasoned firefighters were sickened by what unfolded on a beautiful spring day in Boston.
'In 28 years, this is definitely the worst I've seen,' Boston Fire Department District Chief Ron Harrington told NBC News.
'Bodies and body parts. Blood all over. A little boy lying in the street. A young woman in her twenties. Both dead. It was mayhem. I saw two people with arms hanging loose, and one without a leg.
'A shoe with flesh still in it.'
At least 17 people are in critical condition and some are not expected to survive the night.
Three people have died, including eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was waiting for his father near the finish line.
Several news outlets have reported that ball bearings were used in the bombs. The small steel balls are popular among bomb-makers the world over because each one becomes a deadly projectile when launched by the explosive force of a bomb.
 Injures: Some doctors have said they found street debris in the wounds of their patients, not ball bearings
Injured people and debris lie on the sidewalk near the Boston Marathon finish line
 Helping hand: An official rushed an injured girl away from the scene of the explosions at the Boston Marathon
 Emergency personnel respond to the scene as they attempt to tend to the seriously injured at the scene
Hotel owner Marc Hagopian told MailOnline how he witness unimaginable carnage 35 yards from the bomb explosion.
'It was chaos - blood and limbs everywhere. There was a man who had lost a leg, another had lost both,' he said.
'There were seven, eight, nine people lying on the ground. They appeared to be dead.
'Marathon runners were tearing off their shorts to use as tourniquets to help the injured.'
Mark was inside the Charlesmark Hotel, on Boyston Street, when the first bomb went off. As he rushed outside, the second exploded.
'There was blood everywhere, along with severed limbs. It was just awful,' he said.
The second bomb came about 10 seconds after the first. People were knocked off their feet by the force of it.'
Mark, 50, videotaped the aftermath, showing a man lying apparently unconscious on the pavement covered in blood.
 A man is loaded into an ambulance after he was injured by one of two bombs
 Emergency personnel respond to the scene as they attempt to tend to the seriously injured at the scene
 Aftermath: An NBC still shows the debris and blood strewn area after the area was cleared on Monday
 Aid: Emergency personnel respond to an injured woman after two explosions went off today
 Suffering: A man who appears in severe pain is rushed away from the scene for aid
 Fears: Young women who were hit in the explosions are rushed away on stretchers
 Lucky escape: A man hit by the blast walks away from the scene with shredded pants
Another man tears off his red t-shirt to use as a tourniquet as police officers rush to help.
A voice can be heard asking: “What the f*** happened, a bomb?”
Another man, wearing a David Beckham soccer shirt, is seen running around.
The area around the hotel was evacuated. Mark and his guests gathered in a restaurant two blocks away waiting for police instructions.
Hagopian’s mother Marcia Scott-Harrison, who was evacuated from nearby Commonwealth Avenue, said: 'Mark is in total shock but at least he wasn’t hit.
'His hotel is just yards from the finish line. A man sitting outside the hotel had his leg blown off. It is awful.
'I heard both explosions, then a dozen cops came running up Commonwealth Avenue. They were shouting for everyone to get off the street.
'There were young girls crying, I pulled three into my apartment building. It was chaos. No one knew what was happening.'
Amid the horror, though Bostonians showed the mettle.
Hero tells of helping Boston attack victim
Runners turned around after pounding 26 miles and raced into the disaster zone.
'Somebody's leg flew by my head,' spectator John Ross told the Boston Herald. 'I gave my belt to stop the blood.'
Videos show runners stripping off their shirts and tying them around the legs of wounded spectators for tourniquets.
Gestures as small as offering a drink of orange juice and use of a home bathroom were recounted on Twitter in an ongoing online recollection of the fellowship that emerged in the wake of Monday's devastation.
'People are good. We met a woman who let us come into her home and is giving us drinks,' tweeted Ali Hatfield, a Kansas City, Missouri runner who was in town for the race.
 Struggle: A woman is comforted by a man near a triage tent set up for the Boston Marathon
 Chaos: Eyewitnesses described seeing scores of people without limbs and bleeding being carried away
 First responded: Eyewitnesses described people being carried away soaked in blood and missing limbs
 Control: Every single one of Boston's 2,100 police officers has been called to work following the explosions
|
