Details Of Boston Bombing Injuries Emerge

Details of the horror wrought by the Boston Marathon bomber are becoming to become clearer two days after the first successful terror bombing on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attack in 2001.

We now know the names of all three people as word comes that the death of Lu Lingzi, a Chinese national attending Boston University, was confirmed by her father. The other confirmed deaths are 29 year-old Krystle Campbell, a restaurant manager from Arlington, Massachusetts ,and eight year-old Martin Richard from Dorchester. Richard’s six year-old sister lost a leg in bombing and his mother Denise is in critical condition after brain surgery.

The details that are emerging are grisly and heartbreaking. The bombs were clearly intended to both kill and maim. The New York Times reports: 

The widespread leg trauma was a result of bombs that seemed to deliver their most vicious blows within two feet off the ground. In an instant, doctors at hospitals throughout the city who had been preparing for ordinary marathon troubles–dehydration or hypothermia–now faced profound, life-changing decisions for runners and spectators of all ages. 

Some victims arrived two to an ambulance, some with huge holes in their legs where skin and fat and muscle were ripped away by the bomb and with ball bearings or nails from the bombs embedded in their flesh. Others had severed arteries in their legs or multiple breaks in the bones of their legs and feet. The shock wave from the blast destroyed blood vessels, skin, muscle and fat. And at least nine patients–five at Boston Medical Center, three at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and one at Brigham and Women’s Hospital–had legs or feet so mangled they would need to be amputated.

Reuters also reported on the injuries: 

“When these kids came in…they were just so badly hurt, just covered with singed hair and in so much pain, it was just gut-wrenching,” said David Mooney, the director of the trauma program at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Pulling nails out of a little girl’s flesh is just awful.” 

Another doctor said he was amazed by the resolve of the patients.

 The decision to amputate was easy, he said: “We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did.”