A Florence runner who had just completed the Boston Marathon hadn’t even had time to recharge before he and his wife began helping people after two explosive devices went off near the finish line.
Paul and Rachel Pearson were walking back to their downtown Boston hotel when they heard the first explosion. Rachel Pearson said the second came about 15 seconds later, but it seemed as if time slowed down.
Paul, a family practice physician from Florence, had just completed the 26.2 mile course and hadn’t eaten anything. He did have time to put his sweats on and get something to drink before he began helping several of the people injured in the blasts. Rachel Pearson said everyone jumped in to help and said she saw a woman come running out of a nearby restaurant with a linen table cloth to help one young man with blood pouring from a shrapnel wound to his leg.
“Because it was a marathon there were plenty of medical people around” said Rachel, so there was a nearly immediate response by officials. She praised police and medical responders, as well as marathon organizers, saying it was obvious they had trained for this type of emergency and executed well.
She called it “a day like no other” and was saddened by the events.
Her husband, Paul finished the run in 3:31; two minutes off his previous personal best time of 3:29. “But there are a lot of hills in Boston” she said.
(video courtesy SendtoNews)
