A man who was badly wounded following the two deadly explosions that wreaked havoc at the Boston Marathon has opened his eyes for the first time, a week after the attacks.
Marc Fucarile, who lost his right leg and broke his left, and suffered several other severe injuries when the home-made explosive detonated on Boylston Street, offered a heart-wrenching apology to his fiancée, Jen Regan, when he woke up.
‘I am sorry for being there. I love you and Gavin,’ he said, referring to their five-year-old son.
Apology: Jen Regan, center, the fiancee of Marc Fucarile, who was injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, is surrounded by family members as she reads a statement at Massachusetts General Hospital today, after he woke up
Love: Regan said that her fiance's injuries include having his right leg amputated, left leg fractured in multiple places and shrapnel in his body including his heart
According to the Boston Globe, Mr Fucarile sustained significant injuries from the blast, and remains the most badly injured patient currently at Massachusetts General.
Among his injuries, he also has severe burns and had shrapnel lodged near his heart.
His fiancée, Ms Regan, read in a statement today that her husband-to-be is a loving man who ‘always put others before himself,’ according to the Globe.
Martin Buberl, Mr Fucarile’s cousin, has set up a donation page at helpmarcfucarile.com.
This comes as physicians today said that the more than 180 people injured in last Monday’s attacks are likely to survive their injuries, including those who arrived to hospital with legs attached by a little skin, and a girl who was riddled with nails.
ven a transit system police officer whose heart had stopped and was close to bleeding to death after a shootout with the suspect now appears headed for recovery.
Emotional: Ms Regan fought back tears as she talked about her fiance's extensive injuries
Three people did die in the blasts, but at the scene, before hospitals even had a chance to try to save them. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who police say was fatally shot Thursday by the suspects was pronounced dead when he arrived at Massachusetts General.
The only person to reach a hospital alive and then die was one of the suspected bombers - 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
But the remarkable, universal survival one week later of all others injured in the blasts is a testimonial to fast care at the scene, on the way to hospitals, then in emergency and operating rooms. Everyone played a part, from doctors, nurses and paramedics to strangers who took off belts to use as tourniquets and staunched bleeding with their bare hands.
First words: Marc Fucarile said when he woke up that he loved his fiancee, and their son, five-year-old Gavin, pictured
As of Monday, 51 people remained hospitalized, three of them in critical condition and five listed as serious. At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb; three of them lost more than one.
Two children with leg injuries remain hospitalized at Boston Children's Hospital. A 7-year-old girl is in critical condition and 11-year-old Aaron Hern of Martinez, Calif., is in fair condition.
The surviving bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is in serious condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with a neck wound.
'Our training, our practicing, went a long way' to minimizing chaos so that hospitals and emergency responders worked effectively to treat the many wounded, said Dr. William Mackey, surgery chief at Tufts Medical Center.
'Trauma care is optimism translated into action,' said Dr. Russell Nauta, chairman of surgery at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., where the wounded transit police officer, Richard Donohue, remains in stable but critical condition.
Silence: Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team stand during a ceremony near the blast site on Boylston Street a week after the attack