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'What have we done? We just saved him.' How the medical team who treated



The medical staff who saved the life of Boston terror suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev feel deep anxiety about what they have done.


That is the honest assessment of Dr. Richard Wolfe, who along with other emergency medicine staff at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital rescued the seriously wounded teenage terror suspect on Friday.


Dr. Wolfe recounted how in the aftermath of the young man's stabilization, the nurses were hit by a serious dilemma - 'They look on the perpetrator as someone absolutely horrible and ask themselves, 'What have we done? We just saved him.'

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Dr. Richard Wolfe explained how doctors and nurses at Boston's Beth Israel hospital battled to save Dzhokhar Tsarnaev - the teenage suspect in the city's marathon bombings

'Some nurses started rethinking,' said New York City native Wolfe. 'They think of the mom who just lost her son, or a child with an amputation.'


Talking to the New York Daily News, Wolfe added that despite these natural, but startling thoughts, every medical professional at the hospital is bound by oath to treat everyone the same - no matter what they may have done.

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'You remember what we are here for, what oath we took,' said Dr. Wolfe on Wednesday.


Dzokhar Tsarnaev arrived on Friday evening at the same hospital where 21-hours earlier his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died after a gun battle with police in Watertown, Massachusetts.







New pictures show dozens of bullet holes in the boat where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding before giving himself up (right)





Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF and FBI agents check Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for explosives and also give him medical attention after he was apprehended in Watertown





Seriously Injured: Dzokhar Tsarnaev is transported with multiple gunshot wounds to Beth Israel hospital in Boston where he was successfully treated





An ambulance carrying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old Massachusetts college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, turns into Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Friday

Dr. Wolfe was working during that admission and said that doctors and nurses treated both brothers to the best of their ability.


This was despite the team having treated 24 victims of the April 15th twin bombings of the Boston marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.


In fact, as Dzhokhar was being treated, several of the injured still remained in the hospital, including the mother of Martin Richard, the eight-year-old boy who died at the scene of the second blast - believed to have been caused by Dzhokhar himself.


As doctors battled to save the 19-year-old, who suffered wounds to his neck, head, hands and legs, the team was watched by an especially large law enforcement contingent.


Dr. Wolfe revealed that there were up to 40 people inside the resuscitation room as the teen was brought in to Beth Israel.



A woman looks out of window at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on Saturday, April 20, 2013 - the morning after Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was admitted





Boston Police and Massachusetts State Police stand guard outside of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, is currently being held

As nine doctors and nurses worked on Dzhokhar, two officers watched and six police stood guard outside the room.


'They know how to function in a way that is remarkably unobtrusive,' said Wolfe to the New York Daily News.



Survived: Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who police have taken into April 19, 2013, according to the Boston Police Department

Almost one day previously, a team from the hospital had failed to save Tamerlan Tsarnaev when he arrived already in cardiac arrest.


Admitting to feeling angry at both suspects, Dr. Wolfe said his rage was piqued when he thought of Martin Richard and his family.


Other staff had to battle through the disturbing sights they saw in the immediate and confused aftermath of the bombings as horrifically injured men and women were rushed in for treatment.


Dr. Paul Summergrad, who is chief of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center said that some staff were still troubled by the terrible wounds they saw.


Some staff are being offered counseling in case they are suffering from post-traumatic-stress from the day.


However, at the end of the day, Dr. Wolfe said that an admission suffering from multiple bullets wounds is not unusual.


'From a medical point of view, they were more like business as usual,' Wolfe said. 'Single cases, gunshot wounds — we have so many in an urban ER, you lose count.'


And therefore the prognosis for Dzokhar Dr. Wolfe says is positive.


'He is young, healthy,' said Wolfe. 'We fully expect he will improve enough to be discharged from the hospital.'

And this comes as one emergency doctor, Leana Wen revealed she still has nightmares from that day that leave her sleep-deprived.


'I am glad I was able to help,' said Wen. 'I wish I could have helped more. But I wish I hadn't seen it.'



Traumatic experience: Dr Leana Wen, 30, is a fourth-year resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, which was flooded last Monday with dozens of horrifically injured bombing victims




Unprecedented horror: Wen has spent the past four years working as an ER doctor, but says that nothing had prepared her for the gristly shrapnel injuries

The physician, a former Rhodes Scholar, fellow at Harvard Medical School and patient advocate who recently co-wrote a book about how doctors could avoid making diagnosis mistakes, is no stranger to gruesome injuries.


Working in the ER for the past four years, Wen had witnessed shootings, grisly accidents and the occasional amputation, but she says that nothing had prepared her for last Monday.


Dr Wen was nearing the end of her shift when a call came in about two incoming patients who were injured in an explosion. Minutes later, another call came over the PA system saying that there had been two blasts.


'There was blood everywhere,' Wen recalled the harrowing scene to USA Today. 'On the floor, there were trails of it behind the stretchers.'


Sleepless city: Dr. Leana Wen is not alone in her reaction to the bombings, with many Boston residents reportedly suffering from nightmares and sleep deprivation

Although Wen had been working since 7am without a break, she told USA Today that she did not feel tired because she was running on adrenaline.


The ER staff at Massachusetts General Hospital ended up treating 31 of the victims inured that day, at least four of whom required amputations.


All the while, the 30-year-old medic kept triaging and treating a stream of bleeding, wounded men and women suffering from horrific shrapnel wounds the like she had never seen before.
'It was very difficult to see so many people's lives changed in one day,' she told the paper. 'Seeing all those young people who were my age, who would have very different lives moving forward, if they had lives at all.'

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