The Stories Behind the Most Indelible Images of the Boston Bombing
As photos and images from the carnage began surfacing up yesterday, one in particular kept making the rounds—a man in grey, sat in a wheelchair and clutched the spindly remains of his legs while being pushed by first responders.
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The Survivor:
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That man is named Jeff Bauman Jr. and is reportedly in stable condition. Thanks to a combination of social media, Reddit, and Google People Finder we've found out that he's in stable condition. One of his friends posted an update on Reddit:
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Another posted what is reportedly an update from his father's Facebook feed last night, which confirms that he was in surgery:
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The Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun have contacted Jeff's father and are waiting to hear back. You might recall that in the wake of the Aurora shootings, survivors and family members used Reddit to get updates and spread the news.
The Hero in the Cowboy Hat
His name is Carlos Arredondo and has two dead sons. Arredondo was at the race because he is the father of a fallen soldier named Alexander Arredondo, according to Maine's Portland Press Herald. Alexander had died fighting in Iraq in 2004, The New York Times's Trymaine Lee reported in 2007, and that trauma turned his father, a Costa Rican immigrant, into a prace activist. That trauma also shook his brother Brian, who killed himself in December of 2011. The Boston Globe reported at the time:
“I used to say, ‘Brian, I see through that smile. People don’t understand what’s going on with you with that smile,’ ’’ said his stepmother, Melida Arredondo of Roslindale. “That smile could hide a lot.’’
At a funeral Mass Dec. 28 in St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Jamaica Plain, Carlos said simply: “We both refused to admit that we had mental problems.’’
There were a handful of Mainers who were running in the race for fallen soldiers, and the 52-year-old Arredondo was there supporting those runners and remembering his son. And he also displayed courage that wasn't captured by photos. The Portland Press Herald's David Hench and Glenn Jordan report:
The two friends crossed the street and Mixon started ripping away the snow fence and scaffolding to get at the victims. Arredondo vaulted it and tried using his clothes and towels to stanch the victims' bleeding but they were hurt too badly.
And on that photo and his encounter with Bauman, Arredondo said: "I kept talking to him. I kept saying, 'Stay with me, stay with me.'"
We'll be updating this post throughout the day to give you the stories behind yesterday's shocking and indellible photos.
