10 Survivors of the Boston Marathon Bombings, 10 Years Later

It’s been a decade since the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people and left more than 170 injured. The terrorist attacks on April 15, 2013 shocked the U.S. and turned what should have been a moment of celebration into a horrifying scene.

But the attacks did little to hinder the spirit and versatility embodied by the annual Boston Marathon. Many of the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings have turned to philanthropy and charitable efforts, while others have gone on to do remarkable things despite the physical and mental injuries they suffered.

Marc Fucarile

Marc Fucarile, now 44, who was cheering on a veteran runner during the marathon, suffered some of the worst injuries from the bombings, and required the most surgeries of any victim. He lost his right leg in the attack, nearly lost his left leg, and had shrapnel lodged at several places in his body, including some dangerously close to his heart.

Fucarile, who uses a wheelchair and wears a prosthetic leg, now helps support mobility-impaired people. He does speaking engagements and helps raise money for the Greg Hill Foundation, which helps marathon bombing survivors pay the bills insurance won’t cover.

“Tragedy happens to so many people,” he told the Boston Herald. “My message is we need to support one another. You just don’t know what other people are going through.”

Fucarile has also returned to the Boston Marathon to participate as a hand-cyclist in 2016. The Boston Herald has called him “living proof of the city’s resilience.”

Lee Ann and Nick Yanni

Nick Yanni thought fireworks were going off nearby when he heard the first bomb, which he said sounded “like a cannon went off.” He and his wife Lee Ann were sitting about 10 feet from the finish line cheering on friends, and were struck by shrapnel from the blast.

Lee Ann was the most severely injured of the couple with a compound fracture in her leg, damaged ear drums, and a broken toe. A firefighter at the scene said she had some of the worst injuries he had seen, and she required three surgeries at Boston’s Tufts Medical Center.

“I’ll never forget how they took care of us,” Lee Ann said. “We felt so protected … They put us back together.”

A physical therapist, Lee Ann was registered to run in the 2013 Chicago Marathon at the time of the Boston attacks. Despite her injuries, she participated as planned, just six months after the bombings, and she also ran in the Boston Marathon in 2014, 2015, and 2019.

Jeff Bauman and Carlos Arredondo

One of the most iconic photos from the aftermath of the Boston attacks was Carlos Arredondo, wearing a cowboy hat, helping rush a bloodied Jeff Bauman to an ambulance. Bauman, then 27, lost both his legs in the bombings, and Arredondo had applied a tourniquet to help stop his bleeding.

Bauman provided a description of bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev after the incident that helped the FBI in their manhunt. Bauman later wrote the memoir Stronger (2014), which chronicled his recovery from the bombings and was later made into a 2017 film of the same name, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Bauman.

Bauman’s father and Arredondo’s son have formed The Richard Family Fund, which provides financial assistance to those affected by tragedy.

Arredondo, who lost one son to the Iraq War in 2004 and another to suicide in 2011, launched an organization to assist families of service members who die by suicide. He said witnessing the Boston bombings helped him realize what military service members experience.

Aaron Hern

The day of the attacks, Aaron Hern, 11, was cheering along with other family members for his mother Katherine, who was running in her first Boston Marathon. The bomb blasts left him with shrapnel wounds on his legs that required a long rehabilitation.

“I still remember looking up, seeing people running and the buildings in the sky and thinking, ‘Wow, I guess this is it,’” Hern said four years later. “I thought I was dead.”

Hern went on to play quarterback in varsity football at Alhambra Senior High School in Martinez, California. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School in 2019, and the next year was accepted for a four-year term at the Naval Academy. Both his parents also previously graduated from there.

“It’s who I am,” Hern said in 2017 of surviving the Boston bombings. “It’s a huge part of my life. But day-to-day now, I don’t see it as defining me, and I don’t feel like it will be all that does define me.’

Meghan Zipin

Meghan Zipin had crossed the Boston Marathon finish line just moments after the bombs went off. She was not physically injured, but two of her friends suffered life-threatening injuries, and Zipin struggled with severe anxiety, PTSD, and survivor’s guilt after the attacks.

Zipin wrote notes on her phone about what she remembered about the bombings, which helped inspire her to write poetry as a coping mechanism during her healing journey. Thirty-seven of those poems will be included in the book First Light, which will be published on April 15 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Boston attacks.

“It was only once I really took a step back and saw what I had created that I felt so motivated, I would say to share my story, but it’s more so to connect with others,” Zipin told the Boston Herald. “I hope the book serves as a contact point for someone else who needs to know ‘It's OK not to be OK.’”

Jacqui Webb and Paul Norden

Engaged couple Jacqui Webb and Paul Norden were among a group supporting a friend during the Boston Marathon when the first bomb went off a block away. As they were running away, the second bomb exploded near them both. Norden lost his right leg, while Webb suffered second- and third-degree burns and shrapnel injuries.

Webb spent three weeks at the Tufts Medical Center recovering from her injuries. In 2021, Webb and Norden’s daughter was delivered at Tufts, where the couple was treated by one of the same nurses who had helped Webb eight years earlier.

Webb and Norden had been engaged in philanthropic work since the bombings, and started the Webb Norden Foundation to support children and young adults affected by trauma.

“It’s truly been remarkable to walk by his side the last 10 years,” Webb said earlier this month. “It was definitely a long road for us. There were some adjustments after the bombing and some long-term effects, but we decided that we wanted to push forward and have a daughter, and it's been our greatest blessing.”

Manya Chylinski

Manya Chylinski was seated in the bleacher seats at the Boston Marathon’s finish line when the bombs went off. She was not physically injured, but was diagnosed with PTSD after experiencing anxiety, fear, and emotional numbness for months following the attacks.

Despite the many resources made available for those who suffered physical injuries at Boston, Chylinski initially had trouble finding the proper mental health support. This inspired her to help others who were traumatized by the experience, and her advocacy work eventually led her to U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who was a Boston City Councillor the year of the bombings.

Chylinski and Pressley worked together to draft the Post-Disaster Mental Health Response Act, which extends federal counseling assistance and other services to crises that receive emergency declarations. It was signed into federal law in December 2022.

“My hope is that going forward, people after disasters or terrorist attacks like the bombing will be able to get that mental health support and will not have to have those doors closed in their faces,” said Chylinski, who is a board member with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Massachusetts.