Lynn couple describes being caught in blast

LYNN – Taking a ride on the Swan Boats, strolling through the Back Bay and attending the Boston Marathon have been a long-standing tradition for Mike and Beth Bourgrault, but that might change since the two were caught in the blast that rocked Monday’s race.”I’m still in shock, I still can’t believe this happened,” said Mike Bourgrault on Tuesday from his wife’s hospital room at Beth Israel Hospital.The Lake View Avenue couple were standing near the bleachers that was the scene of the first blast. Bourgrault said his initial reaction was that someone was shooting off fireworks.”I thought this is a weird place for firecrackers, then I looked to the ground and there was blood everywhere, I thought maybe it was a suicide bomber and it was his blood then I saw my wife lying on the ground,” he said. “I picked her up and we ran to the medical tent ? blood was pouring from her leg.”Bourgrault said medical personnel saw them and raced toward them, sweeping up his wife and taking her into the tents where they put a tourniquet on her leg and the pair waited for an ambulance.”The medical help was excellent,” he said.Mike Bourgrault said both he and his wife suffered from punctured eardrums because they were so close to the blast, and Beth Bourgrault suffered a large gash to the back of one calf.”It’s a clean cut, like someone did it with a knife,” he said.Initially they thought she might need surgery, but Mike Bourgrault said doctors decided it would be safer to leave the wound mostly open and only put in eight loose stitches. Mike Bourgrault also suffered burns to the backs of his legs, which he compared to a sunburn, and said his punctured ear drum made it sound as if he were underwater.”I think it will take a while psychologically, but physically we’ll heal and be fine,” he said. “I think God was watching out for us because it could have been so much worse; it was so much worse for so many others.”Mike Bourgrault said one thing that struck him was the fact that when the blast went off, “there were all those iron railings to keep us from running into the street and getting to the runners, and buildings with no open doors behind us. We had nowhere to go.”When asked if he would return to the marathon next year, Mike Bourgrault said it was too early to say.”I hate to sit and let the terrorists win,” he said. “But it will definitely make us think twice about being in a large crowd anywhere again ? right now I just want my wife home and for things to be normal again.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].