Saugus woman witnesses injuries

SAUGUS – The very first patient who came through the door had lost both lower legs.It had been barely five minutes since news broke of the Boston Marathon bombing when Carol Morrissey Downing, a Saugus resident and the manager of ultrasound for Boston Medical Center, said the first victims started streaming in.Downing, who coordinates radiology for the BMC disaster team, said the injuries she saw that day were “horrific.”?I saw quite a few amputations, people with burns, people with a lot of shrapnel injuries, things of that nature,” she said. “They were very quiet and stoic, and I think very much in shock. The unusual part of it was how fast everything happened. We usually get a little bit of lead before any kind of a disaster is going on in the city.”Dr. Peter Burke, the trauma surgery chief at Boston Medical Center, said in a press conference Wednesday that his hospital treated 23 victims from the blast, according to the Associated Press. Just two patients remain in critical condition, which is down from 10.The first victim taken to BMC was 27-year-old Jeffrey Bauman Jr., according to the New York Times. A photo of Bauman in a wheelchair with both his legs missing was widely circulated in the hours after the blast.For nearly four hours, Downing said the waiting room, emergency room and operating room were packed with victims and their families as a scene of “organized chaos” played out.?People normally that would go to the operating room right away, we had to hold and wait until the more critical people were finished in surgery,” she said. “We had ATF in the emergency room, FBI, State Police. It was quite crowded. More crowded than I?ve ever seen it and that?s 20 years I?ve been there.”Downing said her immediate task was to send every radiology technician and portable machine to the emergency room for X-rays and CAT scans.As a Level 1 trauma center, Downing said she and the staff at the BMC are used to dealing with gruesome injuries, whether they be car accident or gunshot wounds. But Downing said she?s never seen anything like Monday.?It was like a war zone, literally,” she said. “We have quite a few people on our team that are veterans and that was their words. This was something very unusual, just the amount of people coming in at the same time and they really had some pretty horrific injuries.”Downing said the disaster team is constantly going through disaster drills to be “as prepared as possible,” which she said paid off on Monday.?You hate to say the positive, but I can?t see how it could have gone more smoothly,” she said. “Everyone just stepped up beyond my wildest dreams. We had housekeepers and transporters, everyone you could imagine was doing everything they possibly could to support the team that was taking of the patients. It was pretty amazing.After a nearly 16-hour shift, Downing said she was finally able to go home around 9 p.m.?I hugged my husband and I cried,” she said. “As a medical person we?re pretty well in-tuned with being able to disassociate. Once in a while something gets to you pretty bad. (Monday) was certainly one of those days. You just do your job when you have to do your job and then you deal with the human emotions of it later when you step away from the scene and the job is done.”On Tuesday Downing said the mood was somber as a “shaken up” staff was debriefed. But Downing said she couldn?t be more proud of her co-workers and the first responders and spectators on the scene who rushed victims to help.?What a great city Boston is,” she said.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].