amednews.com: Physicians find solutions in the face of disaster

Although such events are tragic, they move medicine forward by providing physicians critical lessons in emergency preparedness and response, medical experts say.

Christine S. Moyer, July 15, 2013

Doctors at Boston Children's Hospital had only a few minutes to prepare for the youngest victims of the Boston Marathon bombings before paramedics rushed the first patient into the emergency department.

One child was burned and covered in soot with a tourniquet compressing a mangled leg, said David P. Mooney, MD, MPH, a surgeon and director of the hospital's trauma center who was on duty that day.

Eight children arrived that afternoon. Many patients had leg injuries from shrapnel and from pellets and nails packed into the two bombs. The April 15 explosions injured more than 200 people and killed three.

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