Heartwarming moment bomb hero who lost both his legs gave an 18th
birthday gift to teen who was wounded alongside
him
Boston bombings victim Jeff Bauman, who famously helped
authorities identify suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and lost both his
legs in the blasts, delivered a birthday present to another victim
of the attacks on Tuesday.
The heartwarming moment was captured in a photograph that
went viral on social media sites Wednesday. Bauman, 27, is pictured
handing Sydney Corcoran a Macy's bag in a hospital room. It was
Corcoran's 18th birthday on Tuesday.
Corcoran was cheering on her aunt at the marathon with other
family members when the bombs went off last
Monday. She suffered shrapnel wounds, including a torn
femoral artery. Sydney's mother, Celeste, lost both her legs below
the knee
Bauman had both his legs blown off in the first explosion
near the marathon finish line and he was bleeding out when Carlos
Arredondo swooped in to save his life by tying fabric around one of
his legs and pinching an artery in the other.
Exactly one week after the bombings, Arrendondo visited
Bauman in the hospital where he is still
recovering.
'I was so happy to see him with his big open-wide eyes and
very grateful to be able to hug him and let him know how proud I am
of him,' Arredondo told the Concord Monitor of his
visit.
A photograph of the two of them - Bauman sitting white-faced
in the wheelchair and grasping his left leg while
Arredondo, donning a cowboy hat, runs beside him with his
artery in hand - became one of the most widely
seen images from the day of the bombings.
'The picture that you see,
that’s what it is and that how it happened, you know,' Bauman told
the Monitor. 'I was just trying to help him in every way I could,
and thank God he gave me the opportunity to help this beautiful
young man.'
Arredondo said he spent an
hour with Bauman at the hospital, 'trying to talk with him and
laugh with him and let him know how great he was doing while all
this was happening.'
He also brought Bauman gifts,
including a hat and a card signed by military families who have
lost someone in war. One of Arredondo's sons died in Iraq in 2004
and his other son took his own life just before Christmas in
2011.
Bauman has received more than
$600,000 in donations for his medical bills over the last
week.
His stepmother, Csilla Bauman,
of Concord, told the newspaper that the 27-year-old has been
feeling positive about his recovery.
'His mind is just very focused
on just going every day and getting stronger and just adjusting to
this new way of life that he’s going to live, but in a positive
way,' she said.
On Wednesday, Bauman was
photographed delivering a birthday present to 18-year-old bombing
victim Sydney Corcoran. The photograph went viral
online.
On the day of the marathon,
Bauman was standing near the finish line and waiting for his
girlfriend to cross.
When he woke in the hospital
several days later, he blurted out that he had seen a man drop a
bag near his feet. His description of the man led authorities to
identify the suspects in the bombing.