At the start of last year’s Boston Marathon, Dr. Ricky Kue was working in the main medical tent in Copley Square, deciding which finishers could get treatment there and which needed more intensive care.
“I remember standing in the med tent having just finished doing what I would consider 'walk rounds,' if you will, up and down aisle ways, looking at the folks we’d already had in there, saying, 'We’re in a pretty good spot,'” Kue said.
Then the bombs went off. The care the Alpha Tent had to provide changed radically — but Kue’s role didn’t.
“Really, a lot of what I did was look at these victims and say who needs to go next,” he said. “Where are the resources, where are the ambulances? Look at the marathon volunteers and giving them some direction of what they need to focus on, some of the basic measures — tourniquets, bleeding control.”
Kue — who’s a physician at Boston Medical Center and also works with Boston Emergency Medical Services — served in Iraq and Kuwait with the Army Reserves. He says that experience steadied him immediately after the bombings —and in the months that followed.
“A lot of my emotional reconciliation, I guess, with what had happened last year, you know, I think in many ways, having had the experiences overseas, I knew what to expect,” he said. “I think my initial marathon response happened in 2008, when I was downrange in Iraq.”
No one said to them, especially the volunteer side, especially the bystanders, 'Listen, you signed up for this, you have to stay.' They volunteered for it, and a lot of them decided to stay because they felt that duty to act ...
For colleagues who didn’t have that background, Kue says that “emotional reconciliation” was tougher.
“We’re all trained to do everything we can, to do no harm, to save lives,” he said. “And when you get put in a situation where you’re limited in what you can do, that’s a really challenging emotion to deal with.”
Nurse practitioner Leslie Adams was also in the main medical tent, but none of her experience prepared her for what she saw.
“I’ve never seen anybody’s limbs blown off,” Adams said. “I’ve never seen raw bone stick through somebody’s leg.”
At the time of the bombings, Adams was a nurse at Tufts Medical Center. A few weeks after the bombings, Adams made a previously planned move to Philadelphia. She says it was difficult — but a welcome distraction, too.
“I feel like I just drew the line,” she said. “I’m in Philadelphia, I’m trying to do just do my job, and get used to a new city, brand new job, meet new people, and all those things that go with picking up and moving to someplace I’ve never been. There was a lot I had to focus on at once.”
But that doesn’t mean she left the bombings behind.
“I mean, it’s kind of weird,” she said. “I almost hate to admit it, but feel like it made me more paranoid as a baseline. I remember I was on a run not too long ago, just a month ago, and there was a backpack on a bench. And instead of thinking, 'Oh, that stinks, someone just lost their backpack,' it’s more like, 'We have to run faster.’ That was my mentality.”
But Adams — whose partner, Lindsey Martin, treated victims at Tufts Medical Center — refuses to let that anxiety limit her behavior. The couple is back in town for today’s marathon tribute — and at next week’s race, Adams will be in the Alpha Tent once again.
“I want to do it, because I think it’ll be therapeutic,” she said. “And just to be part of the event, especially since what happened last year. So just a way for me to feel like I’m still part of Boston.”
Kue will be at the race, too. And for all the first responders who provided care after the bombings, he has some words of encouragement.
“What they did was more than anyone could ever imagine they would do — the fact that they stayed,” he said. “No one said to them, especially the volunteer side, especially the bystanders, 'Listen, you signed up for this, you have to stay.’ They volunteered for it, and a lot of them decided to stay because they felt that duty to act. And it’s in their blood. You did a good job. You really did.”
Watch the Greater Boston segment:
