Marathon hero Carlos Arredondo described his experience of helping rescue a man who lost his legs in a the bomb blasts that hit the Boston race on Monday.
Arredondo, a peace activist, has been hailed as a hero after he was photographed helping rescue a man who was injured in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday.
A photo of Arrendondo, wearing a cowboy hat and escorting an injured man in a wheelchair, was circulated across social media sites following the two blasts.
Arredondo appears to be applying pressure on the man’s leg artery, which was severed open during the explosion.
“I kept talking to him. I kept saying, ‘Stay with me, stay with me,’ ” Arredondo told the Press Herald newspaper of Maine.
Elaborating to the Daily Beast, Arredondo said he saw a pool of blood with several severed limbs.
“That’s the first reaction: ‘We have to go help somebody!’” he said, and added that he saw a “young man in a grey top trying desperately to stand up.”
“He had no legs. I told him, ‘My name’s Carlos, you’re going to be OK, help is on the way,’” he said. Arredondo said that he found the first thing that he could use as a tourniquet to staunch the flow of blood.
“That was a whole marathon,” he said. “Getting people out of the way and getting him help.”
According to the Press Herald, Arredondo said that he was at the marathon to support a group seeking to help out families of fallen veterans. His son, a soldier, was killed in the line of duty in Iraq.
