On April 15, 2013, at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) – pressure cookers loaded with explosive material, nails and ball bearings – were detonated, killing three bystanders at the scene. Another 264 were injured and treated at 29 local hospitals, underscoring what has occurred in other mass disasters – victims do not preferentially go to level I trauma centers. (The greater Boston area has 11 adult and pediatric level I trauma centers.) At least 16 patients had traumatic amputations; their limbs were either severed during the explosion or sustained such severe damage that they required amputation at the hospital. Three of the 16 lost more than one limb. On April 22, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death.
On April 17, 2013, only two days after the Boston...
