Die tonele wat hulle in Boston se bom-ontploffing afspeel, skok ‘n mens omdat hulle ongekende wreedheid uitwys.
Die foto hierbo het in die dag of twee sedert die ontploffing, al ikoniese status gekry.
Die jongman, Jeff Bauman in die rystoel het albei sy bene verloor. Sy lewe is deur die man in die cowboy-hoed gered. Hier is die verhaal:
The Baumans knew
how lucky Jeff had been. “The man in the cowboy hat — he saved Jeff’s life,”
Ms. Bauman said. Mr. Bauman’s eyes widened. He said: “There’s a video where he
goes right to Jeff, picks him right up and puts him on the wheelchair and
starts putting the tourniquet on him and pushing him out. I got to talk to this
guy!”
The man in the
cowboy hat, Carlos Arredondo, 52, had been handing out American flags
to runners when the first explosion went off. His son Alexander was a Marine
killed in Iraq in 2004, and in the years since he has handed out the flags as a
tribute.
With the first
blast, Mr. Arredondo jumped over the fence and ran toward the people lying on
the ground. What happened next, he later recounted to a reporter: He found a
young man, a spectator, whose shirt was on fire. He beat out the flames with
his hands. The young man, who turned out to be Jeff Bauman, had lost the lower
portion of both legs. He took off a shirt and tied it around the stump of one
leg. He stayed with Mr. Bauman, comforting him, until emergency workers came to
help carry him to an ambulance.
Hier is hoe die dokters by die hospitaal op die beseerdes se lot reageer:
For the victims,
the physical legacy could be an especially cruel one for a group that was
involved in the marathon: severe leg trauma and amputations.
“What we like to
do is before we take off someone’s leg — it’s extremely hard to make that
decision — is we often get two surgeons to agree,” Dr. Tracey Dechert, a trauma
surgeon at Boston Medical, said. “Am I right here? This can’t be saved. So that
way you feel better and know that you didn’t take off someone’s leg that you
didn’t have to take. All rooms had multiple surgeons so everyone could feel
like we’re doing what we need to be doing.”
The widespread leg
trauma was a result of bombs that seemed to deliver their most vicious blows
within two feet off the ground. In an instant, doctors at hospitals throughout
the city who had been preparing for ordinary marathon troubles —dehydration or
hypothermia — now faced profound, life-changing decisions for runners and
spectators of all ages.
Die man in die cowboy-hoed het in 2004 gehoor dat sy seun as soldaat in Irak doodgeskiet is. Hy het na die nuus heeltemal beserk geraak. Hy het die motor van die mense wat die nuus vir hom gebring het, met petrol bestook en toe oor homself gegooi. Toe het hy dit aan die brand gesteek. Twintig tot dertig persent van sy liggaam het brandwonde opgedoen. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/nyregion/01father.html?_r=3&)
Hy het sy werk opgegee en wy nou sy lewe daaraan om Amerikaners bewus te maak van die tol wat oorlog van menselewens eis.
After nearly 10
months of healing, including several in the hospital, Mr. Arredondo became a
full-time war protester, quitting work as a handyman to remind people across
the country of the human price of war.
His son was
posthumously awarded a Purple Heart. But no commendation will fill the void he
left behind, Mr. Arredondo said.
“Every day we have
G.I.’s being killed, and people don’t really care enough or do enough to
protest about how the war is going,” Mr. Arredondo said yesterday. “Some people
say I’m dishonoring my son by doing this, but this is my pain, my loss.”
Dit is hy, die pa van 'n gesneuwelde jong soldaat, wat hierdie jongman gered het.
Ek kan my nouliks sy re-traumatisering voorstel: om van so naby, by die verskeurde liggaam van ‘n jongman, sy seun se ouderdom, weer die verskriklike gesig van geweld te moet herbeleef.
Die foto bly my by: die man met die Cowboy hoed se twee hande is vol bloed. Deur die eeue was dit altyd, altyd die slegte kant. Die Jongmens met die bebloede hande - ter wille van ander.
