At least 144 Boston Marathon bombing victims treated in hospitals

BOSTON — More than 144 people hurt in the Boston Marathon bombing were sent to hospitals, officials said, and three were killed. Seventeen of the injured were in critical condition Monday night.

The two bombs hundreds of yards apart created a “very powerful blast” that caused mostly lower-body injuries to bone, soft tissue and blood vessels, doctors said. Ten victims needed amputations.

More will need surgery Tuesday, officials said. Also Tuesday, information is to be released about those who died in the blasts.

The bombs came in the fifth hour of the iconic 26.2-mile race, well after elite runners had finished but near the time that the bulk of the 27,000 runners neared the finish line.

Authorities are approaching the bombs as a criminal investigation and potentially a terrorist investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

Emergency workers at Brigham and Women’s began wheeling in victims before doctors were told what was going on, Dr. Ron Walls said in an interview with Anderson Cooper 360. The second or third victim, he said, was so badly injured that doctors “knew this was a big thing.”

“We have drilled for this type of event citywide and in our hospital over and over and over again, the whole time hoping we were never going to use it,” Walls said in the interview. “But we were ready.”

In a news briefing late Monday night, Walls said 31 victims ranging from 16 to 62 were transported to the hospital. Two were in critical condition but were expected to survive. “We are not anticipating any deaths,” he said.

Another hospital, Boston Children’s, received 10 patients, including a 2-year-old boy in intensive care with a head injury and several other children, 7 to 14, with leg and head wounds. None of the victims had died at Children’s, officials said, and late Monday night hospital officials said they didn’t expect to receive any more marathon victims.

At Children’s, patients’ conditions ranged from good to serious: a 12-year-old with a fractured femur, a 9-year-old girl with leg trauma, and one adult, who was in the emergency room with undisclosed injuries.

Many spectators along the marathon route were college students marking the annual citywide party called “Marathon Monday,” which accompanies the race held on Patriots Day each year.

Seven Emerson College students were treated and released, the school said in a statement. One Boston University student was injured and in stable condition, the school said. Harvard University and Northeastern University said there were no injuries to students, staff or faculty.

Shashank Bengali in Boston contributed to this report.

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