Be Prepared — The Boston Marathon and Mass-Casualty Events

Abstract

On April 15, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated in short succession near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, in the middle of a densely packed crowd of thousands of runners, families, friends, and spectators. Three people were killed and 264 were injured,¹ with more than 20 sustaining critical injuries. Yet in the face of these tragic and horrifying events, despite catastrophic injuries not commonly seen in civilian medicine and the fact that these were the first IEDs to cause mass injuries in the United States, the overall medical response has generally been considered successful.²