11.Roseann Sdoia — Direct

ROSEANN SDOIA: Roseann, last name is Sdoia, S as is "Sam," D as in "David," O-I-A.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Currently I live here in the city of Boston.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I grew up north of Boston in a town called Dracut.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, I did. I went to the University of Lowell in Lowell, Massachusetts.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, I did.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Well, back in April 2013 I was anticipating spring and summer.

ROSEANN SDOIA: April 2013 I was working for a company called National Development, and they do property management. I was the vice president of the residential properties.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Absolutely. I would go with my dad and my sister when we were little. For so many years we actually had a neighbor who would run the marathon. And then as years kind of went on the tradition stayed the same but I would go with friends. And we'd go to the Red Sox game and then we would go over to Boylston Street to watch runners come in. Some years I had friends running, some years I didn't.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes. We would always end up -- it used to be what was called Vox, V-O-X. Then it changed names eventually, and now it's called Forum.

ROSEANN SDOIA: April 14th, 2013, I ran the BA 5K that Sunday morning with three of my girlfriends. I wasn't sure I would ever run the Boston Marathon, although it seemed that I would always get energized by it and always say "next year." But one easy way to cross the finish line, I kind of cheated and I did the 5K.

ROSEANN SDOIA: 3.1 miles.

ROSEANN SDOIA: No, not even close.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Had plans for the day. So I got up, started to get dressed for the day. One of my girlfriends -- we had tickets to the Red Sox game -- and her dad picked us up to drive us over to Fenway so we wouldn't have to take a car or a cab, and got dropped off at the Red Sox game.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes. Went to the game for most of it but had gotten an -- I made it an alert on my cell phone that a friend who was running was coming close -- making her way to the city, so we decided to start our venture over to Boylston Street.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Walked.

ROSEANN SDOIA: In and out of it, yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, we did.

ROSEANN SDOIA: My girlfriend, Sabrina Dello Russo.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Went inside, walked around to see if any of our other friends were there. We probably weren't there for more than 10, 15 minutes, got another automated alert that our friend was at Kenmore Square. So we decided that it was time to probably step outside and wait for her because she should be there shortly. So we actually had just gotten drinks, left them at the hostess stand, telling the hostess we would be back in a few minutes, and went out to the course.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Straight across from the entrance of the door of Forum, pretty much, there's a mailbox. Initially, Sabrina and I started out on the left-hand side of the mailbox with the runners approaching from the right, but because I'm short and couldn't see over the mailbox, unfortunately, in hindsight I moved to the right side of the mailbox and Sabrina stayed on the left side. And then a few other friends joined us at that point, but they all pretty much stayed on the opposite side of the mailbox.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Absolutely.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Probably maybe within ten minutes or so.

ROSEANN SDOIA: No; she got stopped.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I know we were out there waiting for, you know, probably about ten minutes or so. And at one point there was a loud explosion down to my left. And I kind of looked down -- and it's amazing how quickly ten, 11 seconds, 12 seconds goes -- but in my head I was thinking to myself that that's odd that there was this loud noise. There's never been celebratory cannons or anything like that. Elite runners had come by hours earlier. And it was really strange. Someone had yelled that they thought the building had fell, and then a guy to my right yelled, "Get in the street." But I realized that I'm, again, short and there was no way for me to get over the barricade to jump over it to get in the street, and not even thinking why he was yelling that. So I decided that I probably should run, and I turned to my right and I ran, and I saw two flashes of white light exploding at my feet.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I remember -- and I think it's probably before I hit the ground, but in my head it registered that I probably -- I lost my leg because when I came to, I looked down, and I guess fortunately my leg was sort of tucked under me and I never really saw what happened to it, but all I could see was blood was pouring out of -- sort of where my knee should have been. And in front of me there was a foot that had a little sock on it, and in my mind I had to go through and ask myself what I wore for shoes that day, and I had to ask, "Did I have a sock on my foot?" And my answer was no, so it was somebody else's foot in front of me. And then to my right I saw someone walking around who was covered with soot. Their hair was singed straight up. And they were walking around like a zombie. I can't even tell you if they were male or female. It was just awful. And it was almost like starring -- I was starring in a horror movie, and as everybody else was around me. People were kind of running in all different directions. And I think when it initially happened, and knowing that my leg was severely injured, I -- someone came running over to me and told me I had to get out of there, and I told them I couldn't get up. I didn't have a leg. I couldn't get up. And at some point between falling to the ground and this person coming over to me, I went through my mind in regards to "I don't want to live as an amputee." And I knew it was bad. I knew that I was -- I'm not anywhere near a doctor or anything like that, but I knew I was bleeding out and I needed to stay calm and stay conscious because if I didn't, I would die. And even though I didn't -- I asked myself if I wanted to -- I told myself I didn't want to live as an amputee, but the thought of my nieces, my grandmother and my parents and my sister, I couldn't die. So I fought to stay conscious through the whole trip to the hospital.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Sort of. Sort of. I think because I was in such a shock of what just happened that, you know, it was really kind of those three things that I can fully recollect seeing, was the blood, the ankle, and that person walking around that had -- I'm not sure, but they had been exposed to something.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I think it took a minute for the pain to register, but as the person who picked me up off of the sidewalk started carrying me to the middle of the street, the pain started to kick in and I had to do another assessment because it felt as if my shoe was kind of dangling from my foot. So I did a little assessment of what shoes I wore that day thinking I wore strappy sandals. And when I realized I hadn't and that was actually my foot dangling, I just had -- I started to get nauseous and the pain was excruciating, and I told him he had to put me down because I thought I was going to pass out at that point. And at that point he did, he put me down in the middle of Boylston Street.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I did not know him, no.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes. He's a college student at Northeastern University, he's 22, and just happened to be, for me, at the right place at the right time and decided to return towards whatever happened and to try to help out.

ROSEANN SDOIA: He sat me down and some other gentleman came over and helped him apply a belt, I guess, as a tourniquet to my right leg to help stop the bleeding. And also, then a Boston police officer, she came over and stayed with me as well. So I had the -- he was a physician's assistant on my left and the police officer on my right. Shortly thereafter some Boston firefighters came over trying to keep me calm. Two of my friends came over. They found me in the street. They started to get a little hysterical and I asked them to calm down because it wasn't helping me. And then I remember them straightening my right leg out, and it was the most excruciating pain ever that one could ever anticipate. And I remember asking, "How quickly can I get morphine?"

ROSEANN SDOIA: I was actually put into the back of a paddy wagon. The ambulances, you could hear them coming and going, and every time you could hear ne in the distance coming and approaching, the siren would pass me. And again I thought, "Okay. I'm going to die." And I mean, so much so that I actually gave my -- I gave them my sister's phone number because I couldn't have someone called my parents and say that I died on Boylston Street. So they loaded me in the back of a patty wagon with a firefighter holding me on a backboard that they had straightened my leg out and put me on. And in the back of the paddy wagon it was myself, this firefighter holding me on the board, holding the tourniquet, and then on the other side was another injured person with another firefighter.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I did not. I did not. I did hear them on a phone call. But other than that, no, I -- I really tried to keep my eyes closed because I'm not good with a paper cut, let alone what was going on there that day. So I really tried to keep my eyes closed as much as possible but really listen to what was going on around me and pay attention to that.

ROSEANN SDOIA: They brought me to Mass. General Hospital. And actually, en route there I ended up bending my left leg and there was like a splash, and so I knew that it was the blood. So to me, we couldn't get to Mass. General fast enough. I had requested to go to Mass. General because my primary care is there. Whether or not that's why they took me there, I don't know. But we ended up at Mass. General.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I vaguely remember at this point the doors opening up, because in my mind I had kept myself alive to this point, and after that point it was up to the doctors to save me and there's nothing else I could do until that point. Up until that point I could keep myself awake and alive but they were the ones that could try to save me.

ROSEANN SDOIA: They rushed me right in. I don't remember really -- I think I was hallucinating, thinking I was going into a gymnasium. But they brought me into the ER pretty much immediately. And a friend of a friend is a nurse there, and I do vaguely remember her telling me that she was there as they were prepping me, and then just -- I just remember her saying it was Patty, and that was it.

ROSEANN SDOIA: It was Tuesday evening and I was in a hospital room at Mass. General.

ROSEANN SDOIA: The doctor told me that it had been amputated below the knee, and that he was going to try to keep it below the knee if he could, but he had to go in to clean it further. And the result, I ended up amputated above the knee.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: It's a huge difference. It's -- your knee joint is something that is -- I think anybody who has two legs takes for granted. And it's extremely difficult to learn how to walk again, to learn how to run again. It's really hard in the winter living here in the city having to deal with the snow. I have to rely on a microprocessor to move my leg for me.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I was in Mass. General for a week, Spaulding for three weeks. I was released for a couple of weeks until I got my prosthetic, and then I was readmitted for a week in Spaulding to learn how to use it.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I had burns to my right hand, I have a burn to my left leg as well as a gash that had to be stapled up, and I also had exploratory surgery to my abdomen because there was bruising and they didn't know if I had shrapnel in my abdomen or if I had any internal bleeding. I've had ear surgery on my right ear, which has left mild hearing loss, and I also had to go in for dialysis because my kidneys shut down.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes. Yes. It comes and goes but there's no control of it.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Phantom pain is when you lose a limb and you experience pain in that limb that's no longer there. So it seems as though that at times I'm getting tasered on my right foot, and there's no right foot, and sometimes you have itches, and there's no place to itch. Sometimes the tasering can keep you up all night, and it kind of hits and then goes away and then hits and then goes away. It can be sporadic, it can last for a minute, it can last for a second and it can last on and off for 24 hours.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, I am.

ROSEANN SDOIA: I received my first prosthetic in June of 2013.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: It's a photo -- it's a photo right outside of Forum right by the mailbox that I was standing at, right by the tree that was next to me where, when I turned to my right, I saw the two flashes of white light and where I ended up on the sidewalk injured.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Absolutely.

ROSEANN SDOIA: (Witness complies.)

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes. That's the college student, Shores Salter, who helped me that day.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Absolutely.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: That's me on the ground with shorts, putting the tourniquet on my leg, and the physician's assistant on the other side of me. It's my right leg severely mangled.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Having not seen below the knee, I would say yes from where I am today with this prosthetic.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, correct. Sorry. Yes, that's Shores Salter on the left and, unfortunately, I don't know the physician's assistant on the right. He's never come forward.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes, gray shirt, jeans.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Absolutely.

ROSEANN SDOIA: It's kind of right at the intersection of Boylston and Ring Road.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: That's Shores, the college student, carrying me from the sidewalk over with my right leg really twisted.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Correct.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Just where -- kind of to the right of that other police -- the police officer on the right, so you can see the mailbox.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Yes.

ROSEANN SDOIA: To the -- yeah.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Correct.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Thank you.

ROSEANN SDOIA: Thank you.