It's been an emotional journey for Erika Brannock, 29, who was critically injured during the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15. After spending 50 days at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brannock is ready to go back home to Baltimore, closing a chapter of her life and of Boston's life, as she is the last victim released from the hospital after the tragedy.
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The day of the marathon, Brannock was at the finish line with her sister and brother-in-law, waiting for her mother, Carol Downing, to complete the run. Unlike some other victims, she remembers everything that happened until she was put under anesthesia for surgery.
She was very excited to have a great view of the finish line so "Mom could see us and give us a hug." Then she tells the Boston Globe that she remembers the first bomb going off, and seeing "oranges and yellows" and thinking that a transformer had blown. She was knocked to the pavement. "My left foot didn't move. I'm lying there and I have this horrible moment that I'm going to die. I had a conversation with God. I said, 'I'm not ready to go. I'm not done yet.'"
Right after, a woman came to her help. "I'm Joan from California," she said, "And I'm not going to let you go." Brannock remembers the woman giving a belt to an EMT to make a tourniquet for her. She never saw her again but she's eager to find her. "She had brown hair and a yellow jacket. I honestly don't believe I'd be here if it weren't for her."
The terror didn't end there. After the bomb went off, Erika said she screamed for her sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Michael Gross, but got no reply. She managed to grab her glasses, purse, and Kindle from the ground and she was put in an ambulance with another woman. She recalls the EMT saying, "We have two criticals that need to get to the hospital now." Once she got to the hospital, she was sent straight to the O.R.
Doctors had to amputate her left leg below the knee, but Brannock was having "painful spasms" and was sent to the operating room again for a second amputation on the same leg, this time, above the knee.
This was just the beginning of 11 surgeries and still a few to go. A part of her right leg was gone too, two muscle grafts failed, there's a metal rod in the left side of her leg and many serious burns.
One would think that after going through all of this, a person would be bitter, sad, angry at the world. But not Erika. She took her situation with maturity and positivity and made the best out of it, and now, she can't wait to go back to her "normal" life. She misses "her kids," how she calls the preschoolers she teaches, and is eager to "sit on the floor and read to them."
Although she was happy to be going back home, she also said it was a bittersweet moment. "I'm very excited about getting home, but it's kind of bittersweet," she said. "The staff has been amazing. They joke that I've been a princess because they give me everything I want."
The nursing staff is going to miss her too, and they made her a farewell scrapbook filled with pictures of them with their patient, some of them snuggling with her in bed, others with all of them goofing around. The photos also had personal notes. "It is so rewarding to work with a patient with such a positive, inspiring attitude," read one note, and another one said "You're amazing!"
Brannock is returning home, but she will need to continue physical therapy, said her doctor Edward Rodríguez, adding that she might need more surgery in the future but he's very hopeful.
Erika's family and friends have started The Erika Brannock Fund to raise money for her upcoming surgeries and expenses including the prosthetic leg she's going to need.
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