The picture is haunting, almost like watching the scene in real time. A man donning a cowboy hat pushes along a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing. A look of urgency on his face, he holds up what’s left of the young man’s legs.
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In another shot, you can see him bending down to help an emergency responder stop the bleeding of another victim.
And yet another shot shows the man, covered in blood and holding a red-stained American flag. The flag, which held all the misery from that day, was still intact after the blast. A clear sign of Boston’s resilience and unity in that moment.
You can imagine he was screaming for help or telling the victim to hold on. And you’re right. He is trained for this, you might think. But actually…he is not.
His name is Carlos Arredondo, a Costa Rican immigrant who was a spectator at the race. He was there to honor the memory of his two sons, who had died years before, and to pass out American flags to runners as an ode to Patriot’s Day.
He wasn’t expecting the blast or the aftermath of blood and limbs. He didn’t know he would be scrambling to save as many lives as he could. But his own past propelled him to do just that.
In 2004, when his son Alexander was killed in Iraq, Arredondo locked himself in a van with five gallons of gasoline and a propane torch. He set the van on fire. But his suicide attempt failed. He didn’t die.
After that he became a peace activist, touring the country with his son’s picture and his combat boots, rallying for the protection of American troops.
Then, in 2011, Arredondo’s other son, Brian, 24, committed suicide after suffering years of depression and drug addiction stemming from his brother’s death.
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Arredondo, no stranger to death, had to keep pushing on. There was a reason he was still alive. He needed to keep both of his sons’ spirits alive. He legally changed his name to Alexander Brian Arredondo to honor his boys. And he continued protesting violence and war.
So the day the two bombs detonated right in front of his eyes, he jumped into action.
“I jumped the fence after the first explosions and all I saw was a puddle of blood and people with lost limbs,” he told ABC News. “I saw adults, much younger than myself — ladies, men, pretty much everyone was knocked out.”
He then ran to the young man who lost both of his legs, who is now being identified as Jeff Bauman Jr., and helped him into a wheelchair, talking to him the entire time so he wouldn’t lose consciousness.
“I kept talking to him. I kept saying, ‘Stay with me, stay with me,'” Arredondo, who is a member of the Red Cross disaster team, told Maine Today.
Eventually he got Bauman to safety. The man survived and is now in critical condition.
Later, a camera caught Arredondo, badly trembling from the action, clutching that blood soaked flag.
It was the last flag that he had. The rest he had passed out before the bomb detonated. Arredondo looked at the piece of fabric.
“Look at the flag, all bleeding.”
He then folded it and stuck it in his back pocket. Maybe as token to remind him of the tragedy of the day. But mostly, it was probably to remember the many lives he saved. After all, isn’t that what being an American is about? Helping out one another?
We applaud Arredondo and our thoughts and prayers go out to his still grieving family, as well as the city of Boston.
SOURCE: DailyBeast
