Bombing victim's tough choice: Keep damaged foot or amputate lower leg

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  Heather Abbott, of Newport, R.I., responds to questions from reporters during a news conference at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. Abbott underwent a below the knee amputation during surgery on her left leg following injuries she sustained at the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15.AP Photo/Steven Senne

A week after a Boston Marathon bomb put Heather Abbott in a local hospital, the Rhode Island woman faced a difficult decision: try to keep her badly wounded foot, or have her leg amputated below the knee.

She picked the second option, viewing life with a prosthesis as the most assured path back to the active lifestyle she lived before the April 15 bombings. The 38-year-old said she likes to run and take aerobic and Zumba classes. She wanted to try "yoga paddle boarding" this summer.

She now has her sights set on next year.

"I really think I'm going to be able to live my life in a normal way, eventually, when I get that permanent prosthesis," Abbott said, speaking at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Addressing media Thursday from a bed wheeled into a hospital conference center, Ms. Abbott was also clear-eyed about the challenges of rehabilitation and the pain she may endure along the way. Additionally, she said has been focused on her recovery and not news about the bombing suspects—Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, who died following a shootout with the police last week.

"I haven't thought much about them at all," Abbott said. "I don't even know how to pronounce their names."

The two bombs on Monday injured 264 people, according to the Boston Public Health Commission, and led more than a dozen, including Abbott, to endure amputations. She is one of the most recent people to join that list, highlighting the tenuous situation some patients have faced following efforts to save damaged limbs.

A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital also underwent an amputation within the last week, a spokesman said.

In Abbott's case, she needed vascular repair to try to restore blood flow to her foot, and follow-up evaluations indicated she still had to consider the option to amputate. Doctors always try to leave this up to patients, said Eric Bluman, Abbott's orthopedic surgeon, but they also explained the potential limitations of a foot that may never heal.

Meantime, the hospital also introduced the patient to other amputees, including war veterans, to give Abbott a view into her possible future.

With a "very badly mangled" foot, she said, she wouldn't be able to live the lifestyle she did before the injury.

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Dr. Manny: Boston victims will need support

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  A woman is comforted by a man near a triage tent set up for the Boston Marathon after explosions went off at the 117th Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts April 15, 2013.Reuters

As the country wakes up the day after the horrific tragedy in Boston, the task at hand is now to help the injured recover and give them all the support that they need.

As of the latest reports, there were at least 176 wounded and as many as 10 amputations have already been performed, according to reports from FoxNews.com.  

Losing a limb is quite traumatic, but with modern technology and the proper support, people can regain their capabilities and go on to live full lives.  However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that the treatment and short-term recovery from these injuries is quite challenging.

When it comes to loss of limb, a patient’s outcome is predicated on several factors. If you’re talking about leg injuries, the site of the amputation – whether below the knee, through the knee or above the knee – matters greatly.

“The most common place to amputate is below the knee, to save the knee joint - and that makes walking (with a prostheses) much easier,” Dr. John Wilber, an orthopedic/trauma surgeon with the UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told FoxNews.com.

The surgical decision, of course, is based on tissue damage and adequate blood supply.

Because of the traumatic nature of these injuries, victims will likely undergo two to three surgeries over the course of three to four days, Wilber said. While doctors will treat patients with antibiotics, patients are still at serious risk for infection, Wilber noted.

“Unfortunately, because of the contamination, you are vulnerable to almost any type of infection from multiple different organisms,” Wilber said.

The operative techniques are well understood by the surgical team.  But for the patient, the post-operative period becomes more important. Active management of pain can be challenging, especially when patients complain of what is known as phantom limb pain. This is a condition where patients still feel that they have pain in areas where their limbs once were – especially in the short-term after surgery.

Two important components of recovery have to do with the involvement of physiotherapists and occupational therapists. These people are instrumental, because they are going to be responsible for developing the prosthetic devices needed.  These tools will help patients begin to move and exercise the new muscle groups they will need to utilize in order to become more mobile.

Eventually, these folks will go home and changes will have to be made, not only in their lifestyle, but in their homes, their bedrooms and sometimes even the bathrooms. Occupational therapists can help to address some of the issues that patients who go home will eventually have to undertake.

Finally, patients will need lots of emotional support. Post-traumatic stress syndrome is something that becomes quite prevalent in these tragic terrorist attacks. Mental health workers will need to focus intensively on making sure that these folks get all the help they need.

What we can do as a country is pray, give them our love and never forget.

Dr. Manny Alvarez

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Marines ID gunman, 2 victims in Quantico shooting

Published March 24, 2013

Associated Press

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QUANTICO, Va. –  A U.S. Marine who shot two of his colleagues to death and then killed himself was a tactics instructor at a school that tests Marines who want to become officers, military officials said Saturday.

Sgt. Eusebio Lopez, 25, gunned down 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata and Cpl. Jacob Wooley, 23, on Thursday night inside barracks at the Marine Corps Base Quantico south of Washington. Other than to say the three Marines worked together at the school, military officials have not described their relationship or released a motive for the shooting.

Lopez was a teacher whose specialty was machine gunner. He joined the corps in May 2006 and deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Castromata was a warehouse clerk who had been in the Marines since December 2011. Wooley was a field radio operator. He joined the Marines in February 2010.

Lopez was an instructor at officer candidates school, known for its grueling 10-week program that evaluates Marines on physical stamina, intelligence and leadership. The candidates must complete obstacle courses, hikes in full combat gear and take classes on navigation and tactics that help them in the field, according to the school's website.

Lopez's great-grandfather, also Eusebio Lopez, said the Marines contacted their family on Friday night.

"They told us they were investigating more, and they'd let us know. He wasn't the type to do stuff like that," said Lopez, 81.

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FUNDING TERROR: Hamas Attack Victims Sue Bank Handling Killers' $$

It was nearly 10 years ago when Steve Averbach, a New Jersey-born Israeli police officer, realized a fellow passenger on a Jerusalem bus was a suicide bomber disguised as an Orthodox Jew and made a decision that saved potentially dozens of lives -- and changed his forever.

Averbach drew his gun, but before he had the chance to shoot the man exploded his bomb, killing seven people and injuring 20 more. The then 37-year-old father of four had prevented the Hamas-linked bomber from getting to the densely populated city center where the body count would almost certainly have been much higher. But Averbach was left a quadriplegic, and died in June 2010, having suffered deteriorating health as a result of his injuries.

Last week, a Brooklyn federal judge ruled that Averbach's family, and the American survivors and the families of dozens of other victims of Hamas attacks that took place between 2002 and 2004 in Israel, can sue Credit Lyonnais, the French banking giant that handled money for a Palestinian charity it allegedly knew was directly linked to Hamas. Averbach's mother, Maida, who lives in New Jersey, said she plans to attend the civil trial, which is expected to begin this year in Brooklyn.

“... we stand for the proposition that people who help those who target, buses, cafes, and so forth, have to be written out of the social contract.”

- Attorney Gary Osen

“My husband and I were very pleased when we heard the judge’s decision," Averbach said. "We’re really hoping that the trial goes forward and all these people that have been subjected to what has happened in the past will find justice. [Steve] would feel it was time, about time.”

The landmark ruling by Eastern District Judge Dora Irizarry came after attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that Credit Lyonnais  knew the account they facilitated for the Committee for Palestinian Welfare and Relief was a front for Hamas and that the funds transmitted from the account contributed toward funding 15 specific acts of terror in Israel that caused the death and injury of the plaintiffs.

Irizarry determined that in 14 of the 15 cases in question, there was sufficient evidence to directly connect Hamas with the atrocities, stating, "A reasonable jury could conclude that the sizable amount of money sent from defendant to Hamas front organizations was a substantial reason that Hamas was able to perpetrate the terrorist attacks at issue."

The attacks included some of the most notorious in Israeli history. Among them were five bus bombings that killed a total of 73 people and maimed hundreds more; the bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover Seder night that killed 30 people; the bombing of the Frank Sinatra cafe at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that killed nine; and the bombing of a social club in Rishon LeZion that killed 15. Hamas claimed sole responsibility or shared responsibility with other Islamist terror groups in all 14 cases.

In the other case – a mortar attack that killed a 24-year-old woman – the judge decided there was insufficient proof that Hamas was indeed the perpetrators.

Irizarry found that Credit Lyonnais had recorded its concerns over the funding of the charity's account as early as 1997, and had made its concerns known again in both 2001 and 2002 to the French Financial Security Unit. But the bank allowed the account to remain open into 2003.

“They [the banks] like to think this is nuanced and that this is a gray area, but the truth of the matter is that we stand for the proposition that people who help those who target, buses, cafes, and so forth, have to be written out of the social contract,” attorney Gary Osen, who has represented several of the plaintiffs in the case against Credit Lyonnais for almost a decade, told the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terror. “Unfortunately, in our view, Credit Lyonnais and others were more concerned with their own business lives and more concerned with their own legal exposure; everything but the practical consequences of putting millions of dollars into the hands of Hamas.”

Attorney Stephen Landes, who has won a number of high-profile cases against supporters of terrorism, told FoxNews.com such legal holdings have helped stop banks from turning a blind eye to clients who use their services to collect and disburse money for terror attacks.

“The judge understands that banks play an important role in the financing of terrorism," Landes said. "Banks -- if they have any brains -- are now much more vigilant than in the past about providing financial services to terrorist organizations.”

Maida Averbach said the long battle to get justice for her son and others like him is well worth fighting.

“There are many other families who have sadly been dealt similarly tragic blows," she said. "We have our responsibility to the family, especially to those who are left behind and for whom a horrendous change of life has occurred. Unfortunately though, it won’t result in the return of our loved ones.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.comand can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster

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'YOU LIAR!': Victim's Sister Cries Out As Peterson Gets 38 Years

JOLIET, Ill. –  Drew Peterson -- the swaggering Chicago-area police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 -- was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife.

The sentence came moments after Peterson shocked the courtroom with a rare public outburst of anger as he proclaimed his innocence in the death of Kathleen Savio.

"I did not kill Kathleen!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, emphasizing every word.

Peterson seemed to look across the courtroom at Savio's family. Savio's sister Susan Doman shot back "Yes, you did. You liar!" before the judge ordered sheriff's deputies to remove her from the courtroom.

Illinois does not have the death penalty, and the 59-year-old Peterson had faced a maximum 60-year prison term. The judge gave him four years' credit for time he has served since his arrest.

Jurors convicted Peterson in September in Savio's 2004 death. Neighbors found the 40-year-old's body in a dry bathtub at home with a gash on her head -- her hair soaked in blood.

Peterson is also a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson -- who was 23-years-old when she vanished -- but he hasn't been charged in her case. It was her disappearance that led authorities to take another look at Savio's death and eventually reclassify it from an accident to a homicide.

Fascination nationwide with Drew Peterson arose from speculation he sought to us family members told the judge Thursday that they hoped she was somehow watching the proceedings.

"I hope she is haunting him in his dreams," said Henry Savio Jr., the victim's brother. "I hope ... she is watching his descent into hell."

Savio added his only consolation was that Peterson would be "rotting in prison for the rest of his life."

The verdict was a vindication for Glasgow and his team, who gambled by putting on a case they conceded was filled with holes.

Prosecutors had no physical evidence tying Peterson to Savio's death and no witnesses placing him at the scene. They were forced to rely on typically barred hearsay -- statements Savio made to others before she died and that Stacy Peterson made before she vanished. Illinois passed a hearsay law in 2008 tailored to Drew Peterson's case, dubbed "Drew's Law," which assisted in making some of the evidence admissible at Peterson's trial.

The hearsay -- any information reported by a witness not based on the witness' direct knowledge -- included a friend testifying that Savio told her Peterson once put a knife to her throat and warned her, "I could kill you and make it look like an accident."

A turning point at the trial came when the defense called a divorce attorney who said he spoke to Stacy Peterson before she vanished. Rather than blunting her credibility, the witness stressed to jurors that Stacy Peterson seemed to truly believe her husband killed Savio.

Earlier Thursday, Judge Edward Burmila denied a defense request to grant Drew Peterson a retrial. Peterson's current attorneys contended his former lead attorney, Joel Brodsky, botched the initial trial and had been the one to decide to call Smith to the stand. Brodsky stepped down from the defense team in November, as his quarrel with Peterson's current lawyers worsened.

Prosecutors suspect Peterson killed his sandy-haired fourth wife because she could finger him for Savio's death, but her body has never been found and no charges have ever been filed. Jurors weren't supposed to link her disappearance to Savio's death, and prosecutors were prohibited from mentioning the subject.

Peterson has maintained his fourth wife ran off with another man and is still alive.

Peterson's attorneys have said they might appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds Illinois' hearsay law is unconstitutional.

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