Boston Marathon Attack Survivor Heather Abbott Finishes Race With Her Rescuer
Heather Abbott crosses the finish line with Erin Chatham.
April 21, 2014— -- Heather Abbott crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon today with Erin Chatham, the woman who helped get her to safety after two bombs tore through the festivities last year.
Abbott finished the last half-mile of the race with Chatham, who was one of her heroes after she was knocked to the ground in last year's bombing and lost part of her left leg.
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Since the April 15, 2013, bombings, Abbott has surprised even herself with her resilience.
"I had no idea that I had it in me," she told ABC News last week.
Abbott was on Boylston Street, in the middle of a fun, annual day trip of watching the Red Sox and hanging out with friends when her life was forever changed.
The second blast blew her and several others into a bar. As people raced to the bar’s exit in the back, she found that she could not get up.
“I felt like my foot was on fire,” she said last year during a news conference at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I couldn’t stand up. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was just screaming: ‘Someone, please help me.’ And I was thinking, ‘Who is going to help me? Everyone is running for their lives.’”
That's when Erin Chatham found Abbott. Chatham and her husband, Matt Chatham, a former Patriots football player, carried her to safety.
They’ve been friends ever since that fateful moment.
