Brothers lose legs in explosion at Boston Marathon

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BOSTON, April 16 (UPI) -- For one Boston-area family, an explosion at the Boston Marathon turned into a double tragedy when brothers watching the race each lost a leg.

The brothers, one aged 33 and the other, 31, were watching the race from the finish line, The Boston Globe reported. They had come to Boston from the suburbs north of the city to watch a friend compete.

Liz Norden, their mother, said she first learned what had happened in a phone call Monday afternoon from the younger son. He called her from an ambulance, telling her: "Ma, I'm hurt real bad."

That son knew only that his older brother had been injured as well, but not how seriously or which hospital he was in. It turned out the younger son was in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the

older at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and both had legs injured so severely they would need amputation.

"I'd never imagined in my wildest dreams this would ever happen," Norden said Monday night.

She was waiting outside the emergency room at Beth Israel, unable to see either son and unwilling to make their names public until she had talked to them. The younger son's girlfriend was also hurt and was in a third hospital.

Mike Fitzpatrick, the brothers' friend, said he never finished the race. He was about a quarter of a mile from the finish line in the Back Bay when Marathon officials began stopping runners from going farther.